Sampling the unknown

SAMPLING THE UNKNOWN

What could these be?

Hello again and welcome! It's been quite a while since my last post and I do apologize for that. With our now 6-month-old daughter and my wife having a two-week work shift I haven't really had much time to taste new products, make new cocktails (I don't even have ice in the fridge at the moment!) or explore the vast world of alcoholic beverages in general.

Today that changed. But first let us rewind a bit and ie. one week. A tasting was held at work but alas, I could not attend. It's not that didn't want to but I couldn't because on the following day I had my blood tested and that meant no alcohol for the previous 48 hours. So I bought these little sample bottles that hold 3.5cl (35ml so a healthy measure) from a drug store and brought them earlier to my workplace so I could later sample them. From what I heard one of them was going to be the last of the legendary Valhalla series, Odin. So a colleague of mine was kind enough (<3 !) to fill these bottles for me but never told me which bottle had which product! That meant, I had five samples and no idea (not even the type [whisky, rum, cognac etc.]) what they were. A true blind tasting that is. 

A sample bottle labeled "=)"

So what I had was five (5) different products. Each were labeled differently and only my colleague knew what was in each one. When I started pouring the products in the glasses I realized how much even ~30 ml was! So going with approximately 20 ml each, I ended up with a nice row of products:

The tasting was a great success! Just nosing them made me think two of them were whiskies, one a dark rum and one I just couldn't figure out but it was on the tip of my tongue. I actually thought the first one was a whisky too but after I wrote down my tasting notes and rated them, my colleague sent me pictures of what I had but not in any particular order. Using the power of deduction I then managed to collect the last pieces of the puzzle and finish the job!

1. Tres Generaciones Añejo tequila (the peppery notes, just astonishing!)
2. Highland Park Odin (cask strength, bitter chocolate notes)
3. No3 London Dry Gin (this had lemon peel notes in it making me believe it was some sort of triple sec first, I "almost had it right")
4. Brugal VX dark rum (sweet aroma but taste-wise much robust)
5. Glenrothes 2001 (a very "pure" single malt, extremely fast finish)

All in all, these were great products. Especially the tequila left me with an extremely positive impression proving once again that there are good tequilas out there but only the shittiest ones are exported abroad and the good ones are really effing expensive to begin with. Also the gin was very palatable and worked as itself quite nicely.

Inspired and motivated of all of this, I've gotten myself another 10 sample bottles so I can share some of my different spirits with friends in the future! Not to mention should I ever open up another whisky bottle for the first time, I can take a measure of it and store it in a separate container. This way, after a long period of time I can always "return" to the original product and see if the flavor has developed, if at all.

Grant's granting Grant's!

GRANT'S GRANTING GRANT'S!

(oh the puns)

Hello everyone! It is time for another grand tasting! Today's tasting include a set of three blended whiskies from the same manufacturer! I present you the Grant's tasting evening! (applause)

A brief summary first. As the shipment from Germany arrived bringing all kinds of liquid goods, my good friend (who is a big fan of Grant's blend) wanted to know whether their two special blends are worth their money. That is, if they're good. "Well let's give it a go then!" I said (not really but for the story's sake just play along) and within short notice managed to ask a colleague from work to join us as well. Alas, one friend (couple) couldn't make it after all so it was up to us three to objectively assess and evaluate the goods.

If you didn't know, Grant's is one of the biggest owner's in the whisky business, owning e.g. Glenfiddich. This evening's samples included:

1. Grant's Family reserve blended Scotch whisky
2. Grant's Ale Cask reserve (a blend finished in ale casks)
3. Grant's Sherry Cask reserve (a blend finished in oak casks that previously held Oloroso sherry)

As far as I know, the "regular" blend is widely available in pretty much anywhere but the special blends might be harder to come by. Then again I didn't know Grant's had a set of 12, 18 and 25yo as well so...who am I to decide?

Before we really get down to business, I must I just must stop you right there. I will interrupt the Grant's session with an outsider I just had to try before the official set!

This bourbon is the shit!

To the nose, an explosion of bourbon-vanilla and in the mouth starts strong and followed by a sweet toastiness. The following video explains the quality of this bourbon:

Okay! Let's get back to business.

Courtesy of Minttu Virolainen

We had a 4 cl measure of each and (if wanted) water to the side (to add). The "regular" Grant's smells like it (any household whisky) should; a bit stingy. In the mouth it has a very light peatiness and adding a drop of water verifies this. The Ale Cask had a softer nose to it and tasted softer as well. But the finish wasn't as pleasant as with the regular one, even slightly bitter! The true surprise was with the Sherry Cask blend! Smooth as fudge, light smokiness, peat and sherry notes (duh) really gave this blend an edge!

Out of the three the Sherry cask was a clear winner. The regular blend came in second and the Ale cask came in third. Price-wise the special blends cost pretty much the same as the regular one albeit having 0.3L less in volume.

Whisky tasting, serious business!

The event ended up being a great success! If not after the three full measures of whisky (my colleague had a G&T before), another bourbon glass and the last Glenfiddich 12yo, I enjoyed my time sampling these products! I can't wait for the next time a similar event is being organized!

A promise made is a promise kept

A promise made is a promise kept

A 365 days' work between the covers

This year's last season greeting to you all! It is the last day of 2014 and I have something big to discuss.

As this year has come to a wonderful end, you might remember me talk about my New Year's Resolution for the year 2014. A quick recap to those who can't be bothered with the link;

"In the year 2014 I will/have taste/d every alcohol product (most importantly the whiskies) we sell at our bar."

"The commandments with twists and turns"

A great way to combine work and pleasure:

1. Work: I want to learn how different whiskies taste like so I know what I am selling our customers
2. Pleasure. I want to learn to taste different whiskies to become better at it. 

Now 365 days to sample what, ~100 products in total? (I counted them, 133 is the correct amount) What looked like an easy job actually ended up being one of the closest thing to be unfinished!

Okay, let's break this "task" down. What did really happen during this year?

1. The whiskies

This included each and every whisky our bar holds. Naturally, in the course of one full year, some whiskies were drunk before I got to them and subsequently some new products were available for me to assess. As long as I had each currently available sampled at the end of this year, I considered it a success. Every time I sample a product, write down the date as well.

Example page. Name, "type" and date when tasted.

2. The liquors

This meant the rest. From the mild ABVs (e.g. port/sherry) to the hard stuff (gins, rums, vodkas and other).

3. No (tap) beers, wines or mixer liqueurs!

I deliberately wanted to limit this section not to be included in the resolution. The reason is quite simple. Sampling low ABV mixer liqueurs doesn't make much sense (no-one ever orders them separately) and with the bottled products we had so many seasonal changes (cidre weeks, summer beers, winter ales and so forth). The same goes for the wines. Although we have a more or less "steady" list, our wines changed throughout the year quite a few times.

4. What if a product was drunk before I got to it?!

Well that sucked! For instance, I was really sad that the Nikka 10yo was drunk before I was able to taste it. Okay, I got to taste its older 20yo brother but still, evaluating them together would have been so much better. Later on I will let you know about the ones "missing in action" and "new incomers".

5. Which one did you like the best? Which one was not good?

Each product, be it a whisky or a liquor, I rated with a 1-5 star system. When evaluating an article, I tried to write down a few notes regarding said product and finally putting a "rating" to it. Coarsely, the rating as follows and keep in mind, this is according to my opinion. What I say only reflects my personal preferences:

* : Did not taste good at all!
** : Meh. Lacked potential and taste.
*** : Palatable. Missed that little "oompf" to receive another star.
**** : Very good! Wouldn't mind having another one!
***** : Exceptional in taste, texture and finish. A diamond.

Strictly speaking, only the greatest whiskies got in my personal Hall of Fame. They needn't be a five-star whisky to achieve this but if they managed to knock my socks right off my feet, they made it to the list. In addition, the ones (whiskies) I liked the least had the "honor" of becoming products in my Hall of Shame. As for the rest liquors, I did rate them as well but did not include them in the HoF, for obvious reasons.

Finally, every time I had a sample at our bar, I kept the receipt. I wanted to know how much I spent over the year to accomplish this task.

MISSING IN ACTION(never got to sample these)

• Benriach 12yo non-chill filtered
• Benriach 16yo
• Nikka 10yo
• Highland Park Loki 15yo
• Laphroaig 10yo cask strength
• Laphroaig 18yo
• Ardbeg non-chill filtered
• Minttu (black mint)
• Koskenkorva Nordic Berries
• Koskenkorva Blueberry
• Koskenkorva Lingonberry
• Ardbeg Auriverdes

NEW PRODUCTS(available to sample)

• Nikka 20yo
• Ardbeg Corryveckan
• Plantation XO Rum
• Nikka from the Barrel
• Macallan Ruby

THE FINAL WHISKY
MISSION COMPLETED :D

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

So up to this day, I had finished everything else except for three whiskies! The Laphroaig series; Triple Wood, Cairdeas 2011 and Quarter Cask. After my work I sample the two former and as I got home I popped open the QC. Thus my New Year's Resolution was completed! And not a day too early :D

So what ended up being totally awesomesauce in flavor and which did not quite make it to the top (or even past the start line)?

The Hall of Fame and Shame, respectively

Eventually, according to my taste and preferences, some whiskies proved their right to become awesome, great and fabulous. "Sadly", for two whiskies this was not the case but quite the opposite. Glenlivet 18yo, Macallan 12yo sherry oak and Nikka 20yo were exceptional in taste and I had no problem adding this trio to the list! On the other hand, Bowmore 10yo (Devil's cask) and Johnny Walker Red Label were something quite horrid. Okay, for Red Label's defence, it is not a single malt but a blend. But even mixed with cola it didn't taste good! For ratings' sake I had to give it a "parenthesis" one star.

So what did this all cost me? Of course I didn't pay for the stuff I could drink at home. I counted the sums in the receipts and ended up in a sum of 343.8€! I actually had to recount twice because I got a bigger sum before! :D So this cost me less than 1€/day!

I have to admit that this New Year's Resolution was worth every cent. Not only did I experience a wide range of flavors but also (hopefully! :D) became more proficient in spirits of different styles. Now, could I explain you thoroughly about a whisky I tasted in February? Probably not. Sampling half a measure of whisky does not make me a pro, no sir! This is not just one year's job. It's a life-long process that follows one to their grave. It's a passion. If nothing else, at least I had quite a few different whiskies and other liquors to drink!


Sláinte!

When in doubt, gin it out!

A GIN TASTING

Well, hello everyone! It's been a good two and a half months (!) since my last post. My sincerest apologizes, I just happened to become a father for my first-born daughter, so I was rather busy all this time :D

But have no fear, I am here, with new tricks in my bag! My new (and fourth) shipment from Germany arrived just dandyishly so I could pull off another great tasting. This time we were to explore the world of gin. Given, from only two countries, but still!

Before we get to the details, I will try to "open up" my history to gin. As for most, gin equals Beefeater, Bombay, Gordon's and gin&tonics. It does make excellent other cocktails as well (the legendary French 75 for example) but is it really good drunk pure? This we were about to find out. Of course, we sampled these products with some "special" tonics as well and finished the night with three different gin-based cocktails.

Our first gin, a true classic, if you may, was Beefeater London dry gin. This was known to everyone of us the best. The second one, an organic gin, The Duke of Munich, from...you guessed, Munich. The last was a gin "titled" by the world as a "super-premium-excellence-diamond-platinum-one-of-a-kind"; Monkey 47 Schwartzwald dry gin from Germany as well! All of them were at least 45% ABV (90 proof), the Beefeater and Monkey 47 being 47% (94 proof) respectively. So stronger than your usual stuff.

SAMPLING

As you can see, this was super interesting :D What was really remarkable was the fact that gin as a product is really versatile! The amount of different styles of gin has sky rocketed in the last few years. Taste-wise, the Beefeater was the purest. Meaning, this tastes as people would imagine gin should taste like. Moreover, even with 47% it was incredibly smooth.

The Duke of Munich on the other hand, quite the opposite. Although in its purest form it wasn't quite as palatable as the other two, it had a long, lingering aftertaste. To the nose it was a bit stuffy. But there's quite the twist to this gin, explained later!

Thirdly and as our "joker" the Monkey 47. According to their websites they used lingonberries in the process of making this gin. Anyhow, this gin was extremely fresh and lemony! One wouldn't believe it's gin at first! It was truly an exception to the bunch.

So now that we've sampled these pure, how about some tonic added?

Instead of using the o'regular Schweppes tonic water, I had a few bottles of Tonic Monaco at my disposal (from Aquamonaco). With silly 0.23L sizes (seriously), we used the extra dry tonic with our dry London gin and the regular tonic with the two others.

Of course the garnish part plays an important role. With the Beefeater, a lemon slice. The Duke of Munich received an orange slice (as recommended on their website) and with the Monkey 47 I decided to go with a lime wedge (just because). I tried to extract some juice of said fruit before adding the tonic.

As you could imagine, adding extra dry tonic with dry gin, the result? Quite dry!

I mean it was really, really dry. And I didn't know you could drink liquid that dry. Phooie! The greatest (positive) reaction was from the Duke of Munich version. Albeit it didn't claim much success by itself, in a tonic it was the best one! The Monkey 47 + tonic did succeed from the given task quite nicely as well. A very refreshing choice!

We finished the evening with three gin cocktails: Club Cover Cocktail, Bee's Knees and the Pegu Club Cocktail, in all using different gins (in given order).

Club Cover Cocktail was liked the best

Okay, I lied. I also made a Boston Sour.

Delicious. Period.

Summa summarum, the world of gin is exploding. The mass-produced "we-all-know-these" gins are getting substituted by special, distiller cuts or otherwise extraordinary products with each having their own little special quirk in their taste. I also believe that everyone can find their own favorite, let it be with or without (any) mixer.

Whiskey tastings and life

WHISKEY TASTINGS AND LIFE

Hello again dear readers! The last two days have been quite extraordinary indeed as I had two tastings with completely different styles of whiskies! The true beauty of these is doing it with friends and eventually, the whole process of a tasting turns out into a long get-together. I really like that. 

This "two-part" tasting started on Tuesday at the bar I work at, where I met two of my good friends and a friend of my friend, an Italian exchange student...

:D

Jokes aside, he was a really cool guy. He drank beer with us and wasn't afraid of anything.

So what was the first tasting all about? The peat bomb Ardbeg - series hailing from Islay! As far as I was concerned, I've never been a true fan of heavily smoked/peaty whiskies. But with maturity comes great respon...taste bud development and lately I can appreciate a good smoked whisky. I would still prefer a sherry-like malt over any Islay whisky, though. But as I want to finish my project (New Year's Resolution 2014), I knew this day would eventually come.

The tasting included:

• Ardbeg 10yo
• Ardbeg Uigeadail (matured in a mix of bourbon and sherry casks)
• Ardbog (matured in ex-manzanilla sherry casks for at least 10 years)
• Ardbeg Corryveckan (previously a Committee-only bottling, it is intended as a replacement for Airigh Nam Beist in the core range)

For me these were difficult to evaluate properly. Yes, they were really peaty and all of them had an incredibly long finish. I kid you not when I say the flavors lingered in the mouth for a long, long time after tasting them. Corryveckan had peppery notes and out of these four I enjoyed the Uigeadail the best. Overall these whiskies were genuinely soft.

The evening continued with beers and alike with a soft touch of schnapps. But this was just the beginning...

The following day (one of my friends stayed over for the night) I conducted a Bourbon tasting with three products! I held this tasting twice today; once at noon and a second time when one friend got here from school.

For this tasting I initially had in mind to order the whole range of Jim Beam (they have over a dozen of different styles of bottling) and truly evaluate the differences (age and effect of wood respectively). But while writing a letter to a friend of mine a few weeks back and explaining this, I had a doubt. "Would I really want this? Can I really afford this?" I ended up ordering only two different ones along with the "basic" one I already had:

• Jim Beam White (4yo)
• Jim Beam Black (6yo)
• Jim Beam Signature Craft (12yo)

One really distinctive difference with these products was the effect of age and thus color; the 12yo has a copper-ish color whereas the youngest (white/4yo) possesses a light golden (slightly shifting to green) color. Woody notes were present , perfume and wax. With age the flavor becomes apparent smoother. I did enjoy the Signature Craft's smoothness but taste-wise the Black was a tad better.

As we sampled these bourbons as their own, I then had the same amount of said whiskies in glasses with a fixed amount of soft drink (pepsi) added to it. A big thanks to a friend of mine, who gave me whisky stones the weekend before; these became extremely handy! So what I did was put about 2 cl (~½ fl oz) of bourbon, add two whisky stones and 5 cl of pepsi (1½ fl oz) to "reanimate" a bourbon&coke and perhaps taste how they differ. Had I used regular ice the drink would've eventually watered down altering the results of this "scientific" experiment.

As a joker I then introduced a fourth bourbon i.e. Maker's Mark, which we sipped but didn't really evaluate. This was kind of a "hey now that you've tasted these Jim Beams have a sip of this!"

Tasting in progress

Before the other friend got here we popped open the Highland Park 12yo (or HP when feeling rad). I have to admit, this whisky was a purchase truly based on comments/reviews. I must concur with the rest; this is a good whisky! The remarkable aspect of this is how I couldn't nose the subtle smokiness but in the mouth it is present. It also has a long finish, which I appreciate.

The evening ended with a game of hearts. 

It was a really nice two days with good drink and better company!

A (wheat) beer tasting

A (WHEAT) BEER TASTING

A wonderful evening to each and everyone once again! As you might have noticed by the title, I planned a wheat beer tasting for me & my friend last weekend. The reason I put the "wheat" in parenthesis was I miserably failed at choosing beers! :D From the picture the second from the right is in fact not a wheat beer at all! I accidentally took it while browsing (wheat) beers at the local retailer so what we ended up was three wheat beers and one rosé bock (lager)!

Nonetheless, I pulled it off and with two friends abroad we tackled them like pros.

But first the "scientific" part. For the sake of this blog, let's pretend I never chose the lager for the collection :D. As we know, there are many types of wheat beers out there, Hefeweizens (unfiltered), Kristallweizens (filtered), dark wheat beers, Dutch witbier, Berliner Weisse, lambics and so forth. I could've chosen one type (un/filtered/dark/speciality) from one brewery (e.g. Franziskaner) but then realized how silly that would be in a world filled with different wheat beers! Instead I wanted to choose two unfiltered ones, one dark and one "specialty", which indeed turned out special (not a wheat beer at all!)

Beautiful, beautiful, beer

As I reserved way more beer than originally meant to be drunk, here's the list of what we used in drinking order (left to right):

• Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier (Munich) 5.5%
• Kloster Andechs Weizen (Andechs) 5.5%
• Schmucker Rosé Bock (Mossautal) 8.0% (not a wheat beer at all but a lager!)
• Schneider Weisse Aventinus (Kelheim) 8.2%

All of these beers hail from Germany. As with the weizens, they all had their unique "banana" flavor to it. A positive note on Aventinus, even with the 8.2% ABV it didn't taste strong. On the contrary, the Rosé Bock was not only bitter as f**k, the alcohol level was way to potent, at least for me. (the reason why I'm not a big fan of Belgian Trappist beers; their alcohol level is too much for me to enjoy them thoroughly)

I liked the Andechs beer the most. Its taste was fresh and less malty in comparison to Paulaner and Aventinus. The Aventinus had surprising, sweet (honey) notes to it. The lager was...well, bitter in all aspects. As we can clearly see, the Paulaner was maltier as well, its caramel-color when compared to its cousin the Andechs.

Since we only needed to pop one bottle/three drinkers, we saved the rest for the glorious movies Expendables I and II, which we watched before going to town to see the third. Truth to be told, the trilogy got worse after each movie but heck, these were meant to be seen! 

One HEAVENLY combo to be enjoyed!

After the third movie, one of my friends headed home but the other one stayed for a drink at the pub next door:

'

Of course I had to order a Weizen and their local noisette/nut schnapps!

The night "ended" at my place for an after party and sauna. Was good, so good!

Where has all the rum gone?

THE GREAT RUM REVIEW

The rum collection, the Matusalem (middle) belongs to my friend

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another great tasting! Today I had the great opportunity to sample six different styles of rums with a good friend of mine! As you already might know, the previous reviews with cognacs, herbal-liquers and vodkas have all been great successes so I decided to keep the winning streak going on but with rums. But not just any rums, instead I was going for the aged ones.

Without going into too much detail what rum is, aged rum differs enough from the basic blanco ones. An aging process and moreover, a way more complex flavor profile than your regular "Bacardi white". So four of the six rums were ordered from online (of which one belongs to my friends), one from another good friend of mine (holla Michael!) and one from my ex-colleagues when "El Capitán" (me) left his navy (holla Stockmann!). The collection, and for the sake of me & my readers, I shall go through the list as it appears in the picture. I also gathered bits & pieces of information regarding that specific rum so we all know what we're dealing with:

• Ron Pampero Aniversario NAS
• Venezuelan
• Aged in oak casks
• a blend of ~ 2-8yo rums

• The Kraken Black Spiced Rum NAS (Wild card)
• Caribbean / Trinidad & Tobago
• a blend of 1-2yo rums with added spices

• Pyrat XO Reserve Rum NAS
• Guyanese
• Blend of 2yo Demerara stock & other stocks from various Caribbean producers

• Ron Matusalem Gran Reserve 15yo
• Dominican Republic
• NOT a 15yo rum per se, but aged via Solera system

• Appleton Estate 12yo
• Jamaican
• Aged in old Jack Daniels barrels

• El Dorado 12yo
• Guyanese
• Aged in old bourbon oak casks

(NAS = No Age Statement)

Tasting order: Matusalem, Pyrat, Appleton, Aniversario, El Dorado and Kraken

I deliberately left the Kraken Rum to be tasted as our last, since its style clearly differs from the five others.

As you can see, even in their apparent outlooks they differ quite a lot. Keep in mind that in the alcohol business a lot of producers use caramel coloring to make their product look more appealing. Check out this link to find more about it and why producers do it. "Luckily" the random order I chose (except for Kraken) for the tasting was almost from the "faintest" golden to the almost plum-colored dark.

With water on the side and coffee beans for us to smell in between (and old crackers to cleanse our palate :D) we started our journey into the rum business. We both took notes of each rum and again, this was not a simple task at all.

Fancy as f**k!

The Pyrat XO did have the most distinct fruity and sweet notes in comparison. So fruity it almost couldn't be count as a rum but more of a fruity-candy-liquor!

Our wild card Kraken was something completely different as well. Again, it's hard not to compare this rum as itself but to others when there are five aged ones waiting in line. But given, the Kraken didn't really cut it in the big boys' league BUT it works damn fine with coke! It's a spiced rum so it works as a mixer just fine!

So now we're dealing with Matusalem, Appleton, Aniversario and El Dorado. They all got good scores/reviews and quite frankly, it was impossible to say which one of these was the ultimate best. Appleton 12yo and El Dorado 12yo got both 8½ points out of 10 and both Matusalem and Aniversario got 7 points.

These four were all great rums and top-of-the-line products.

As a summary I would say, it was awesome once again to have a tasting like this. And as said before, it wasn't easy to find differences in these rums. Fair enough, some had more or less afterburn or sweeter, honey-type notes to them but overall it wasn't a walk in the park, at least for me. But you can't go wrong with these rums. No sir!

The Great Cola Tasting

The Great Cola Tasting

"One cola to bring them all and in the taste buds bind them."

Another episode of my super-awesome blind tasting! You all might remember the previous tastings (cognac, vodka and herbal liqueur). This time I took it to a completely different level. I present you The Great Cola Tasting! 

We've all heard stories how we can tell the difference between coca-cola and pepsi and "how they taste so different". Well I wanted to make a very half-scientific test to see how well my friends could tell these products apart.

SCIENCE

To ensure maximum fairness/objectiveness, I had to make sure (at least) three obvious things:

• All products were in cans of the same size (standard size)
• Different manufacturers or different products from one manufacturer were used
• NO peeking from others' papers!

So my list included the following (in alphabetical order):

1. Coca-cola
2. Coca-cola light
3. Coca-cola zero
4. Freeway cola (lidl brand)
5. Freeway cola light
6. Pepsi
7. Pepsi max
8. Pepsi next
9. Pirkkacola (a Finnish brand)
10. Rio cola (a Finnish brand)

A serving of ~4cl (~1.5 fl oz) was used. Half of the colas were sugar-free: #2, #3, #5, #7 and #8, respectively. 

FUN

Of course we have to keep in mind that this test surely doesn't prove anything much. But maybe, just maybe something interesting will be discovered from this tasting. Nonetheless, it was an event with friends and a fun tasting to make and that's the bottom line. My main interest with the products lied in finding out whether my test subjects friends could at least tell regular coca-cola and pepsi apart. But in the end another exciting thing was pointed out, which I will explain later, too.

SCORING/AFTERMATH

Scoring was pretty straightforward but with a twist!

• Correct answer = 1 point
• Wrong answer  = 0 point
• TWIST! If a person ticked the "knowledge" box next to the answer line meaning that person really knows what the content is, that person is awarded two points for a correct answer but should that answer be wrong, s/he loses one point!

So knowledge pays off big time! The maximum score thus being 20 points. In addition, as a "bonus" question in the very end should there be a tie I asked the following question:

Q: "In what year was coca-cola first launched?"

A: 1886

Here are the final results:

A heart symbol represents one's "favorite" and a cross equals "a bad flavor"; was a non-mandatory task and purely for entertaining purposes should one product get multiple hearts/crosses.

OUR WINNER WAS MIKKO, who beat Heidi with a closer bonus question answer! Congratulations!

Just to clarify the color meanings, green means correct answer, red means wrong answer, grey means "knowledge" answer but wrong, blue means "knowledge" answer and right.

So let's study this chart a little bit:

• People were in good knowledge when it came to Pepsi or Pepsi Max and 6/8 knew Rio cola from the others (it does taste more citric and makes a clear exception)
• Pirkka cola was clearly identified as a "cheap brand", 6/8 thought of it as other than a product from the coca-cola/pepsi family 
• This was really a hard tasting as the winner "only" got 4 points (!)
• Only one was brave enough to tick the "knowledge" box.

Some said afterwards that it is much easier to tell a (distinct) difference between say, two colas when you drink them in rapid succession. But when you have a generous measure of ten different colas it became clearly more difficult a task to do.

PICTURE GALLERY

THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

Of course this tasting wouldn't be as much fun had there not been great prizes to win! The winner received a bottle of Fentimans Curiosity Cola uuuuuuhh!!! Moreover, excluding the winner one lucky loser picked by the winner received a can of raspberry flavored Hello Kitty Star Drink woooooo!!!

And a cool medal made by my wife was awarded to the best three contestants!

Summa summarum, just like with the other tastings I've made before, well at least I had a good time! :) Perhaps we learned a valuable lesson after this...or perhaps we didn't. Who cares, a lot of cola was drunk!