The proper steps to tasting drinks are to see, sniff, salivate, slurp, swirl, savor, and spit; with some foolish people trying to snort. I will share what I do on a regular basis, and give some insight into what the professionals do when they are charged with providing an official description of what they are experiencing while drinking and tasting liquid.
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Sight
Sight sets up my drinking experience, be it tea, coffee, cocoa, wine or port. I see the liquid’s container, glass or ceramic, and anticipate the feel of the glass or cup in my hands. I watch the pour, and in some cases the aroma can waft over. Sight starts the process.
Tea
For tea I use my regular mugs, but do have special Japanese and Chinese tea sets that I will occasionally pull out. When using my special sets, I physically move into a different mode and become more deliberate, the process of making tea becomes far more ritualized, meditative. This comes from having learned, at a young age, about tea preparation in a small Japanese village.
My eye really sets on the way the tea looks when I open the canister. Visually the tea can go through so many different processes to make an amazingly varied drink from what is the same plant. It can be rolled so tightly to look like little green pine needles, or so dark the leaves look charred, or like a mixed brew with added herbs or flowers. I evaluate the color of the tea water as it steeps over time, and as I pour. But also I am mindful of the ceramics, the pot, the cups and the setting.
Coffee
For coffee I watch as it is being made and these too come with their own cups. (For USA people please remember the world does not consider the USA standard of 8 ounces as a cup, 6 ounce cups are usually served.)
- Espresso shot: illy writes this comes in the little cup and saucer called a demitasse, serving 29.5 to 37ml (or 1 to 1.25 ounces).
- Cappuccino: illy reports this comes in a wide mouth ceramic cup as a ~150ml beverage (2.5ml espresso + 85ml of foamed whole milk).
- Drip Coffee: Comes in a ceramic cup or glass, 177.45ml or ~6 fluid ounce.
Cocoa
I am not an expert on cocoa as a powder or melted chocolate drink, but I do know that hot chocolate or hot cocoa are not the same thing, even though to most of us the two terms are interchangeable.
- Hot chocolate drink has small pieces or shavings of chocolate that is mixed with hot water, milk or cream. It’s like drinking a melted chocolate bar.
- Hot cocoa drink is made with cocoa powder (dried and ground cocoa solids), and is what most of us drink.
Normally, I use regular mugs. But the Hot Chocolate drink is typically served in a smaller cup, like a demitasse. And the drink is often thick and rich with a heavy cream.
Most of the Hot Cocoa I have is Dutch processed. That is, the cocoa powder has been chemically treated with an alkalizing agent to reduce cocoa’s natural acidity. Unfortunately it also washes out much of the flavor. This process makes the cocoa powder darker and make the powder easier to dissolve in liquids.
- Bakers need to pay attention to exactly what a recipe calls for (Dutch or natural) as Dutch is neutral and the other is acidic. And, as you know, depending on the leavening agent used, this can affect rise.
I do go to a local place, Casa de Chocolates, that along with selling sweets, makes Hot Chocolate with Chili. A great drink for a cool day while wandering around the Elmwood district of Berkeley, CA.
Wine
So I see a tall white wine with its delightful straw color next to a petit red Tawny Port where its color is a deep burgundy. I swirl each glass and see the difference in viscosity, and anticipate the drink coating my mouth. If it is sparkling, I am looking at the size of the bubbles, and anticipate the fizz in my mouth and tickling feeling I will get in my nose. All these visual queues are triggers to my brain and hasten my desire to consume these drinks.
Additionally, I see they are in different glasses, and are of different volumes.All the artifacts I am seeing prepare me for drinking, I start salivating a bit, as my mind makes connections to the last time I had this drink, and anticipation grows.
- Tasting pour: 2-3 ounces (enough to swirl)
- White: 4-5 ounces
- Red: 4-5 ounces
- Rose: 4-5 ounces
- Champaign: 4 ounces
- Desert Wine: ~2 ounces
- Port: ~3 ounces
Sniff
Tea
I will sniff the dry tea leaves before I use them to get a ”beforehand” sense of the aroma and hopefully the flavor of the drink I am about to make. I put the tea in my hand, lightly rub my hand together and stick my nose into my cupped hands to take a deep whiff. If there is no aroma, I toss the tea out.
- SevenCups: Black tea should have a sweet, floral fragrance, and the aroma should linger. The aroma of dry oolongs can range from peach to osmanthus flowers, while the smell of Tie Guan Yin should remind you of sweet corn. In judging scented tea (such as Jasmine), the smell should be maintained over multiple infusions.
Coffee
For coffee, I like sniffing the grounds just after they are ground to get that fleeting initial fragrance, before it settles down. Then I add the boiling water to my filter (I prefer drip coffee) and sniff the wet grounds before I add more water, to catch the change in aroma. This ritual helps me prepare for my first taste of coffee.
- But to do this sniff test properly, put the newly ground coffee in a cup, sniff.
- Then add boiling water to the same cup, sniff once all the grounds are covered.
- Then break the crust of grounds that float to the top of the liquid, sniff and using the spoon slurp some of the hot liquid in your mouth to taste, then spit.
Cocoa
I do not usually smell cocoa powder, but do sniff the aroma from the cup once it has been mixed. Usually what I am looking for is the sweetness or bitterness of the drink.
Wine
For wine I will not sniff the cork, but will swirl and sniff the aroma caught in the glass. This is not to define the taste, but to determine if the wine is okay to consume. I do not smell above the glass, I stick my nose in and take a whiff.
- WashingtonPost: A quick smell can help you determine if the wine is faulty.
- A corked wine could smell like a moldy basement, wet dog, or old wet rags. Note: you cannot have a ”corked” wine if it has a screw top.
- Or reductive like sulfur, cabbage
- Or too much volatile acidity nail polish, paint, vinegar (I have had a wine I swear smelled like gasoline to me)
- Or smell like brettanomyces yeast which is like a barnyard, sweat, gym socks
- Or of premature aging like tired, cooked flavors
After this determination, I sniff again for my own pleasure. This allows me to anticipate the taste of drinking the liquid. However, I do find that many times, with wine, what I smell might not be at all what I taste when I drink. So part of sniffing is to find out if it tastes close to what it smells like.
I sniff port, but mostly to provide my nose a pleasurable feeling and to get a little heady at the alcoholic undertones. I favor Tawny Port where the smell is so very richly fruity, it smells deliciously red to me, and has an alcoholic acidity that I find so agreeable.
- GoldenVisaPortugal: Port wine that is wood-aged commonly comes in two flavors:
- Ruby Port – This has an aroma of spice and chocolate, with a smooth plum and grape flavor.
- Tawny Port – this rich and mellow wine has an aroma of caramel, nut, and wood spice, with a dried fruit and fig flavor.
Snort
(not recommended for any drink)
I do not snort any drink up my nose, other than a sterile and salty sinus flush when really congested; but I heard there is a tiny movement among some alcoholic beverage drinkers to snort alcohol like gin, vodka, whisky (1 2013; 2 2014). Frankly, this sounds like a teenager thing, where you want to get quickly loaded, but not have the alcohol breath your mom sniffs when you get home.
While it is not a large movement, it is showing up in some posts such as HealthLine. Snorting, they report, can be done with a vaporizer (inhaling alcoholic infused vapor) or just inhaling the liquid. Consuming alcohol this way sounds initially painful, but will bypass the digestion process, and go directly into the blood, thereby making you drunk faster.
Why do it? Faster drunk, no alcoholic breath, and not everyone who wants to get drunk likes the taste of alcohol.
Why not do it? You can get drunk faster than you anticipated, and the result can be alcohol poisoning. You could damage nasal and other sensitive tissues, although science is not clear yet on all the damage it might do. Additionally, snorting will not allow you to throw up and clear your system of the alcohol. Just remember your blood will show proof of the consumption.
Salivate
To salivate, under normal conditions, indicates your body is ready to receive nourishments. This process can start with the sight or smell of food or drink that triggers the autonomic system to activate the salivary glands. The saliva is a liquid that contains water, electrolytes, mucus and enzymes that aid digestion, moistens your mouth, reduces infections in the mouth and throat, and helps protect your teeth and gum (3; 4).
Coffee + Tea
Both coffee and tea are caffeine drinks. Studies show that coffee reduces salivary flow by directly effecting salivary glands because it is a diuretic and lowers salivary pH (5 2017; 6 2016). Whereas studies on black tea indicate an increases in pH level and saliva flow rate (7 2017). Finally, research seems to indicate that saliva production was decreased after green tea, oolong tea, and red wine and tannin seems to be the reason (8 2015).
Slurp
To slurp is to inhale the liquid in a way that it does not go down your windpipe, but can be aerated so droplets are spread all over your tongue and palate which maximizes the register of taste sensations and allows the nose to pickup on aromas and flavors.
You can do this with coffee, tea, and ramen noodle soup. This is also done with wine and port.
Swirl
Wine
Swirling wine or port in its glass does four things; it shows off the color of the drink, evaporates some compounds, creates a vapor, and indicates viscosity.
- YaoFamilyWines: Swirling the wine in the glass enables some evaporation to take place, which means more of the volatile compounds will dissipate. Some of these compounds include sulfides (matchsticks) and sulfites, (rotten eggs).
- Additionally, their site continues: The way the wine swirls gives you a first indication of the wine’ “texture:” its thickness or viscosity. A dense wine, full of tannins or sugar will tend to spin more slowly around the glass, sticking to the sides. This is called the wine’s legs which is the amount of viscosity it contains.
Swirling a drink is mainly a wine and port thing. Just make sure your glass is less than half full, otherwise you will be swirling it up and over to spray everyone around you. I keep my glass on the table, swirl it 3-4 times to help oxygenate the liquid, and create a vapor I can adequately smell. Then it is a fun game to identify what I am smelling, keep in mind you can only reference a prior smell or memory, which is why defining a smell can be so idiosyncratic.
Savor
Coffee and Tea
I rarely savor coffee as it is a bitter drink I mainly consume for alertness or as a social event. But I nearly always savor tea. I associate coffee with work and a busy life, but with tea I am relaxing and visualize sitting at a camp site.
Wine
Take time to drink and enjoy what is being consumed. When I drink port I prefer to do so when I am not distracted by television or a book, but my ideal is to sit in my backyard on a warm day with a drink in hand. I want to see, smell, and taste my drink. Swish it in my mouth, ”chew” it even, to get all the flavor.
I love the experience that port gives me, it is a full body reaction that is pleasurable and one that I want to repeat when I can. It is almost a mindful practice, as I make each sip of the port an experience of fully tasting and being present.
Doing this with other drinks is possible as well, but I have to think about it first. With port I do this automatically.
Agua Frescas
Thinking about this a bit, I naturally savor the Mexican and Central American Agua frescas as they are a refreshing fruit drink made simply of fruit blended with water, lime juice and a bit of sweetener. They taste so much like the actual fruit I let it sit a bit in my mouth, hitting the back of my tongue and energizing very happy taste buds.
Spit
Coffee and Tea
If you are a coffee taster, even if it is a tablespoon at a time, it is okay to spit. You want the full flavor experience but 20 shots of coffee or espresso would be a killer for me, so spitting is the appropriate thing to do. Just make sure you have something to spit into that is discreet.
The same if you are tasting a lot of tea, but I have not heard of this process with cocoa.
Wine
To experts, it all starts with the liquid and the glass it is placed in. The glass is meant to provide the best showcase for the drink, as show above.
Sometimes I do spit out wine, when I am doing a large tour of wineries in Napa or Sonoma because I do not want to get drunk, I want to taste and smell the wines. To properly spit, use the spit-buckets each tasting room has for that purpose. The more wine you actually drink, the drunker you become, and the less you can discern from the wines, so spitting is preferred.
I do like to taste port and tend to not spit it, even if I am going to several places. I will try to swish water in my mouth, and eat something carby and bland to clean the palate between visits.
Hope this whirlwind through tasting beverages was interesting.
—Patty
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