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# Friday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/33723/
- Published: 2014-08-22T06:36:08.000Z
- Updated: 2014-08-22T06:36:08.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Miscellaneous, #wpChunk

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/fd/eafdb338-c9b6-4f87-8363-78ab94cc3a18/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BYCU-PIC1-300x225.jpg "BYCU PIC")

BYCU

I wanted to run this piece last week, but I didn't get a chance: "[Best-selling larger beers taste the same, new research finds](http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/08/13/best-selling-beers-taste-same-new-research-finds/?ref=thedailyeudemon.com)." Excerpt:

> Johan Almenberg and Anna Dreber, researchers from the Stockholm School of Economics, conducted a blind taste test with a selection of three best-selling European lagers: Budvar (also known as Czechvar), Heineken and Stella Artois.

> Nearly 140 subjects, aged 21 to 70, received three samples-- two cups had the same product, while the third contained a different brew. Tasters were asked to identify the odd-beer out but they were no better at guessing then if choosing "at random," according to the study, “Hide The Label, Hide The Difference.”

> The study came to conclusion that consumers favor certain beers for many factors, taste not included.

> “Our results suggest that brand loyalty in this market is likely to be driven largely by marketing and packaging, and not by the underlying sensory properties of the competing products,” says the report.

I find such a study humorous and it feeds the snob in me, but I question taste tests. I can't articulate my reasons, but I've taken taste tests in the past and, when I don't know what I'm drinking, they're really hard, even though they definitely have a different tang or after-taste or whatever. 7-Up or Sprite? Michelob or generic beer (a taste test I took while drunk in college and failed).

I incline to a loose sense that there's a lot more involved in "taste" than actual taste, kinda like there's more involved in reading a book than just reading the book. Have you, for instance, ever tried reading a book when you have NO idea what it's about? I have, and it really sucks. It's hard to get oriented and get a grasp on the book. Does that mean all books are the same to me, or maybe that I don't like to read? Hardly, but my experiment with blind taste-reading would seem to indicate such things.

Just a few random thoughts. Take them for what they're worth.