Last week, after my brief but illustrious appearance on NPR’s All Things Considered, I found a lovely message waiting for me on Twitter:
Now, if anyone knows me, they know my seltzer flavor of choice is… none. I make my own, with my old trusty Sodastream, and drink it straight.
On the other hand, who am I to turn down a free offer of seltzer? A few days later, this is the package I opened with my family:
That’s right – seven different flavors in 36 cans. Thank you Sprindrift! There was only one way I could imagine sampling them all – hosting a seltzer tasting party (for my family).
So here’s what we did. I made four columns of 4 Dixie cups each, with the number of their column written on each cup. Then I filled all the cups in a column with the same seltzer. Then I placed the cans in a row at the top (but NOT next to the same flavor).
Then, each member of my family took one cup from each column and, on a piece of paper, recording the number of the cup, their guess of the flavor, and their vote of how much they liked it (1 the worse, 7 the most).
After we each had tasted one from each column, and filled out our sheet, we went from cups 1 to 7, as a group, sharing our flavor guesses and our preferences. (My two favorite flavors I guessed to be Grapefruit followed by Cucumber; and I hated Lemon and Orange Mango).
Then I revealed, one at a time, what the correct flavor was for each cup. Anyone who guessed a flavor received a point. (That was when learned the one I labelled Orange Mango was the Grapefruit, and visa-versa, which meant my favorite one was ACTUALLY Orange Mango after all).
Then I tallied the votes to see which ones we like the most.
As a family, our two favorite are Orange Mango and Lemon. Our two least favorites were Cucumber and Grapefruit.
Personally, however, we had our differences. My son enjoyed the Strawberry, my wife the Blackberry, and I, alone, the Cucumber (which reminds me of the ice cold water in hotel lobbies).
My first choice is still a plain seltzer, but I appreciated Spindrift sending over the cases and now know where to turn next time I am feeling nostalgic for a hotel lobby.