Designing a test for the magnetic coasters...

Wow, you guys are really having fun! Hope a good protocol emergies from the deliberations, but meanwhile all this talk of wine is making me thirsty!
 
JPK said:
I would be suprised if anything could improve the taste or a bottle of red wine that has been left open for a week. I would also be suprised to fine anything left in a bottle that has been opened for an hour or so. At least at my house :)
PK
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A week might seem long but it' not really long considering that we are not talking about an organic wine although those devils hold suspiciously well sometimes. Your second fear is really legitimate :D
 
JPK said:
[....] I like the idea of the three samples. Randomize between 1 mag and 2 unmag and visa versa.
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C'mon...some trials with 0 mag as well, and if all three coasters can be used, some trials with 3 mag.

yeah, I know it is sufficient with just 1 and 2, but any excuse to increase the number of trials in a wine-tasting is ok in my book...

edited to add... I also volunteer to replicate the experiment, on the condition that Cleopatra, in person, serves as my lab assistant.

Reginald, could you make a lab-coat version of her avatar?
 
Mercutio said:
C'mon...some trials with 0 mag as well
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That's good, and necessary, to help ensure there is no bias in the test (temp flucs, drinker unconsciously chooses the glass with a scratch on it more often, etc)
 
cogreslab said:
Wow, you guys are really having fun!
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Skeptics are really playful types especially when we test claims that they are not related with the public health it's a really pleasant procedure to pose questions and test claims. :)
 
It would certainly be illuminating if cogreslab shared the protocol his company used to prove their claims.
 
roger said:
That's good, and necessary, to help ensure there is no bias in the test (temp flucs, drinker unconsciously chooses the glass with a scratch on it more often, etc)
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I don't see how this will be useful. Could you expound?

I just ran some numbers "off the cuff" about how I would interpret results. Assuming a pool of twenty independent trials, if ten of the twenty can correctly identify the odd flavor out, then that just misses the standard 5% cutoff for significance. (Obviously, the more tests, the more reliable the statistics, but that might cost you a lot, esp. if you're buying decent wine.) The potential bias in the test is more or less controlled for by randomizing presentations (and not reusing glasses).
 
Ahem Cleopatra. As Claus, various Research Councils and all my collaborators already know, getting some written report out of me is like getting blood out of a stone. It happens, but very slowly. So I doubt I promised I would write it up - I hopefully suggested that someone would write it up.

On a different topic: I REALLY REALLY need some other JREFers to come help with these tests.

Especially ones good at writing reports...

Could someone give me the actual commands for resizing the pictures? I realise that if I had any sense at all I would have made them the right size in the first place...
 
I hope to see this written up in SR. This will be awfully interesting to read the results. :)
 
I have been involved in more difficult tasks than getting blood our of a stone my dear...

Now we have to notify some people we know they live in the London area for the test. Jon in London is one , Reginald is another one , Tim?
 
Tez said:


On a different topic: I REALLY REALLY need some other JREFers to come help with these tests.
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Well I'm a bit far from London. Once a protocal has been set, I would be more then happy to attempt to duplicate the test here in New Jersey, USA. I would have no problem finding test subjects. Let me know where to order the same coasters and I will.

JPK
 
Sorry, don't know how the multiple posts happened...
JPK
 
The double blind test proposed will not be fair. The producers of the coasters say that the liquid is to be consumed directly from the coaster, so the time taken for transportation of the liquids from one room to another could be used as an excuse for bad results.
About opening the wine bottles one week previously, it is a mortal sin.
Our tongue only recognize four tastes: sweet, sour, acid and salty. What makes the difference between a good and a bad wine is the aroma. A bottle open for a week will have no aroma at all.
If a magnetic coaster can provide aroma to the wine of an open bottle I am the first candidate to buy one of yours for the proposed 250 pounds.
 
SGT said:
About opening the wine bottles one week previously, it is a mortal sin.
Our tongue only recognize four tastes: sweet, sour, acid and salty. What makes the difference between a good and a bad wine is the aroma. A bottle open for a week will have no aroma at all.
If a magnetic coaster can provide aroma to the wine of an open bottle I am the first candidate to buy one of yours for the proposed 250 pounds
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I said from start to Tez that setting a protocol for wine won't be easy espcially because the product promises vague and subjective results.

Leaving the bottle of wine open for sometime is the only fair but legitimate test I managed to find for the wine.What are your thoughts?

Knowing the way mediocre table red wines are produced and bottled one week on the air sounds reasonable to me.If you leave them open for three days nothing happens to them, trust me.
 
SGT said:
The double blind test proposed will not be fair. The producers of the coasters say that the liquid is to be consumed directly from the coaster, so the time taken for transportation of the liquids from one room to another could be used as an excuse for bad results.
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Hmm, could get some coasters with the same look and without the magnetic properties to eliminate this, I suppose.
About opening the wine bottles one week previously, it is a mortal sin.
Our tongue only recognize four tastes: sweet, sour, acid and salty. What makes the difference between a good and a bad wine is the aroma. A bottle open for a week will have no aroma at all.
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There is a chemical reaction with air that occurs with open wine, wich will actually move it towards a vinegary taste; it is not just the loss of aroma.
 
Cleopatra said:

Knowing the way mediocre table red wines are produced and bottled one week on the air sounds reasonable to me.If you leave them open for three days nothing happens to them, trust me.
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I can't speak for the mediocre table wines, but I have noticed a change in taste (tending towards vinegary) in some red wines (that were lightly recorked) in the span of three days.
 
SGT said:
The double blind test proposed will not be fair. The producers of the coasters say that the liquid is to be consumed directly from the coaster, so the time taken for transportation of the liquids from one room to another could be used as an excuse for bad results.
About opening the wine bottles one week previously, it is a mortal sin.
Our tongue only recognize four tastes: sweet, sour, acid and salty. What makes the difference between a good and a bad wine is the aroma. A bottle open for a week will have no aroma at all.
If a magnetic coaster can provide aroma to the wine of an open bottle I am the first candidate to buy one of yours for the proposed 250 pounds.
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Perhaps the coasters can be placed under a table cloth and the glasses placed on top of that. Of course non magnetic coasters of the same size would be needed so the taster would not know the difference.

I still don't understand how any wine can exist in an open bottle for more then an hour.


JPK
 
DaveW said:
I can't speak for the mediocre table wines, but I have noticed a change in taste (tending towards vinegary) in some red wines (that were lightly recorked) in the span of three days.
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Yes this is what happens but mediocre table wines are bottled with the addition of artificial aromas apart from other things. The category "table wine" allows those things.

As Roger pointed out I wonder what protocol congreslab used in order to test the wine.
 
SGT said:
. . . the time taken for transportation of the liquids from one room to another could be used as an excuse for bad results.
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Easy enough - you could just blindfold your testers and stand them in front of the fridge. But really, a few minutes off the coaster and they're demagnetized? Why, static electricity?


About opening the wine bottles one week previously, it is a mortal sin.
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I think Cleo may have been thinking of much a older, very tannic wine? Some of those, I'm sure, can be decanted for a few days to soften and improve the taste. Not sure about a week. And besides, I say try it with a nice $3 la Boca, or Chuck Shaw. That way you can do it with a whole case and not worry about the cost.
 
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