On the subject of scientific experiments (and by the way, if you're still waiting for the results of my last scientific experiment, I kindly refer you to the post called "results"), I'd like to share a rather embarrassing experiment I conducted a long time ago.
You see, I became a Coke drinker once I left home. Growing up, caffeinated beverages were basically as evil as beer and so it was a little rebellious of me to start drinking Coke after leaving the nest. And I have continued to drink Coke for the past several years. I am in no way addicted and also, unfortunately, I am in no way affected by the caffeine (not that I notice, anyway, though even still, I'll grab a Coke when I need extra energy to finish a school assignment... and then I'll immediately fall asleep on the couch).
I love Coke and I despise Pepsi. In fact, if I'm in a restaurant and ask for a Coke, and if the server tells me they serve Pepsi products, I tell the server very clearly (and icily) that I will have a water instead.
And rationally, I know that my dislike of Pepsi is unfounded. Still, I can't bring myself to drink the stuff. But my dislike is unfounded, you see, because I don't think I have a discriminating taste. I don't think that I have the best-developed taste buds in the world. But I needed to test myself to know for sure.
So I set up a time with friends a few years ago while we were on a weekend trip to St. George. We didn't have any glasses, so we took a can of Pepsi and a can of Coke and my friends blindfolded me. They gave me the first to test. I tested it and thought deeply about whether or not it had a good taste. They gave me the second to test. I tested it and pronounced immediately and emphatically, "The first one. Definitely the first one."
And suddenly the room filled with mean, terrible, horrific, boisterous laughter. I quickly removed the blindfold to watch my friends laughing at me---one of them was literally on the floor.
You see... my "friends" had given me the Pepsi can twice. So when I declared emphatically, "The first one, definitely the first one" I really was saying, "My first sip of Pepsi was noticeably different and better than the second sip of Pepsi."
You can imagine that my pride didn't allow me to ultimately go through with the rest of the experiment and to this day, I don't know if I can actually tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi.
*This is the Coca-Cola slogan from 1909. For all Coca-Cola slogans, see Wikipedia.
10 comments:
I think I can tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke, but I've never put my belief to the test. Coke seems to be a little more bitter, but I wonder if I would notice if I didn't know I was drinking Coke.
And by the way, most of those Coca-Cola slogans are terrible. "Coca-Cola ... good things from 9 chimes poured into a single glass"? What does that even mean?
I can tell the difference. Then again, I can tell the difference between freshly opened ice cream that has made it to your freezer quickly enough not to melt and week old ice cream that the distributor has been lax about refridgeration. I can tell if you used cool whip or whipped cream. I know if you used shortening, margarine, or butter in your cookies. Indeed I do believe that it is not butter. I guess that I am the anti-Cicada!
I much prefer the bitter taste of Diet Coke to the overly-sweet Coke Classic and the sickeningly sweet Pepsi of either variety. And you're right, Pepsi is not an adequate replacement for Coke.
All soft drinks are abhorrent to me--especially those that are flavored with caramel. The only thing a Coke/Pepsi taste test done on me would confirm is how far a person can projectile vomit.
Odd that the slogan that sticks most in my mind is the one from my senior year of high school. Or is it?
I feel that same way about Disgusting Dr. Pepper.
Also, you are lucky (cursed?) that caffiene does not affect you. I can't drink a sip after 6:30pm because then I will never go to sleep! I even have to avoid chocolate past 9pm.
I've never had Pepsi at all. Apparently, I'm not missing anything.
You shouldn't be embarrassed - you just proved why the Pepsi challenge worked so well - the first sip of Pepsi tastes great, better than anything. And YES, I mean ANYTHING. After that it's all downhill. But if offered one sip of Pepsi, a saltine cracker to cleanse the palate, and then a sip of Coke, people overwhelmingly pick the Pepsi. It's when you have to drink the whole can that the true taste comes out.
My brother took the Pepsi Challenge in L.A. while they were filming those cheesy reality commercials in the '80s. He said, with a straight face, "I choose the cracker." He actually ONLY drinks Pepsi products.
I choose the Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi or regular Coke or Mountain Dew. Can't stand the Dr. Pepper. Eeeewwww!
Yeah. Pepsi is only redeemed by Mountain Dew being made by the same company.
Because I'm usually so desperate for caffeine, I'll drink any Coke or Pepsi product, EXCEPT Diet Pepsi. That stuff tastes like battery fluid.
Yes, I've tried batter fluid. Someone told me it had caffeine.
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I hate being the ninth to comment.
Pepsi seems sweeter to me.
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