Family time can be tricky and hard to come by as your children get older, get married, and have lives completely separate from you. This is not a bad thing. It is part of raising children into well adjusted adults. A blessing and a curse for this mom. My two oldest children were married in 2017 and 2018. We began with family game nights, the 7 of us would get together and play a variety of board and card games and have dinner together once a month. This became increasingly more difficult with their jobs, own families and other commitments. I really missed it, but did not want to add pressure and one more thing to their busy lives. I work very hard at being a guilt-free mama. I realize I am not always successful.
In 2021, I was amazed when I noticed all the different flavors of M&Ms there are in the world. Yes, I live under a rock and don't buy candy very often. I threw out the suggestion that the family do an M & M taste-off and rank our favorite flavors. It was a great night. I was surprised the interest and attention that our little taste off received. My husband was even on a local radio show talking about our "official taste-off" around our kitchen table. I have talked to so many people about our taste-off that I thought I posted it on my blog. Looking back I did not. But if you are curious about the results, I found my Instagram posting our results.
"The Becker's had a taste ranking of 11 different M & M flavors. The overall winner was Peanut Butter. The big loser was caramel. Sorry caramel lovers!"
We decided to hold another taste-off this year called the Oreo Showdown. Each household brought two packs of Oreos to the event held the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We had 12 cartons in total. Each cookie flavor was dispersed one at a time for tasting and ranking. Here is the list of cookies we tasted in order.
Oreo Showdown Flavors
- Java Chip
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
- Lemon
- The Classic Double Stuff Oreo
- Toffee Crunch
- Golden Double Stuff
- Dark Chocolate
- Snickerdoodle
- Peanut Butter
- Pumpkin Spice
- Birthday Cake
- Mint
My daughter, Christina, our public health specialist, created 2 forms for recording answers. One form was for those who preferred a visual ranking. It was a piece of paper divided into 12 cubes. Each person could taste the oreo and place it in a ranking square. Then the person could adjust each oreo based on liking the cookie more or less than the previous cookie. The person would continue to taste each of the 12 cookies, ranking each of them as they tasted. The other printout was a spreadsheet containing each family members name in one column down the side and a row across the top of the page listing each cookie name. Each person could write a ranking number in the form 1 to 12. We used these sheets to compile the results.
It was a lot of sugar, even if we were just taking a bite or two from twelve cookies. I drank quite a bit of milk as a palate cleanser. I have not drank milk in years. My daughter compiled the rankings from each column of cookies. There was a tie for 1st place - Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie and the classic Double stuff. We were all riding a good sugar high at the end of the tasting and were surprised by some of the results. Oreos were a great representative for our families' different likes and preferences.
Ranking Results
- The Classic Double Stuff Oreo / Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
- Golden Double Stuff
- Peanut Butter
- Mint
- Dark Chocolate
- Lemon
- Snickerdoodle
- Pumpkin Spice
- Birthday Cake
- Java Chip
- Toffee Crunch
I believe a new tradition is born. Next year, we have decided to set the sugar to the side and dive into the different flavors of lays potato chips.
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