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It’s just a shot in the dark.
More than two dozen New Jersey bars caught pouring cheap hooch into top-shelf bottles got away with cheating customers likely because 44 percent of tipplers can’t even taste the difference, a Post survey has found.
We enlisted eager volunteers to sample a shot of the $35-a-bottle French-made Grey Goose vodka and a shot of upstate Syracuse’s $8-a-bottle grain vodka Alexis to see whether they could pick the “better” booze.
The results were sobering — 22 of the 50 tasters preferred the low-end elixir.
“I would just order the cheap one from now on. If you can’t taste the difference, I would go for the low end,” said Emma Taylor, 22, after knocking one back. “I don’t make that much money.”
Said Lee Hsieh, 27, “You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, especially if you had a few drinks.”
But Thalita Cudzik, 26, winced after guzzling the Alexis.
“Even if you can’t tell the difference, you are paying more, and that’s not right. If it’s bad liquor, then you’re going to have to deal with it in the morning with a hangover,” said Cudzik, a nanny.
Christian Joseph, 46, an IT manager from Connecticut, preferred the Grey Goose.
“If I had a watered-down drink, that would be just wrong,” he said.
Air Force Officer Todd Inouye, 35, called the test a wash, joking, “They both taste like jet fuel.”
A yearlong investigation by the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control found one New Jersey drinking establishment used rubbing alcohol and food coloring as a substitute for scotch. Another, it said, poured dirty water into an empty liquor bottle.
As part of the probe, called Operation Swill, undercover testers ordered “neat” drinks (no ice or mixers) from 63 establishments. Some had been named in complaints. Others were chosen at random.
Using a device called a True Spirit Authenticator, they analyzed 150 samples of supposedly straight premium shots on the spot. The results: 30 were phony.
The Post’s tasters called the deception tasteless.
“That’s like when we used to water down our parents’ liquor. I guess they thought they wouldn’t get caught,” said one female liquor lover, who chose the Alexis.