Our Blind Taste Test

BLIND TASTE TEST – BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

We conducted a blind taste test on 60 participants, ranging from teens to the seventies.

2 lots of blueberry muffins were baked.  1 lot was baked with sugar.  The other was baked with half the amount of sugar plus ½ teaspoon of stevia powder.  All other ingredients remain the same in quantity.

The findings of the blind taste test are as follows:

A: Compilation of statistics:

	Number who prefer regular amount of sugar in muffins	Number who prefer the stevia-substituted muffins	Number who cannot tell the difference in taste
No. of participants	31	20	9
% of particpants	51.7%	33.3%	15%

B: Additional comments made by participants:

Those who preferred the regular sugar muffins said that they like them because the muffins taste sweeter.

On the other hand, those who preferred the stevia-substituted muffins said they like them because the muffins taste less sweet.

No one mentioned that there is a difference in taste other than the sweetness. That is, no one mentioned anything about any odd taste or aftertaste.

CONCLUSION:

We conclude that the blind taste test has shown that participants were unable to tell that sugar was substituted with stevia.  Most of those who preferred one or the other thought that it was due to the quantity of sugar that was added. In fact, 15% of the participants could not tell any difference.

Hence, Stevia makes a good substitute in this case.  To cater to a person’s need for sweetness, the amount of stevia powder used can be increased or decreased accordingly.