Tasting note preparation rituals

@PeatyZealot Those sound like sensible suggestions. Warming up the taste buds is a good idea and recommended by quite a few experts especially on older or complex malts.

Personally I don't bother with the calm music and mood lighting but full stomach, comfy seat and smoke free are all a given for me.

An interesting topic. I would be interested to hear other peoples rituals.

Certain foods give me a "false reading" when it comes to my palate. Garlic is one of them. I avoid foods with a heavy garlic presence, especially raw garlic, before tasting. Strong ginger is another food I avoid before tasting. This is more important with sweet and savory scotches than with smoky and peaty scotches. I like hot buttered toast and tea before tasting. Ralfy taught me that one.

I have found that sampling the same whisky under a range of circumstances can yield surprisingly different flavours and impressions, but I do hold to these two rules when making notes on a dram. I do ensure I’m hydrated, and rested and have some water to hand. I don’t sample whisky after eating or drinking spicy or strongly flavoured food or drinks and avoid sweet and/or salty snacks before and during sampling sessions.

Good topic for discussion here!

I generally do all my tastings in the evening before dinner. I try and keep at least a four hour gap after I've eaten something. I generally prefer to taste when I'm feeling a bit hungry. I read some where that the hungrier you are the sharper your senses because your body is looking forward to consuming something and is on high alert for nutrition.

I find that I like the whisky more than if I had it if I had a full stomach. Maybe it's psychological but if I've eaten something then I'm constantly wondering if that's skewing my reading in that direction.

I'm definitely super hydrated. I drink at least one full glass of water (around 300ml) for every 30ml of whisky I consume.

I don't mind cleaning the palate with a table cracker or mild cheese but will NOT EAT ANYTHING during a serious tasting. Actually I don't eat anything while drinking whisky (tasting or not) because it makes the whisky taste bitter to me. After one's eaten your mouth produces sugar and that will cause the whisky to taste bitter.

With regards to same expressions tasting different in different settings it's possible. I recently read an article on how your mood and your surroundings influence your taste. Red light makes things sweeter. Jazz makes everything woody. How really true that is I'm not sure but I do know if I'm in good company and enjoying my self things taste better.

Finally I prefer to my tastings in complete silence allowing me to concentrate on my whisky or, if I must, then maximum one or two people. I find I don't get flavors when I'm in a large group and distracted.

Great topic!

If I'm tasting after dinner, I never eat anything overpowering in flavour and always leave an hour post-tasting.

Palate is warmed up with a staple Speyside single malt so I know that my senses are working as expected.

No food at all during tasting. No music. No TV. No distractions at all - just me sitting at my writing desk with my dram and some water if I feel I want to try my whisky with water.

Dram is poured and sits for at least 10 minutes in glass while I start on my whisky tasting entry with details of the expression including bottling code if available, where I got it and recording details such as from full bottle or sample, was it opened previously (and for how long) etc.

Then when I'm ready I begin nosing and tasting.

About an hour later I'm all done with my notes, final words and score, add the whisky to my alphabetized whisky tally (record of all expressions I've tasted so far) and if it's a new distillery as well I tick that off in my distillery list as well.

Oops, typo: I leave an hour "pre-tasting" not "post-tasting".

Water, definitely. Bread or an unsalted soda cracker, sometimes. But I've found the the best palate-cleanser is to chew a sprig of parsley. A couple of sprigs if I've had an extra-spicy meal. Nothing better to re-set the tongue to neutral.

Will certainly try parsley. Thanks for the tip

@WhiskyBee Pink ginger should be good too.

I definitely give a thumbs-up for the topic: besides curious experienced reviewers swapping notes, this discussion could really help new reviewers by providing some hints to feel more comfortable. At least I really yearned and searched for this information when I first started trying to write. So chronologically, here are a few of the things I do. A mix of methodical and unorthodox; comments welcome :)

Long in advance, I have usually read about the malt, to have arrived at trying it. Before I even open the bottle (or sample), I write down notes from various reviews-- here or elsewhere-- divided into the 3 tasting stages. This prepares me for what to expect, if notes are available. I also note the average of scores and get a feel for their variation. Then I wipe my mind of the other reviews, but I will refer to the lists of smells and flavors, later. I make a file on my laptop with the stages written, so I can type the instant that thoughts hit me.

Then-- related to other comments here-- I set the scene. Usually it is evening, and yes, >1 hour after eating. This also suits the time of day I prefer enjoying a malt (when not reviewing). It's always the same room, even the same chair. If there's been cooking, the door has been closed (once I found a lot of root vegetables and leeks in my whisky; guess what was for dinner...), and the window opened for fresh air and closed again. Naturally drinking in open air really changes the nose. I have also brought the liquid to near room temperature, so there is seasonal variation-- but I also try to select malts for the season (Islays in winter, for me). The temperature can have huge impact on vapors and mouthfeel. I'm glad others have mentioned hydration; yes, I make sure my tongue and throat don't feel at all dry. No noise/music in my case either-- it distracts my focus for reviewing (though nor for general enjoying).

In the old days, it helped me to warm-up with a practice reference malt. I would make new notes without looking at my old ones, and then compare to what I'd written an earlier time. This told me if my senses were missing anything, and so it helped me calibrate.

Alright... I'll stop here for now (before even opening the bottle!). Maybe later I'll describe the rest of my ritual for actually preparing the tasting notes, but I don't want to monopolize and create a too-long post!

@vanPelt Haha I recognize the mind preparation reading different notes before buying/tasting. But when I just started going into the tasting note club, I sometimes bought a bottle weeks after reading just enough about it so I'd forget the specific notes. Then I would sit down with the whisky and try to really delve into it and make my own notes and try to trust my own experiences before comparing it to other notes flying around the web. I had to do this with the Kilchoman Coull Point because there werent any other notes yet :p I could recommend both ways for the best recognition of the flavors.

I always have a glass of water on the side for refreshing my pallet. Note I don't add water to my whisky. I read somewhere that a shot of short black coffee can refresh the pallet. I have not tried it. But is something I'd be curious to test.

On the trail of coffee - ever notice all those jars of coffee beans in perfume stores? I gave that a try and do find some coffee resets for nosing.