THE GREAT SODA INQUISITION
PROBLEM:

You work for Coca-Cola® as a food scientist. The company is working on a new ad campaign and the advertising agency is looking for as many descriptive terms as possible to aid in the development of a new slogan. They have come to you for help in developing these descriptive terms.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

This lab will emphasize the importance of observation in the science laboratory. It will show students how to quantify a term that is usually only used as a qualitative description such as sweetness, carbonation, tingling sensation, etc. This lab will challenge students to come up with a variety of descriptive terms and will get them comfortable in describing more accurately what they are evaluating.

OBJECTIVE:

The student will develop a set of descriptive terms for cola beverages.

MATERIALS:

  • Several different types of cola drinks
  • Cups

    SAFETY AND DISPOSAL:

    There are no real safety issues with this laboratory.

    TIME:

    1 class period

    PROCEDURES:

    1. Before any kind of descriptive analysis can be conducted, there has to be an agreement as to terms which apply to the products to be evaluated.
    2. Evaluate each of the cola beverages. As you evaluate them record all of the descriptive terms that enter your mind. Do not be inhibited. Look for as many taste, flavor and "mouthfeel" notes as you can. Describe them as best you can.
    3. After each member of the class has originated a list of terms, compare the lists and try to select terms which seem to be pertinent to the product(s) and to be generally used or understandable by other members of the class. There undoubtedly will be some redundancy in that different terms will be used to describe the same characteristic. If redundancy exists, select the one term which seems to encompass all the others.

    EXTENSION:

  • Using the list developed in step 3, have the students rank the strength of each sensation on a scale of 1-15. 1 the sensation is slight and 15 the sensation is very strong. For example in evaluating sweet taste, pure sugar may have a rank of 13 (saccharine is closer to 15) and bread may have a sweet rank of 2. Soda would be less sweet than pure sugar and more than bread. The students should discuss the strengths of each sensation and try to come to some agreement.

    QUESTIONS:

    1. Are all of the colas that you tested the same sweetness level? Rank the colas in order of sweetness.



    2. What are some other ways that the colas differ?



    3. Why would studies like this be very important to food manufacturing companies?



    FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

    Dr. Jean-Francois Meullenet

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