Stats Made Easy

To reward myself for teaching a Mixture Design for Optimal Formulations workshop on a beautiful Friday here in Minnesota, I asked my class to help design an experiment for a “TGIF Tequila Sangria.” Not being a drinker of hard liquor, I’ve been reluctant to tap into the several bottles of tequila given me by Pepe of Mazatlan – the father of an exchange student we housed one school year. She reported such unbearable cold that he feels compelled to keep me well stocked with 80-proof alcoholic heat derived from Mexico’s blue agave.

Having enjoyed marvelous sangria mixes of red wine and fruit juices while vacationing in Puerto Rico, it occurred to me that my stock of tequila might be blended off for good effect with some Syrah and cranapple — beverages I happen to have on hand. The triangular ‘phase’ diagram shows a 12-blend modified D-optimal design* that I concocted with some input from my students. One of the points is flagged so you can decipher how to read off the grid lines. My plan is to weigh out the ingredients into one of a number of tequila shot glasses that I’ve collected during trips to Mazatlan. I found that these will easily hold 30 grams of liquid. However, I was too fearful to allow any blends to exceed 15 grams of tequila. That stuff scares me!

As they say: “Para todo mal, tequila, para todo bien, también.” That is: “For all things bad, tequila, and for all things good as well.” Pepe will send me more tequila in a few months when the snow birds of Minnesota flock down to Mazatlan, so I’d better start drinking it soon.

*Produced by Design-Expert® software