Blind Tastings

Blind tastings are extremely common in the world of wine and spirits tastings. Many of the most famous wine and spirits competitions utilize a form of blind tasting to ensure their judges are giving their most honest opinions without any conscious (or subconscious) biases. Blind tastings are not only helpful for professionals wanting to review a product, but also for individuals who want the most bang for their buck - more on that later.

So blind tastings are useful, but what are they? In general, a blind tasting is a form of tasting where some amount of information is withheld from the person consuming the product. The type of blind tasting determines how much information is withheld from the taster. There are two main types of blind tastings:

1) Double Blind Tastings - A double blind tasting is as unbiased as it can get. The consumer knows next to nothing about the product they are trying. For example, perhaps they know they will be judging five samples of bourbon, and that is it. This means that there is no possible way for their biases about brands, mashbills, prices, etc to play a part in the tastings. This amount of unbiased opinion is great, but the main flaw is execution. While it may be easy for a spirits competition to give unlabeled samples to judges, it is difficult for an individual to do a double blind tasting. For the most part, the only way to do so is through a blind tasting subscription service that sends unmarked samples.

2) Single Blind Tastings - A single blind tasting is a more practical method for an individual, but it is not without it's drawbacks. In these tastings, the consumer knows which which products are being included, but they do not know which is which. So for example, they might be tasting Bourbon A, B, C, and D, but they don't know which glass contains A, which contains B, and so on. This means that the consumer could have a bias about all of the glasses, or make assumptions about which glass is which, but they still have no way of knowing what specific beverage is in the glass they are tasting. This makes single blind tastings extremely useful for head to head tastings. Below are some examples, but there is almost no limit to the types of tastings you could set up.

Examples of Single Blind Tastings:

1. Which is the best wheated bourbon under $XX?
2. How does the age of a tequila affect flavor? (Reposado vs Anejo vs Extra Anejo tequila)
3. How much should this wine breathe before serving? (straight out of bottle vs decanted)

Now let's talk about the utility of these tastings described above. In each tasting, you are learning something valuable that could save you money in the future. If you spend time and money hunting rare wheated bourbons, maybe tasting 1 can help you find a cheaper replacement that you like even more, but you never noticed due to subconscious bias. Maybe you always bought extra anejo tequila because it was the most expensive, but after tasting 2, you learn you are more of a repo lover. And of course, maybe tasting 3 teaches you that you have been enjoying your favorite wine all wrong, and it actually starts to taste worse if it is allowed to breathe too long.

Once you've learned from these tastings, you can move forward, having removed some specific bias from your opinion, and save money on your future purchases.