Tasting and collecting

Writing tasting notes that mean something a year later

2 minute read · The Blending School

Most tasting notes are written for the moment and useless a month later. A few small habits turn them into data you can actually compare, chart, and learn from.

The notes that fail

"Great, really smooth, 9/10." A year later this tells you nothing: not what it tasted like, not how it compared, not what state it was in. Notes fail when they record a verdict without the evidence, or when they are written in a vocabulary you will not use consistently.

Record the context, always

• Date.
• Proof at the time. Obvious for a bottle, essential for a blend that changes. A note about your infinity bottle at 112 proof describes a different drink than the same bottle six months later at 104.
• Days since the last change, for a blend, because rest changes everything.
• What it was tasted next to. A note written beside a barrel-proof monster reads differently from one written alone.

Write differences, not descriptions

"Rounder than last month. The rye is showing more. Hot, wants water." Deltas from a previous tasting or from a reference are far more durable than free-standing adjectives, and they are how blenders actually think. If you must describe, use categories (sweet, spicy, oaky, fruity) more than specific descriptors; you will be consistent about "spicy" and inconsistent about "cardamom."

Score crudely and every time

A 1 to 5 you use on every single tasting beats a 100-point scale you use three times. The value of a score is entirely in its consistency, because scores only mean something when compared. Over a year of scoring your own blend, plotted against proof and composition, patterns appear that no single note could show: the proof band where you rate it best, the whiskey whose arrival dropped your scores.

Let the tool stamp what it can

Date, proof, and composition at the moment of the note are exactly what software should record for you, so the human part stays short and pleasant. Thief & Blend stamps every tasting note with the bottle's proof at that instant and charts your ratings against it. The note you write can be one line; the context comes free.