Word on the street is that, when it comes down to it, three bourbon and colas don’t taste any different. Cody’s, Diesel and Billy Mavericks, popular choices from rugby boys and bogans alike, are rumoured to have no distinguishing taste differences that set them apart from one another.
Cody’s, otherwise known as the drink for Subaru owners or rural dwellers looking for a punch-up, is apparently New Zealand’s number 2 bourbon and cola. I genuinely could not believe it. Cody’s is objectively the worst of the three, sorry farm boys. This drink tastes the most bitter, and although it is Northland’s favourite drink, she definitely isn’t held in the same regard here in the Deep South.
Diesel is like the unpopular cousin, the one that is 23 and still at the kids’ table at Christmas time, the one who lives under the spotlight of the others. Diesel cans stay thick and taste the smokiest out of the bunch. They are pretty petrol-y, to be honest, and I was personally not a huge fan. Nothing could be worse than Cody’s though. Otherwise, there isn’t much to say about Diesel. Sucks to suck.
Billy Mavericks are Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, and Dunedin breathas are Bradley Cooper. Mavs are the bread and butter of student life, and you fools fell for her harder than Gemma Collins fell through a trap door at that award show. Mavs definitely taste the sweetest of the three, essentially making it the Toyota Hilux version of Cruisers.
Not doing a blind taste-test, I could taste the subtle differences between the contenders. It wasn’t easy though, which begged the question - could die-hard Mav lovers tell the difference between the three in a blind taste test? Probably not.
It’s not a surprising concept; bourbon and cola tasting like bourbon and cola. However, with the number of students who drink bourbon, especially Billy Mavs, you would think that these students would be able to tell the difference between these best-sellers.
In true experimental settings, a study was conducted. The aim of this experiment was to find out if students could tell the difference between Codys, Diesels, Mavs, and a mix of all three just to throw them off. The hypothesis I believed in my heart, was no, they absolutely cannot.
Method
The method was simple; select a random sample, aka my friends and some stragglers, and pour the drinks into 4 cups. Cup 1 contained Cody’s, 2 contained Mavs, 3 contained a mix of all 3, and 4 contained Diesel. Then one by one I recorded each person’s response, without revealing the answers until every person had completed the experiment.
Results
Examples of students’ answers are as follows:
Student #2 thought Mavs was in Cup 1, Diesel in Cup 2, Mix in Cup 3, and Codys in Cup 4. Student #5 thought Diesel was in Cup 1, Mavs in Cup 2, Cody’s in Cup 3, and Mix in Cup 4.
Student #7 was the closest and thought Cody’s was in Cup 1, Mavs in Cup 2, Diesel in Cup 3, and Mix in Cup 4.
The percentage of times each drink was misidentified as another against all three drinks is shown on the pie chart. The raw data is also shown. For context, Cody’s was only identified 40% of the time, Mavs was identified 60% of the time out of the Mavs data, and Diesel was identified only 20% of the time.
In conclusion, people really think they know their bourbon but when it comes down to a blind taste test, people don’t know shit. To address the hypothesis, people can’t really tell the difference but may be most familiar with Mavs. Mavs had the most correct identifications, which isn’t surprising as they are a hugely popular drink down here. Diesel had the most incorrect identifications, which again, isn’t surprising because no one really knows Diesel like that. In terms of this experiment, due to the smaller sample size and lack of research in this field, it would be advantageous for further research to be done to overcome the possible limitations of this study and discover more accurate findings.
People who drink bourbon RTDs probably don’t care what is going into their mouths anyway, but keep on drinking your fave drinks. Just know that Cody’s will always be the worst bourbon and cola, sorry Northland.