Help determining issue with taste buds

You could try to neutralize your taste buds with bread and lots of fresh water. Most often I think the food causes changes in the taste. Or maybe you had some cigarets this special day? Tasting is very subjective, personal stress or your mood in generell will affect your enjoyment.

Thanks for the suggestion on the water and bread. In thinking more about it, I guess I do have quite a bit of varation in my tastes day-to-day. It must have just been an off day as the next day the HP 18 was great. Good to have about 5-6 different bottles open at a time to fit my mood.

@msudukie Wills is correct. Having bread and water will clear the palate. I think part of the excitement about tasting whisky is that when you approach the bottle multiple times you learn something new each time. So, I think you're perfectly doing an awesome job with tasting your whiskies. Don't ever doubt yourself or think your palate is funky-fresh. Everyone's palate is different.

I like to approach the whisky as though I'm going on a blind date with the intension of having a deep, long relationship with it. Now, I don't mean holding it between the loins and waking up every morning with a bottle...that's creepy...haha..but I try to have an open mind with the bottle. Even if I hear it's great/bad, I just jump in with an open mind or at least try to do so. I've had an experience with some whiskies, just like the HP 18 where I swore it was the best thing on earth and I tried it again and I hated it. then, i tried it again and loved it again...

That being said, I think there's a lot of extraneous factors that affect your palate. 1) what mood you're in. If you're in a jovial mood there's a chance you'll be more "optimistic" about the tasting experience 2) what you've eaten beforehand 3) how long it's oxidized after you've cracked open the bottle 4) type of water (water bottle vs tap water) you use if you choose to add water into your drink 5) the amount of water : 2 drops , 3 drops, etc. 6) are you in a crowd filled with jerks or cool folks or drinking solo, etc.

and sometimes it's the batch themselves. I've heard that Balvenie Tun 1401 varies from one batch to the next. Some prefer batch 6 over batch 4, etc. some people state that there's a specific barrel from Aberlour A'Bunah that tastes quite excellent and the other ones...not so much (this could be the barrel's influence, etc).

In the bourbon world, they've made the argument that the center of the rackhouse has the tendency to hold the best juices. when the barrels are exposed to extreme weather (hot and cold) the alcohol recedes or contracts into the the oak barrels. then, you've convection to think about, where heat rises and in the top of the rack house those barrels get exposed to a lot of heat and that may not be too good for their bourbons. Jimmy Russel from Wild Turkey states that he uses the barrels that lie in the center of the rack house to release high end juices. From my understanding, Maker's Mark is the only distillery that rotates their barrels throughout the year because they strive for consistency, so I suppose they don't fit into that example in terms of convection. Currently, they're working on building a temperature controlled warehouse to make their Maker's Mark 46. As for as the current Maker's Mark 46, they're are aged at the bottom of the rackhouse for 3-4 months during the winter time.

I suppose I've gone off on a tangent. So sorry. But I hope that helps to shed some light. Again, you've nothing to worry about with the issue of taste buds. :D High Five!

oh yeah, where i was going with that barrel rotation is that they're striving for consistency in terms of flavor. sometimes there are bottles with the same age and name brand that may vary in flavor. so where i was getting at is that there are lots of factors that affects how you taste the whisky. even if you're approaching the same bottle, you'll see how it tastes differently each time. ^_^

@msudukie Hi msudukie, and welcome to the wonderful world of whisk(e)y! I agree with the other posters, especially about mood. I keep a variety of spirits on hand because, though I may love certain whiskies, I'm not always in the mood for that flavor profile. Time of day, fatigue, and a host of factors affect how we perceive and sense/taste spirits. Typically, bottles take more than a day to oxidize, so I doubt that that was the driving factor. It's probably more related to mood/fatigue/time of day than anything else. Bread and water can help, too. I was also wondering whether you were using the same type of glass. I've noticed that the profile and certain elements of spirits really change depending on the type of glasswear used. Certain bowls (sizes and shapes) will emphasize the alcohol, sweetness, smoke, and pepper. May not be the case here, but something else to consider.

@BlissInABarrel - Great overview of the different factors you have found affect taste. The information on the barrel placements for bourbon was really interesting, so thanks for taking us on the tangent. I also really like the idea that you learn something new each time you approach a bottle; makes it such a dynamic and personal process.

@numen - Hi numen. I am excited about getting into whisky. It helps to have such a great forum to connect with and learn from others. I agree 100% on the glass type as I see a lot of difference between a standard tumbler and my glencairns. Just had a dram of Balvenie Doublewood 12 year and all is good!

@msudukie That's great! On glassware, I drink a lot of brandy, and many people go for the snifter. I find that the shape of it really emphasizes the alcohol on the nose, making it a bit tougher to penetrate. The glencairn (tulip-shaped) glasses are my usual go-to. I've also tried the Villeroy and Boch single malt glasses, and they highlight a bit of the alcohol; it can be difficult to work through high-proof spirits in them, but they can also mitigate the impact of heavily peated whiskies. The first time that I tried Talisker 18 in them, I gagged and coughed because it was so surprisingly sweet, and had only traces of the pepper and peat. It can be a lot of fun to experiment with different glasses and spirits to see whether you enjoy things more in particular ways. It may vary by spirit.

@numen wow! you're a genius! that sounds so cool with different glassware!!!

I go periods over a few weeks or so where I crave differeny types of whisky and find that others taste bad, then suddenly my taste buds cthange again and I crave something else.

You can also try chewing on a mothful of parsley to clear your taste buds, there is a reason why restaurants put it on your plate.

@BlissInABarrel, yes @numen knows a lot about the differences in experiences using different glassware. It is truly amazing how differently the same whisky can be experienced using different glassware. The glasses are like a prism that channels the flavours in certain ways with certain emphasis, and in so doing, modifies the sample of what is experienced, transmitting and enhancing certain parts of it while inhibiting other parts of it.

In addition to all the other good advice here, I find it handy to have a real middle-of-the road balanced malt (even a blended scotch) on hand to have a small splash of before tasting a more demanding malt. Something like a Glenlivet 12 or Glennfiddich 12. I find this acts as a bit of a primer to wake up the taste buds and get them into the tasting zone.

I often find when I sit down with a few drams of a whisky, I tend to enjoy my second one the most.

Of course your palate can be off on a given night. As well as the 'palate opening' dram, I also like to have a reference whisky, one which I know very well, to calibrate my palate. If my HP 12/Laga 16/etc tastes off to me, I may forgo tasting the rare stuff that night. It's a similar process some whisky writers have. Of course, you must get familiar enough with a standard whisky in order for it to work. :-)

@msudukie Just a follow-up to highlight that this is something that happens to most/many/all palates, to me, everything that I've had tonight has been... bland and with no real flavor. I started with a favored Four Roses bourbon, and it was good, but I was missing a lot of the nuance. I cleansed my palate and proceeded to try some Ardbeg Alligator to no avail. I gave it one last chance with a high proof spirit that I loved, but it went nowhere. I'm going to stop for the night; this is just an off-night for me and my palate - a good thing that I didn't try doing tasting notes of something of which I have but a small sample or a prized item!

@Devo - great suggestion on the "palate opening dram," especially on those nights when I want to try a special whisky.

@cpstecroix - As I am continuing my journey, I think the HP12 is becoming a good reference whisky for me. I figure I will always have a bottle on hand, so your idea makes a lot of sense.

@numen - Sorry you are having an off night, hope your palate gets back on track tomorrow!