I started to reply to a thread/post, and it turned into this so I thought I would share it so everyone can hopefully gain from it.
Some people are better tasters than others. However, anyone can get better with practice. We simply need to start with baby steps. And with some practice and intention. You will find yourself miles further than when you started out.
There are flavor wheels that one can purchase where you can look up flavors and see surrounding/ adjacent flavors to the one you picked out. They have many wine wheels, and at least one honey wheel. A texture wheel and I imagine many others. Part of the problem is people don't have enough descriptive words to start with and then, to top it off they don't take it as far as they can go to more finitely distinguish different fractions of the flavor.
Example:
"What is the first thing you taste or smell?
"Flowers"
"OK, What kind of flowers?"
Ummmm, white flowers."
"Great. Are they sweet? Citrusy, perfumy, earthy, fresh, dead, dead for a long time?"
"Earthy"
"What kind of earth?" Wet or Dry?" Rural, Wild, mountains, desseert, shoreline, tundra
"Wet/ moist mostly."
OK, Great. Wet what?
"Wet/damp soil? Wet damp vegetation? Wet damp animal/barnyardish? " Crisp and clean" "Musty/moldy/sour." Is there the smell of minerals?
So here is just a short example. And we didn't even come close to exhausting that. And never one time did I push for a specific name of any individual element. And yet we were able to explore a good bit without ever identifying a particular thing.
This can go in any direction. With both nose/aroma/bouquet as well as flavor, and as tactile textures. Such as Lush, creamy, heavy, thin, slick, grippy, silky, thin.
So just practice every day. Even at McDonald's. My coke smells like what? Sweet, cherryish, cinnamon, tart/acidic fresh and light. Goes down smooth with a medium body, with a lingering finish that's refreshing and inviting. Ask for me to come back again and again...
Once you get good at this. Start doing spices in your kitchen cabinet. Especially stuff you might want to add in different meads. After you have a good handle on this move on. To herbs and do the same thing. Know the difference between Basil and Tarragon. Or sage and Tyme
Go to the mead room. Learn what SO2 taste like, DAP, Starsan, PBW, Fermaid O, Fermaid-k, wine tannin, yeast ghost cell/hulls, tartaric acid, generic energizers, malic acid. K2CO3, pure O2. Hell. Taste your yeast as well. The bags you put your fruit in if you use them.
Did you know water taste different? I have 4 different mineral waters, or "spring waters" I can buy in my town. I have found one water makes better meads than do the other water sources.
Then move on to oaks. Species, toast levels. Both smells and flavors. Along with the different tactile perceptions, you differentiate.
You should know what every single thing you put in your mead tastes like. Not in your head. But on your tongue and in your nose.
This is very basic I know. And I am in no way an expert. I practice all the time. Every day. Just for fun in passing. During my day to day rituals. But I also sit down and practice when that's the specific thing I am focused on. If you like wine you might be familiar with the tasting notes that get tossed around all the time describing all the things that people taste or smell in the wine. It may seem to you this is nothing more than one wine snob trying to impress the other wine snobs. But none the less. Becoming familiar with the language and the descriptors will certainly help you. When all you have in the tool box is a hammer. Everything looks like a nail.
So that's all for now. Live, learn, have fun. Be gracious to each other. And remember. The only thing we leave behind in this world is what we give away to others
Some people are better tasters than others. However, anyone can get better with practice. We simply need to start with baby steps. And with some practice and intention. You will find yourself miles further than when you started out.
There are flavor wheels that one can purchase where you can look up flavors and see surrounding/ adjacent flavors to the one you picked out. They have many wine wheels, and at least one honey wheel. A texture wheel and I imagine many others. Part of the problem is people don't have enough descriptive words to start with and then, to top it off they don't take it as far as they can go to more finitely distinguish different fractions of the flavor.
Example:
"What is the first thing you taste or smell?
"Flowers"
"OK, What kind of flowers?"
Ummmm, white flowers."
"Great. Are they sweet? Citrusy, perfumy, earthy, fresh, dead, dead for a long time?"
"Earthy"
"What kind of earth?" Wet or Dry?" Rural, Wild, mountains, desseert, shoreline, tundra
"Wet/ moist mostly."
OK, Great. Wet what?
"Wet/damp soil? Wet damp vegetation? Wet damp animal/barnyardish? " Crisp and clean" "Musty/moldy/sour." Is there the smell of minerals?
So here is just a short example. And we didn't even come close to exhausting that. And never one time did I push for a specific name of any individual element. And yet we were able to explore a good bit without ever identifying a particular thing.
This can go in any direction. With both nose/aroma/bouquet as well as flavor, and as tactile textures. Such as Lush, creamy, heavy, thin, slick, grippy, silky, thin.
So just practice every day. Even at McDonald's. My coke smells like what? Sweet, cherryish, cinnamon, tart/acidic fresh and light. Goes down smooth with a medium body, with a lingering finish that's refreshing and inviting. Ask for me to come back again and again...
Once you get good at this. Start doing spices in your kitchen cabinet. Especially stuff you might want to add in different meads. After you have a good handle on this move on. To herbs and do the same thing. Know the difference between Basil and Tarragon. Or sage and Tyme
Go to the mead room. Learn what SO2 taste like, DAP, Starsan, PBW, Fermaid O, Fermaid-k, wine tannin, yeast ghost cell/hulls, tartaric acid, generic energizers, malic acid. K2CO3, pure O2. Hell. Taste your yeast as well. The bags you put your fruit in if you use them.
Did you know water taste different? I have 4 different mineral waters, or "spring waters" I can buy in my town. I have found one water makes better meads than do the other water sources.
Then move on to oaks. Species, toast levels. Both smells and flavors. Along with the different tactile perceptions, you differentiate.
You should know what every single thing you put in your mead tastes like. Not in your head. But on your tongue and in your nose.
This is very basic I know. And I am in no way an expert. I practice all the time. Every day. Just for fun in passing. During my day to day rituals. But I also sit down and practice when that's the specific thing I am focused on. If you like wine you might be familiar with the tasting notes that get tossed around all the time describing all the things that people taste or smell in the wine. It may seem to you this is nothing more than one wine snob trying to impress the other wine snobs. But none the less. Becoming familiar with the language and the descriptors will certainly help you. When all you have in the tool box is a hammer. Everything looks like a nail.
So that's all for now. Live, learn, have fun. Be gracious to each other. And remember. The only thing we leave behind in this world is what we give away to others