Today I decided, at the last minute of course, to have a little product comparison and taste test with the gals at the office. I stopped in at a large grocery store, which shall be nameless, but I will say the way was not dangerous… to buy some typical sausage meat products for our lunch – I mean for our comparison.

The Comparison Model!

It will all be completely un-scientific, and of course, opinionated, but that is what this is all about. Until you try something, your opinion of it is most likely based on someone else’s opinion of it. So we will start with a blind test of three different products, based on smell, flavor and texture, and then we will take the blindfolds off and compare them visually, mostly to see the difference in fat content. The products will be labelled as A, B, and C. It should be great fun as we reveal the “opinions of our test subjects.

The Products!

We will have three products on the plate, one of course, is High Arctic Seafoods & Steak’s Buffalo Garlic Sausage along side of two very popular sausage products that can be found in most, if not all major grocery stores.

The Fun!

And what fun this turned out to be. after the office “gals” did the taste test we expanded by inviting some testers from neighboring companies, and there was no resistance to the challenge! In the end we managed to run the test with 5 happy volunteers.

The Results!

I know you’ve been at the edge of your seat waiting to hear the results. We do have a clear winner, and please don’t roll your eyes, thinking “of course the Buffalo won, because that’s what they sell”… but the Buffalo Garlic Sausage really did stand out as the clear “winner” of our test.

I won’t bore you with every detail, so here’s a sampling from our testers. Each row represents a tester, as in tester #1’s comments follow #1 for each of the products.

Product A – Buffalo Garlic Sausage

1. “good taste and flavor”, “definitely better than the other two”
2. “stronger taste”, “not fatty”, “tastes smoother”, “not bad”
3. “really lean, very meaty, quite nice”, “I like the garlicy flavor”, “I like this one the best!”
4. “I like this one, it’s got more taste”, “hardly any fat”, “Ya, I could eat that!”
5. “not bad”, “it’s pretty good, mild”, “I liked this one the best!”

Product B – Farmer Sausage

1. “no flavor but smelled good”
2. “not bad, but a lot of fat”
3. “smells good”, “I notice the smokey flavor the most”, “after trying the other two, now it seems like it doesnt have much flavor”
4. “doesnt smell like much”, “I really dont like this one, it has much more fat”
5. “more smoked flavor”, “more rubbery texture”, “not as flavorful as A”

Product C – Ukranian Sausage

1. “tough and rubbery”
2. “I like the smell”, “I like this one, it’s my choice”
3. “familiar smell, like from the grocery store”, “tastes more fatty, tastes good”
4. “neither does this (smell lke much)”, “run of the mill, texture not as good a A”
5. “saltier”, “similar texture to B, but no smokey aftertaste”