Diving right into many types of liquids may be perfectly fine for some people, others may require some up front work to train their taste buds to differentiate flavors. It’s often difficult to take radically different tastes and manage to compare them effectively.

One way to train your taste buds and gain an appreciation for different flavors is to start with a single item that has many varieties.

Even though the focus in this book is on liquids, a solid can be a great training aid and, when dealing with flavored alcohols, it will pay to know the flavors of fruits and other solids.

I used to live in an area that produces a lot of apples, I will use apples as our initial training aid. Buy one each of as many varieties of apples as you can find. If you have a farmer’s market in your area, utilize this source for the freshest apples. If you live in the heart of an urban center, find what you can in your local grocery store. Our goal is to obtain some variety to use as a reference, not an exhaustive supply to learn the wonderful world of apples.

With a notepad in hand, taste slices from each apple variety in succession, making sure to note which is which, and maybe jotting down some thoughts about the flavors that strike you as you go. Treat the apples like the liquids you’ll be categorizing.

Categorize the scent of the cut fruit. Think about how the texture of each feels in your mouth. Focus on how sweet one type of the fruit is in relation with another. If you can start to recognize these types of elements, it will be more of a cinch the next time you face down an unfamiliar liquid taste.

You can follow a similar training regimen with liquids. Do you like coffee or tea? If so, utilize one of these. Gather different coffee or tea flavors and brands. Try different strengths and follow the same methods outlined for apples.

Now here’s where you need to get brave. Organize a comparative tasting of some of the staples in your kitchen.

Don’t shy away from anything. Even if you think it seems odd to try something outside its normal context; you need to expand your taste knowledge and this is a tried and true method.

Here’s some things I want you to consider trying:

• Oil. (Olive, vegetable etc.)
• Balsamic vinegar.
• Various marinades.
• Worcestershire sauce.
• Lemon juice.
• Soy sauce.
• Mayonnaise and other sandwich condiments.
• Raid your spice cabinet and taste each spice.
• Pancake syrup.
• Chocolate syrup (or any sort of desert topping)

This list might seem odd and not all of it is even liquid but your kitchen is a cornucopia of flavors that should be examined to train your senses to appreciate all the subtle flavors that exist. You might not want to mix a drink with soy sauce but the flavor may come to mind when tasting a new mixer you discover. Your knowledge of the cooking ingredient will allow you to research what types of things soy sauce enhances and use that to translate into choices for your beverage.

You may be surprised at the variation in quality. Everything you taste adds to your knowledge; don’t assume that just because you may never use the item in a drink that its taste is useless to understand. My training rule is: if it’s something you can safely consume—taste and catalog it.

Taste systematically. Start with wide themes to get the big picture, and then narrow your tasting down to try to grasp the finer points. For example try various fruit juices to get a feel for what fruit juices in general are like. Then after gathering a broad spectrum of data, focus on different types of a single juice to learn the nuances of that specific item.

Here’s an example of a couple things that you probably taste every day from my own tasting journal. This should give you an idea of how to proceed with your own tasting and notation.

Diet Cola

• Look: Dark caramel brown. Light penetrates well but a volume appears nearly opaque. Effervescent. Thin, does not coat the glass.
• Smell: Light, slightly citrus smell with chemical bite.
• Taste: Does not coat the tongue. Bubbles provide tingling sensation. Slightly bitter sub taste. A hint of citrus and caramel.
• Aftertaste: Actually leaves a residue on the back of the tongue. This seems to inspire a desire for more liquid. Probably some of the chemicals used as preservatives.

Whole Milk

• Look: Opaque white, will color well, creamy; frothy when agitated.
• Smell: Oddly, it has a slight sour scent
• Taste: Relatively thin, creamy, slightly chalk-like, and mildly sweet with a hint of sour.
• Aftertaste: Short lived sweet followed by dull faint sour sensation.

That’s all for today. Until next time, may all your drinks be tasty. Cheers.