The scoring is the game: teams, rounds and a winner, with the rules read out before the first sample.
A taste test becomes a game when the scoring is public. Write the rules on a card, split the table into teams, and read the totals out at the end of every round.
Each round below needs the same three things: numbered samples, a points rule everybody has heard, and a card to write on. None of them needs a prize to work.
Set out: Six numbered cups of juice, each a different fruit.
How to run it: Taste blindfolded in turn, and write every guess down before the next person takes the blindfold.
What to score: One point per fruit named correctly, and a bonus point for naming a mixed cup.
Set out: Two teams, the same flight of samples and one printed card per team.
How to run it: Both teams score the same samples, then the totals are read out at the same moment.
What to score: The winning team total, and the widest disagreement between the two cards.
Set out: Eight snacks, or eight versions of one dish, drawn into pairs.
How to run it: Each round is a head-to-head taste, and the higher score goes through.
What to score: The bracket winner, with the semi-final scores read out as the runner-up list.
Set out: Four samples with the labels off, one of them the most expensive in the shop.
How to run it: Everyone ranks the samples by price before tasting, then tastes and ranks them again.
What to score: Points for the correct price order, and a bonus if the expensive sample won the tasting.
Set out: Four glasses of the same drink, one of them made slightly differently.
How to run it: Everyone tastes all four and names the odd glass, with the answer written down first.
What to score: Points for the right glass, and a second point for naming what changed.
Set out: Two people cook the same dish, and nobody at the table says who made which.
How to run it: Score both plates on one card, then reveal the cooks.
What to score: The total and the winning cook, which is usually the loudest result of the night.
Set out: One dish with five ingredients you can identify by taste, served in small bowls.
How to run it: Each taster writes the five ingredients from taste alone, in three minutes.
What to score: One point for every ingredient named correctly.
Set out: Five small samples with a clock set to ten minutes.
How to run it: Everyone tastes and scores all five before the timer stops.
What to score: Who finished with a complete card, and the highest total of the round.
Set out: Five dishes from five different places, plated without any packaging.
How to run it: Taste each one and write down which place you think it comes from.
What to score: One point per correct place, with the scorecard deciding any tie.
Set out: Four covered bowls, tasted only after the smell has been written down.
How to run it: Score the smell first, then taste, and keep both sets of numbers on the same card.
What to score: The points from the smell round, and how often the smell and the taste agreed.
Set out: Five numbered hot sauces with bread between each and water on the table.
How to run it: Put them in order of heat without looking at the labels, then reveal.
What to score: Points for the correct heat order, and a point for the sauce the table would buy.
Set out: Two versions of one dish, one of them with a familiar ingredient left out.
How to run it: Taste both and name the missing ingredient on the card.
What to score: Points for the right ingredient, and the version the table preferred.
Set out: One judge per round, tasting everything blind while the others watch.
How to run it: The judge writes a score first, then the table scores the same sample.
What to score: How close the table came to the judge, which is the round everybody argues about.
Score every idea on the same four lines: flavor, texture, value and would you reorder, each out of ten. Write the number down before the table starts talking, because the first score is the honest one. If the samples cost the same, drop value and score out of thirty instead.
The quiz works out which city eats the way you do, and the planner turns any city into a route of dishes with what to judge at each stop.
The setups that keep labels, prices and order out of the room.
Small pieces, simple scoring and the safety notes to read first.
An evening at home with coffee, cheese, chocolate and hot sauce.
Bigger formats: city routes, brackets and a month of scorecards.
Two teams of two work best, because every sample can be split. Six or eight people is still comfortable; beyond that, plate two sets of samples.
Anything that comes in four or five versions and can sit on a table: juice, chocolate, crisps, cheese or the same dish cooked two ways.
Ten minutes for tasting and scoring, then two minutes to read the points out. Longer rounds lose the table and the scores get sloppy.
No. The winner choosing the next dish is enough, and it keeps a second evening booked before the plates are cleared.
Taste the two tied samples again, in the reverse order, and let the person who did not score keep the deciding card.