Joios
It’s hard to rival Brooklyn when it comes to our sheer abundance of artisanal food products. But how the heck do you choose between Anarchy in a Jar’s Arnold Palmer Jelly and the Concord Grape Jam from Sweet Deliverance? Cue Joios, a collaborative food and drink community that attempts impartially, efficiently and effectively to match people with products through their series of blind tasting events. “Amid endless possibilities, we often make flawed choices; exhausted by the search, we settle for the most famous or most convenient or the same old thing,” cofounder Matt Bruck tells us. “By removing all indicators of status, price, reputation and buzz from the process, we allow raters to focus exclusively on the taste—as it appears in their own noses and mouths.”
At every tasting, participants receive about 6 identical tasting samples from ½ ounces of spirits to ½ teaspoons of peanut butter, which are always served without any identifiers or favoritism. Tasters then rate the items on a 1-5 scale using Joios’ iPhone app, which matches patterns among participants to deliver the most relevant recommendations, based on a taster’s own preferences. “Tasters with very similar ratings patterns make better recommendation sources than most critics or retailers because their data capture their preferences better than their words,” Bruck says. “‘Full Bodied’ or ‘Earthy’ might not mean the same thing to everyone, but a rating of 5 out of 5 does.”
joios.com
Wow, thanks guys. We’re really honored to be part of this. Of course we can think of a whole lot of others at least as worthy…
As noted, Joios hosts lots of tastings. We’re always looking for products, tasters, venues. All ideas appreciated!