How To #1: Tasting

What happens when you drink your booze too quickly.

When I first started out in the world of bartending, a man named Dean Callan was most horrified when in a tasting I simply picked up the glass of spirit and threw it down my gullet. I winced immediately at the deep burn of gin on the back of my throat.. 

This, he explained, was very bad etiquette.

I was embarrassed, and my throat was raspy. My first drink tarnished the rest of the alcohol I drank that day. 
And I drank a lot (you can imagine my disappointment!).

I don’t expect professionalism the first time you try new alcohol, and I certainly don’t want you to look like a complete twat in front of your friends, but the following tips should help you to appreciate your drink. After all, you probably just shelled out your hard earned $$ for it!

The following steps can be used for straight spirits, wine and fortified wines. I’ll add a little extra on the end for tasting cocktails and such.

It was a fine summer's afternoon when writing this, so I decided to set up my Mexi-blanket (bought home from my travels) and sip on some tequila. I have a lovely bottle of Casa Noble and although it already comes in a lovely ceramic (no longer available) bottle, I like to think I'm  high class. So like anyone high class I keep it in a decanter that was given to me by my lovely friends.

Casa bottle versus my sweet decanter (Thank you Alicia & Fauvey!)

So pour yourself a glass of your favourite spirit, or just a nice glass of wine and let's have a drink together  : )

Step 1: Have a look

This might be hard if you’re having a drink over the rocks, so I suggest you look at your alcohol before adding ice if you can. Otherwise swirl your drink like a boss and move to step 2.

Take your glass into your hand and look through the liquid, slowly spinning the glass in your hand. As the liquid falls away a “tide mark” will be left.

Look at how the alcohol runs down the glass. This is commonly called ‘legs’.

In easy terms: the longer persisting the legs, generally the better. This is a common way to tell if wine is good or bad, but works with spirits too. It doesn’t work so well with liqueurs, as the high sugar content gives them Beyonce thighs all the time.

See the similarity? (aka very good tequila)

Step 2: Get your nose in there!

It’s important to prepare our palate for what’s to come, and the olfactory (sense of smell) does that quite well for us. Think about smelling a Sunday roast as you walk in the house. Without even seeing it, you can already taste the gravy. With booze it’s much the same.

I stress this to you now, when smelling (nosing) straight spirits:

DO NOT BREATH THROUGH YOUR NOSE!!! 

This probably seems backwards, but trust me, your nose will thank me!

Place your nose over the glass and breath through your mouth. 

When drinking alcohol your nose is just as important as your mouth when tasting anything!

If you simply open your mouth now and breath in, you will notice that air moves through your nose as well. This is all you need to smell straight spirits, as the vapour is pungent and delicious! With wine and fortified wine you don’t really need to breath through your mouth because the alcohol content is much lower.

Open mouth remember!

You may notice that you begin to salivate. This is AWESOME, because it means your mouth is ready!

Step 3: Sip & Swirl

Yay! We’re finally here. You can actually drink! But don’t swallow just yet. Let the spirit roll around in your mouth. You can even hold it there and breath in through your nose (as long as the burn isn’t too much!). Otherwise just swallow slowly and let the burn fill your esophagus. This will help with your next sip because it won’t hurt. 

 Delicious right?

Step 4: Repeat (get tipsy!)

After you’ve taken a sip try nosing (smelling) the drink again, and you may find that you can smell things that weren’t there before. 

After that it’s up to you. Get your drink on or mull over your fine beverage. You may also try adding a dash of water to the straight spirit, which can actually help to open up the flavours.

Tasting cocktails:

All you really need to do is take a big wiff (smell with your mouth closed) of these gems, but it might be wise to check the position of your nose for each one. 

Straight up cocktails (served ‘up’ in a martini glass, champagne flute or coupette) require you to have your nose over the center of the glass, just as it would be while you are drinking it. This is why a bartender will be acutely offended when you ask for a straw with your Cosmopolitan. 

I strongly suggest you don’t drink something like this with a straw, as the idea is that when you are taking a sip you are also breathing in through your nose (much like the nosing part of this instruction) and so you will actually miss out on half of the drinking experience.

Many other cocktails will put the aromas right out there for you (mint sprigs on mojitos, or the sweet smell of a cherry for example), which can really help the drinking experience. So try not to take it out, eat it prematurely or leave it on the bar.

If you don’t like straight spirits, that’s ok with me. But maybe think about what’s in what you’re drinking and work your way there.

Start by lowering the amount of mixer with each drink (until you have your scotch with a dash of dry for example). 

This can take time, but hey, if it leads to more drinking, then I’m all for it.

-xx-