Today I was going to focus on Square Root Soda and after a review of a selection of them I would segue into more thoughts about non-alcoholic drinks. But, a day or so ago, I saw a tweet about wine tasting that mentioned how they felt it was hard to do blind wine tastings without “moral support”, and this got me thinking about how tasting is often viewed. This is most notable with wine, but equally is found with all sorts of tasting, but for this I will focus just on drinks. (I definitely didn’t decide that a detailed review of Square Root, and sensible thoughts based on that, would take too long tonight…)
It seemed rather odd to me that tasting something nice could ever by stressful, especially a drink that has such a long cultural history of revelry and fun. What was even odder to me was the moral aspect. How could the tastes you picked up from a drink have any link to needing moral support as if it were some sort of harrowing experience.
Tasting a drink is surely a subjective thing, and the element of skill comes into play in understanding your sense and giving them a chance to pick up on things rather than quaffing without thought. But, the more I thought about it, the more I came to realise that for many people drink tasting can be a stressful thing.
I always had at the back of my mind the understanding that for some people their ability to taste something, breakdown the tastes into quantifiable descriptors and ensure these were consistent and able to be understood by others, was a vital skill. For instance, a sommelier has to describe a wine in a way that can be understood and not just say that they enjoyed it. My main thoughts were instead focused on the general public’s idea that tasting is somehow a hard thing and you might get it wrong.
Linking to the idea that taste can be wrong is the desire of so many now to quantify things. No more are people happy to just experience things and learn what they do and don’t like, instead they want to certify that they are tasting in the ‘right’ way. I then coincidentally saw this brilliant article that covers the way in which almost every drink or food stuff now has some sort of qualification that supposes that there is a correct way to taste it.
Now you might be thinking this is all rather hypocritical for someone who writes about drinks to say. I try to make sure my tasting notes are consistent and based around senses and comparisons others can understand from their own experience, and am currently doing a course that focuses on a systematic method of tasting (WSET Spirits II). So, yes, perhaps my consternation is a little contradictory.
But then again this is not a simple drinks newsletter (mainly because I am too distractable and do not have the technical knowledge for that), but that is not really why I resist the idea of there being a correct way to taste, and find the idea that it is stressful for most people to be very odd. For unless you are being paid for reliably tasting drinks in the same way as others, there is no need, and focusing just on the flavour of a drink often diminishes the pleasure of it. There are many drinks that I have had and remember getting great pleasure from, yet I could not describe their flavour in any detail. Instead, I could give you a sense of how I felt as I drank them, and how they added to the occasion.
I also cannot remember ever being recommended a drink by a friend and paying much attention to the ‘tasting notes’ they describe. Instead, I, like many others, rely on the recommender’s enthusiasm and by knowing what they tend to drink. Drinking is meant to be enjoyable and not taken too seriously. After all the Roman god Bacchus/Liber which gives this newsletter its name, is not given any epithets based on the taste of wine. For the important thing was the freedom that a good drink can give. It needs not be intoxication, instead just a moment of pleasure, ideally shared, that is a glimpse into a world without responsibilities or worries.
So, let the liberator be present and pour yourself a drink, enjoy how it tastes to you and ignore all other distractions.
Normal service with mention of actual drinks will resume tomorrow.
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