I conducted an experiment once to settle an argument about identifying vodka by smell and taste. The argument was since regulations require 95+% neutral spirits

I conducted an experiment once to settle an argument about identifying vodka by smell and taste. The argument was since regulations require 95+% neutral spirits to be diluted with water, the smell and taste should be uniform. We used 3 store bought vodkas reportedly made from potato, corn, or grain and our own mixtures of 95% grain alcohol with various water sources to matching dilution. Participants were allowed to sample the solutions and told what they were, then given the solutions blind in a random order and asked to identify each solution. Our participant group was too small and controls too loose to make any significant conclusions, but our guess was that pH was not regulated and could be a discerning factor. One of the participants scoring a near perfect score settled the bet. Even the smokers scored higher than what we expected for purely random guesses.