Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Beer…mmm

I’m not going to claim to be a beer aficionado – Bud Light Lime is my favorite beer – but I do think that New Hampshire’s obsession with micro-brews gives me some expertise to speak on the issue. And, in my expert opinion, Mutzig and Primus are both terrible. They also both happen to be the only options in Rwanda.

Popular opinion seems to be that Mutzig is better than Primus…because it costs 100rwf (about 20cents) more, but I have not been able to taste this. Usually they both just taste like warm Keystone…because Rwandans also think beer tastes better when it’s warm.

Last night, my point was proven. We had a blind taste test between Mutzig and Primus.

Three glasses: 2 of Primus, 1 of Mutzig – or was it 2 of Mutzig, 1 of Primus? (And, as MIT grad and I discussed, did it make a difference to the probability of randomly guessing all 3 correctly if all 3 were the same, and you knew it?)

Of the 3 American staff members guessing, all 3 guessed differently…and all 3 guessed incorrectly…twice. Just to review this math: there was a 37.8% (6 in 16) of at least one person randomly guessing correctly. And yet, of all 3 that insisted they could tell the difference, all 3 were wrong.

I am vindicated.

When a Rwandan staff member showed up to this game, he took one sip of each and guessed all three correctly.

So maybe there is a difference.

Recent discovery: Mutzig and Primus are produced by the same company in the same factory.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wait till you get to Ethiopia and have a St. George...you'll be surprised what you will do for a St. George!!!! Love you. MOM

Eli(zabeth) Mitchell said...

Big insider advice! Bralirwa is about to go public:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201010060225.html

Everybody get on this...it will be like investing in IBM in the 60s(?)...