Learning to tatse.
Tips that helped me become a better taster.
Objectively assessing anything is tough, but even more so when it comes to flavour. Trying your best to not let your own bias influence your assessment is a real skill and something that requires constant work.
Smell + Taste = Flavour.
Us humans love familiarity, we love it so much that it sometimes stops us from trying new things. Tasting something new will always be a wonderful challenge, especially if we are encountering smells and tastes for the first time. It is totally understandable to not like something when you first try it, however, I will not accept this as a true fact if you stop at the first attempt. I believe that repeated exposure can help us to understand what we are tasting and in some cases eventually learn to enjoy it.
These tips, although based on tasting coffee are also transferable to other food and beverage groups, and can be applied in a very similar manner.
Basic tastes:
The focus on understanding what I am tasting is the number one rule I apply when undergoing any sensory assessment. Learning to assess the basic attributes is where I always start. Is it sweet? is it salty? is it bitter? is it sour? is it savoury? How intense are these attributes? and what does it feel like in my mouth? Don’t overcomplicate things, start with two different coffees and then increase the numbers when comfortable.
Blind taste:
Blind taste as much as possible. Not knowing will work in your favour. This will eliminate any potential bias that has built up and will help to keep your sensory focus. This isn’t an exact science but the less you know about the coffee the less likely you are to use past experiences and associations to influence your judgment. This way of tasting will aid in the building of taste recognition and will help you interact with the coffee on a deeper level, it will force you to discover things in the cup that can often be overlooked, especially if we have pre-conceived ideas of how we think the coffee should taste. Trust me on this one.
Comparative tasting:
This is a must if you want to develop your own sense of taste and it is a really great way to get you thinking and describing what you are tasting. Coffee offers huge diversity in its range of flavours and tasting multiple coffees side by side will help you to communicate the differences you are tasting. Try this with as many coffees as possible making sure to take detailed notes as you taste. Also, remember to take your time and take a break at frequent intervals. Also, sip some water, the neutral flavour will dampen some of the previous cups’ influence.
Triangulation:
Try to build this into your weekly tastings, the more you succeed at this skill the more confidence you will have in your own ability. Triangulation is the method of identifying the odd one out. Set up three cups of coffee, two cups being the same with the third cup being the odd one out. You will need a hand with this one as you will need to do this blind. Get someone to set this up for you, place a small sticker on the bottom of the cup that will be the odd one out, make sure you can’t see the sticker then ask the other person to prepare the cups out of eyesight. Try to do this with multiple sets then reveal the cup you think is the odd one. My only advice for this method is to go with your initial choice and be very careful not to overthink and spend too much time deliberating. The number of times I have changed my mind at the last minute to later learn my initial choice was right is a frustration you will learn to accept, believe me…
My last tip on tasting is, trust yourself, never underestimate your own ability and don’t be afraid to communicate your findings. Tasting is something we do every day, it just takes time and a little focus to develop our skills to communicate this. Be consistent in your training and have fun doing it. Oh, and do it with as many people as possible, sharing your results is a great way to learn.
Cheers
Burts.