If you attend your first espresso or tea tasting, it will possibly appear overwhelming. How do you are taking notes describing flavors which can be tough to detect or that you simply don’t even have the vocabulary to explain? One thing I’ve seen about all of the espresso and tea tastings is that the flavour descriptions communicated to the group affect style. Others will even detect inexperienced peppers in Kenyan espresso if I state that I detect inexperienced peppers in Kenyan espresso. If somebody pronounces that they picked up on cocoa notes in a Brazil, I’m extra more likely to additionally detect them.
All this raises the query: What am I actually tasting, and do I actually prefer it? Final month, I challenged my tea palate and attended a tasting of black tea. Black tea is my least favourite tea. I’d a lot somewhat have an oolong, inexperienced, white, and even pu’er tea. I had problem describing the tea within the tasting notes on the tasting, so I simply began drawing smiley faces to match how a lot I preferred the tea. Later, I adopted the identical process for inexperienced tea (see beneath).

Tea Tasting Notes
On the finish of the tasting, I seemed over my Smiley Faces and knew I preferred the Dragonwell and Sencha. I used to be impartial on the Jasmine and didn’t just like the Genmaicha. The Matcha began out good after which pale into dislike. This is so simple as it will get and as a buyer of tea, it was useful to me in making a purchase order.
At a Clover Espresso tasting, I used to be given a kind with completely different standards to guage: sweetness, taste, physique, and end. Utilizing the Smiley Face technique, that is what my tasting notes seemed like. From every of the 2 teams, I used to be in a position to choose my favourite espresso setting.

Clover Espresso Tasting Notes
Most not too long ago, I did a pu’er tea tasting. Pu’er teas are likely to develop richer flavors over a number of steeps. The teas I tasted had been higher on the third steep than the first. To speak this utilizing Smiley Faces, I modified my scoring system barely.

Puer Tea Tasting
Be at liberty to make use of and prolong the Smiley Face scoring system the following time you attend a espresso or tea tasting. My guess is that this might additionally work for different drinks and meals.
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