After you finish tasting, it is important to ‘cleanse the palate’, remove any lingering flavors before proceeding with other tasting. Failure to do so may result in inaccurate sensations or a combination of flavors that will fool you into believing the wrong thing about what was tasted. The most common way to cleanse the palate is to drink a small amount of water or eat a few unflavored crackers.

Different theories exist regarding the need to cleanse the palate. Some say it should only be done when the palate is fatigued to revive your sense of taste, others say to do it after every item. I fall into the second category. A mouthful of room temperature water helps to remove prior flavors and avoid confusion. It also refreshes your mouth surfaces from overly sweet or astringent items providing a fresh canvas upon which to perform further tasting. Most especially after tasting a heavy bodied or syrupy liquid it is very important to clear the mouth of lingering fluids.

One trick I use between tasting that works for me but may not be for everyone is to pull my tongue across the edges of the top teeth. This scrapes residue from the tongue, stimulates the nerves to wake them up and generally helps me ignore the prior flavors. I then rinse my mouth with room temperature water to complete the cleansing. As I said, this isn’t for everyone as some may find it disagreeable or even painful to scrape the tongue on the teeth but it is one more idea for your tasting arsenal. Try it; if you don’t like it, don’t do it again, just stick with water and crackers.

Until next time, may all your drinks be tasty. Cheers.