Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:05:28.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fine Water: A Blind Taste Test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2018

Kevin W. Capehart  and
Elena C. Berg
Kevin W. Capehart
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, California State University, Fresno, 5245 N Backer Ave M/S PB20, Fresno, CA 93740; e-mail: kcapehart@csufresno.edu.
Elena C. Berg
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Math, and Environmental Science, The American University of Paris, 5 Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg, 75007 Paris, France; e-mail: eberg@aup.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To test whether consumers can distinguish among different bottled waters and, if so, whether they prefer some to others, we recruited more than 100 subjects to participate in a blind taste test that consisted of four brands of bottled water featured in a restaurant's water menu and a guidebook to fine waters. The tasting involved three successive experiments. First, our subjects tried to distinguish bottled waters in a sensory discrimination test. They were only slightly better than random chance at doing so. Next, they rated bottled waters and tap water on a 14-point scale used at an international water competition. Some subjects preferred the inexpensive tap water to any of the bottled waters, and there was no association or a weak negative association between a bottled water's price and its rating. Finally, our subjects tried to distinguish tap from bottled water while matching the bottled waters to expert descriptions. They were no better than random chance at doing either of those things. Similar results have been found in previous taste tests of beer and wine. Overall, our results suggest consumers do not have strong preferences over different bottled waters to the extent they can even tell a difference. (JEL Classifications: D12, Q25)

Keywords

bottled waterblind tastingtap water
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Wine Economics , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 20 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors thank Karl Storchmann, Jill Hindenach, an anonymous reviewer, and the human subjects research committees that approved our research. We declare that we have no relevant or material financial interests related to the research described in this paper.

References

Almenberg, J., and Dreber, A. (2011). When does the price affect the taste? Results from a wine experiment. Journal of Wine Economics, 6(1), 111–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almenberg, J., Dreber, A., and Goldstein, R. (2014). Hide the label, hide the difference? American Association of Wine Economists, Working Paper No. 165, August. Available at http://www.wine-economics.org/aawe/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/AAWE_WP165.pdf.Google Scholar
Ashenfelter, O., and Jones, G. V. (2013). The demand for expert opinion: Bordeaux wine. Journal of Wine Economics, 8(3), 285–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashton, R. H. (2014). Nothing good ever came from New Jersey: Expectations and the sensory perception of wines. Journal of Wine Economics, 9(3), 304–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashton, R. H. (2017). Dimensions of expertise in wine evaluation. Journal of Wine Economics, 12(1), 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brei, V. A. (2018). How is a bottled water market created? Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 5(1), 1–14.Google Scholar
Capehart, K. W. (2015). Fine water: A hedonic pricing approach. Journal of Wine Economics, 10(2), 129–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Combris, P., Lange, C., and Issanchou, S. (2006). Assessing the effect of information on the reservation price for champagne: What are consumers actually paying for? Journal of Wine Economics, 1(1), 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Combris, P., Lange, C., and Issanchou, S. (2007). Product information, hedonic evaluation, and purchase decision: An experimental study of orange juice. Journal of Wine Economics, 2(1), 40–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietrich, A. M., and Gallagher, C.D. (2013). Consumer ability to detect the taste of total dissolved solids. Journal of the American Water Works Association, 105(5), 255–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmhirst, Sophie. (2016). Liquid assets: How the business of bottled water went mad. The Guardian, October 6. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/06/liquid-assets-how--business-bottled-water-went-mad.Google Scholar
Fulcher, J. (2017). Judging water at Berkeley Springs international water tasting competition. Water Environment Federation Highlights, April 7. Available at http://news.wef.org/judging-water-at-berkeley-springs-international-water-tasting-competition/ (accessed 7 April 2017).Google Scholar
Gallagher, C. D., and Dietrich, A. M. (2010). TDS and temperature affect consumer taste preferences. OpFlow, 36(12), 20–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, R., Almenberg, J., Dreber, A., Emerson, J. W., Herschkowitsch, A., and Katz, J. (2008). Do more expensive wines taste better? Evidence from a large sample of blind tastings. Journal of Wine Economics, 3(1), 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guardian Food. (2015). Testing the waters: What we learned from a “water sommelier.” youtu.be/yyrH0M5buQk (accessed 19 February 2015).Google Scholar
Heymann, H., and Lawless, H. (1999). Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices. New York: Springer Science.Google Scholar
Lewis-Kraus, G. (2006). The water rush: The pursuit of perfect drinking water ends in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The Oxford American, 53, 22–28.Google Scholar
Mascha, M. (2006). Fine waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.Google Scholar
Olkin, I., Lou, Y., Stokes, L., and Cao, J. (2015). Analyses of wine-tasting data: A tutorial. Journal of Wine Economics, 10(1), 4–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Mahony, M. (1995). Who told you the triangle test was simple? Food Quality and Preference, 6(4), 227–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quandt, R. (2006). Measurement and inference in wine tasting. Journal of Wine Economics, 1(1), 7–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quandt, R. (2007). A note on a test for the sum of ranksums. Journal of Wine Economics, 2(1), 98–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray's and Stark Bar. (2015). Water menu. Available at patinagroup.com/restaurants/133/menus/Rays-and-Stark-Bar-Water-Menu.pdf (15 accessed May 2015).Google Scholar
Spar, D., and Bebenek, K. (2008). Profitable springs: The rise, sources, and structure of the bottled water business. Entreprises et Histoire, 50(1), 100–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storchmann, K. (2012). Wine economics. Journal of Wine Economics, 7(1), 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teillet, E., Urbano, C., Cordelle, S., and Schlich, P. (2010). Consumer perception and preference of bottled and tap water. Journal of Sensory Studies, 25(3), 463–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tozer, P., Galinato, S., Ross, C., Miles, C., and McCluskey, J. (2015). Sensory analysis and willingness to pay for craft cider. Journal of Wine Economics, 10(3), 314–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verive, J. (2015). “I went to a $50 water-tasting, and now I'm thirsty for more.” Paste, February 12. Available at pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/02/i-went-to-a-50-water-tasting-and-now-im-thirsty-fo.html.Google Scholar
Weil, R. L. (2001). Parker v. Prial: The death of the vintage chart. Chance, 14(4), 27–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weil, R. L. (2005). Analysis of reserve and regular bottlings: Why pay for a difference only the critics claim to notice? Chance, 18(3), 9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weil, R .L. (2007). Debunking critics’ wine words: Can amateurs distinguish the smell of asphalt from the taste of cherries? Journal of Wine Economics, 2(2), 136–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagat (2015). What we learned from a water sommelier. Available at zagat.com/v/los-angeles/what-we-learned-from-a-water-sommelier (accessed 16 September 2015).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Capehart and Berg supplementary material

Appendix

Download Capehart and Berg supplementary material(File)
File 34.2 KB