Murli has a hypothesis about coffee:
He believes that if coffee is made with boiling water
the coffee is "burnt" and tastes bitter, not nice.
He believes that the flavour is better if the mixture
gets close to, but does not reach, 100°C.
Black coffee | White coffee |
---|---|
|
|
I'm sceptical. After what coffee has been through (roasting the beans, and chemical processes for instant coffee) I doubt that a few °C can make much difference. Still, his hypothesis is plausible. What's more he has convinced others, such as Leigh.
How can we test the grand coffee hypothesis? Design an experiment and carry it out - Murli has agreed to be the subject (if the experiment is safe).
The above was started by a chance conversation in the CSSE tea-room, but Kevin Korb tells me that R.A.Fisher used a similar example to discuss statistical significance, although that related to tea and to whether milk should be added to the cup before or after the tea is poured.