How good are your taste buds? – The Tic Tac challenge

How good are your taste buds? – The Tic Tac challenge

How good are your taste buds? – The Tic Tac challenge

It’s a game of skill, dedication, wits and nerve – a tantalising taste challenge that’s capable of splitting the Tic from the Tac. Oh, OK, it’s a silly filler game I made up during a long car journey – but you may just enjoy it.

Equipment needed: One packet of lime and tangerine Tic Tacs (the green and orange ones).  

The rules:
I ask Mrs MSE to hand me two Tic Tacs out of sight. I place both in my mouth without seeing the colours and I have to identify the combination by taste alone.

The win:
Getting five combinations right in a row. If you get one wrong you’re reset to zero. If you succeed in all five, you get to move onto a combination of three Tic Tacs at a time, and so on.

It’s not quite as simple as you think – both are citrusy flavours and the tangerine can overpower the lime. The first go is usually the easiest as you have a clean palate, and the residual flavour of past ones makes it trickier as you go along.

Of course Mrs MSE finds the whole thing bizarre and doesn’t get why I enjoy it, but she humours me and carries on. Thankfully though, on a recent journey to play golf, one of my buddies was more appreciative and happy to play the game with me on the drive back.

I think maybe I should shut up now.