Two people smell the same glass. One says “orange”; the other says “citrus peel.” They may be noticing much the same thing. If one says “sweet” and means vanilla aroma while the other means sweetness on the tongue, the disagreement runs deeper. Calibration begins by finding out which kind of disagreement you have.
Give A Word Something To Point To
A working vocabulary connects a term to a shared experience. Put a little orange peel in a clean, covered jar and compare it with a second jar containing dried orange peel. Smell gently; do not taste reference materials unless they are ordinary safe foods suitable for you. Describe the distinction before looking at a wheel. A reference is a meeting place for language, not a requirement that everyone have the same memories.
For a small group, agree on a handful of useful terms. Write a short definition, a reference and how it was prepared, plus an easily confused neighbor. For “drying,” the neighbor might be “bitter”: one describes mouthfeel, the other a basic taste. Keep synonyms such as “zest” and “peel” until the group has a reason to distinguish them.
Manska discusses reference training and keeping the sensory channels distinct in Distilled Spirits Sensory Science, chapter 36, “Training Protocols for Sensory Evaluators,” displayed ebook p. 259 — literature note. Our food-reference exercise is an Academy teaching adaptation, not the book's chemical-reference protocol.
Unpack Your Own Comparison
An unusual association can be worth keeping. Drew Hannush describes initially thinking of minty toothpaste, then separating that impression into mint and a spicy bite. The second description gives another person more to discuss without erasing the first.
Try this with a note you have already written. Keep your original phrase, then add a second line explaining which parts are aroma, taste, texture or another sensation. If you wrote “cinnamon,” say whether you meant baking spice or cinnamon candy. Leave uncertain parts uncertain. The aim is to make your reference clearer, not to find a required answer. Hannush, Kentucky guide (2020), printed pp. 62–63 / PDF 64–65 — literature note
Keep The Description And The Explanation Apart
“Seaweed-like” tells someone what an aroma reminds you of. “It tastes that way because it matured beside the sea” adds an explanation that needs different evidence. A flavor chart can prompt useful words without proving how a particular whiskey acquired them.
Take one phrase from an existing note and write two lines: what I perceived and what I think may explain it. Then name the record or comparison you would need to investigate the explanation. You can keep the description even when the cause remains unresolved. The 2017 Whiskey guide's tasting chart makes a useful case for practicing this distinction.
Jackson et al., 2017 revision, printed p. 45 / PDF 47 — chart analysis
Agree On The Ruler As Well As The Word
“Strong vanilla” becomes more informative when the group knows the scale. For focused Academy practice use 0 not noticed, 1 weak, 2 moderate, 3 strong, 4 very strong, with agreed attribute definitions and reference preparations. “Not assessed” stays outside the scale. These are provisional teaching categories: 4 is not twice the sensation of 2, and they are not concentration measurements.
Record which impression leads on a separate line. Dominance is relative attention, not another intensity level: even a faint note can lead a quiet sample. Keep recognition confidence separate too. Meilgaard, Civille and Carr, Sensory Evaluation Techniques, 5th ed., chapters 5–6, scaling and method selection, and chapters 11–12, pp. 201–306
Record independently before discussion. Then ask whether you disagreed about the descriptor, the intensity, or the scale. A group conversation can improve the next assessment without replacing the individual records from this one. Recheck a food reference when it changes with age, storage, brand, or preparation.
Try the same care with a published tasting note. Choose one phrase that means little to you. Can you connect it to a familiar reference, or does the connection remain uncertain? Write a plain-language version and say what detail it loses. A precise word is useful only when it gives the reader something to recognize. Your revision need not reproduce the critic's experience. Dove, “What Do Tasting Notes Tell Us?”, pp. 224–228 — literature note
Meet The Same Sample Twice
Have a helper pour the same product under two unrelated codes among a short set of samples. Compare your records after the reveal. Did the same broad aroma families recur? Did the intensity stay close? Was one sample served later, warmer, or after a more forceful whiskey?
A useful training record distinguishes repeatability—your consistency under the same conditions—from agreement, the similarity between assessors. A panel can agree because everyone followed the loudest voice; independence matters. A person can also repeat a mistaken explanation. Ask separately whether the description distinguishes the products being studied. These are distinct performance questions in ISO 11132:2021, official abstract, panel performance and scope.
Keep A Living Reference Card
For each shared term record its definition, sensory channel, example reference, brand or ingredient, preparation and amount, container, temperature, storage age, version date and confusable neighbor. Ordinary food references illustrate a resemblance; their intensity in a jar does not automatically calibrate that attribute in whiskey.
For scored comparisons, agree on a small common attribute list in advance, keep an open field for additional observations, and preserve each person’s original wording. Review the references between sessions rather than teaching the sample key during an assessment.
Practice A Small Vocabulary Well
Pick three familiar food aromas and define each in your own words. Compare notes with a partner, resolve ambiguous terms, and revisit the jars under concealed codes. Then use the same words in a whiskey record. You can complete the entire exercise with food aromas only; avoid essential oils, solvents, or improvised chemical standards.
Finish with one change to your vocabulary and one observation you want to repeat. Confidence can be tentative, moderate or high, with a reason: “orange peel returned in both coded samples” is more informative than an unexplained percentage.
Keep exploring: Method and printable record · Course overview · Previous lesson · Next lesson: Quality, Preference and Purpose
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