When I was a boy I loved TV.  I especially loved TV commercials.  One of my all time favorites was the Pepsi Challenge campaign.  It was sometime in the early 1980’s, back when the Recession seemed endless and nuclear war imminent.

The Pepsi Challenge was a blind taste test pitting Pepsi against the more popular Coke.  Of course the commercials only highlighted shocked Coke drinkers when it was revealed to them that they preferred the competition.

Well beyond the artificial exuberance displayed by these cola drinkers when the jig was up (must have been the excess caffeine), and beyond the clearly manipulative and unscientific testing method . . . there is a lesson embedded here.

How do we know what we really like and why?

So this week I took my own taste test.

Not with cola but with milk.  I love milk (consuming about three gallons a week), and recently a very talented health coach named Holly Harmon has slowly cajoled me into trying the organic variety.

It tastes exactly the same, or so I thought . . .

After dismissing it I began to wonder if in fact my frugality/cheapness was getting in the way of the empirical evidence.

I calculated that at $6 a gallon (compared to $4 for non-organic) I would spend $6 dollars more a week, or a whopping $300 a year.

Hmmmm, now I began to be suspicious of my assumption that all milk is created equal.

Just then my science geek colleague Jaime stepped in and suggested a blind taste test.

She placed two glasses of milk in front of me.  I had no clue which was which.  She asked me to rate each one and I chose the organic variety.  We conducted this experiment three separate times and each time I chose the organic variety.

So my perception of reality was wrong.  In fact I think I wanted to believe they tasted the same because my frugality trumped my desire to consume something that is supposedly better for me and is more expensive.  Funny how not injecting a cow with all those nasty hormones and other creepy things actually raises the price of its milk.

So what’s the point of all this?  First, I surround myself with absolutely kooky friends and colleagues who have nothing better to do than to conduct blind tasting tests.

But second and most importantly, when we allow all the evidence to be considered we may still make the same decision, but we will know why!  I have not decided if $300 dollars a year is worth the improved taste, but I now know it does not taste the same.

I now wonder how many other decisions I make each day out of ignorance or frugality or some other impulse of which I am yet unaware?

Conduct your own Pepsi Challenge this week . . . what did you learn?

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.