So far in this series, we have covered the basic principles of designing a sensory program and running tests. Here, we’re going to zoom in on discriminative testing—the most important type for identifying differences in samples and a powerful tool in the distillery.
First, let’s refresh our memories: What is discriminative testing, exactly?
The Society of Sensory Professionals defines discriminative tests as those “used to determine if there is a detectable difference between products.” Thus, it focuses on the perceived differences among samples by assessors, and it involves the use of statistics to determine whether or not those differences are important.