baudot

I started shopping for my annual Science!! party today. This is the party near Guy Fawkes Day where I round up several dozen folks and we explore the possible recipe space of Irish Carbombs. Think of all possible Irish Carbombs as a point on a 3 dimensional graph, where the stout chosen is the X axis, the whiskey is the Y axis, and the irish cream is the Z axis.

In previous years, I've had people make their drinks in pairs: One person mixes a carbomb for the other, secretly noting the brands chosen, and recording the rating given, and then the roles reverse. This year I've decided to go double-blind, pouring all the bottles out into erlenmeyer flasks with icons rather than names on them. So this year, the test subjects will know that they've mixed a x x , rather than a Guinness x Bushmills x St. Brendans, or a Murphey's x Jamieson x Baileys, or whatever else it might be. All in the name of Science!!, you understand. We can't have people's expectations contaminating their ratings.

I thought for a bit it would be good to take the next step and have the liquors poured in proper chemistry fashion from a titrating burette, but that's hit a hitch. It turns out that if you look for large size burettes, you end up in the urinalysis section of the chemistry supplies. I just don't know that I want to serve my guests whiskey from a Curity Precision Urine Meter with SplashGuard.