You may remember a while back I commented that my friend said she could definitely taste the difference between the red M&M's and the others. I had never noticed this before and wondered if it were really true for her and maybe others also. I thought of various ways to test this idea and decided that it was a really complicated hypothesis to test considering the number of variables involved and the number of taste memories our brain can hold at any one time. Nevertheless, the experiment held too much potential for fun for me to dismiss it. I came up with a couple of different test methods, and while they wouldn't hold up under close scientific scrutiny, I thought I could gleam some information from them. So I had a plan in place, but first I needed to try it out on a few people (Ward, me, and the boys) before I tried it on others.With high hopes of an interesting experiment, I completed the first step. I bought two bags of M&M's. I even made it to the next step of sorting them by colors. Well, I almost made it through that step. It seemed that every time I sat down to work on this part, I got called away. And as I was leaving, I grabbed a handful of candies to eat, and scooped the rest into the bag so that cats wouldn't play with them while I was gone. And you know what? After two weeks of this, I ran out of M&M's before I ever got to any testing.
So I guess I will have to start this experiment all over again. I plan to do that as soon as I finish the taxes or when I want some more M&M's to eat. Wanna take a bet on which will come first? :)
Too funny! I'd like to know if they taste different by color, as well! Perhaps a large study is in order.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was sorting, I did a bit of testing myself. I don't know if I was imagining it, but I did think the red ones tasted different from the rest. More data is definitely needed.
DeleteA noble experiment indeed, perhaps we should all join in... :-)
ReplyDeleteThe more the merrier--especially in this instance.
DeleteI love experiments that provide a treat. That said I can tell the difference. I will not eat any of the holiday ones as they taste off and are unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteIt's just probably just as well that you don't like holiday M&M's because I have never found an M&M that I didn't like. Sometimes that's not always the best thing.
DeleteYou know, this thing got me thinking... wasn't there a time when everybody was convinced that red M&M's caused cancer? Seems like there's some reference to that in the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married."
ReplyDeleteOK... I'm not crazy, here it is:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896348_1896354_1895874,00.html
Well, perhaps this isn't definitive evidence that I'm not crazy, but there was a red M&M scare. No worries though, it was apparently an unfounded panic. But perhaps they gave the red ones some extra little flavor boost to make up for the fact that they got pulled from shelves 30 years ago? :-)
I do remember the Red Dye #2 scare and the time without red M&Ms. They replaced that dye with another one and they came back. However, I have never seen the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married". I've heard about it forever. Maybe I should check it out.
DeleteIt's a cute movie, worth a watch if you want some light entertainment.
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