Reminds me of the invention of Fisher's exact test:
>The example is loosely based on an event in Fisher's life. The lady in question, Muriel Bristol, claimed to be able to tell whether the tea or the milk was added first to a cup. Her future husband, William Roach, suggested that Fisher give her eight cups, four of each variety, in random order. One could then ask what the probability was for her getting the specific number of cups she identified correct (in fact all eight), but just by chance.
> David Salsburg reports that a colleague of Fisher, H. Fairfield Smith, revealed that in the actual experiment the lady succeeded in identifying all eight cups correctly.[6][7]
Matt parker showed that whether you add the milk first or last affects the temperature and temperature over time profile of the tea. That could have an effect on the taste.
I'm not surprised someone ran an experiment. That's exactly what I thought about when I read the scenario. The level of extraction and the taste of what's extracted will vary depending on the temperature, and adding the milk first lowers the temperature of the fluid the tea is steeping in.
For the undiscriminating palate (mine?) you probably wouldn't notice a difference. But someone who pays attention could, especially if they have a particular tea they're drinking regularly.
I would imagine that unless you controlled the specific volume of milk, there may be systemic bias towards more or less milk depending on when it is added.
>The example is loosely based on an event in Fisher's life. The lady in question, Muriel Bristol, claimed to be able to tell whether the tea or the milk was added first to a cup. Her future husband, William Roach, suggested that Fisher give her eight cups, four of each variety, in random order. One could then ask what the probability was for her getting the specific number of cups she identified correct (in fact all eight), but just by chance.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_tasting_tea