Tasting Spoon

Lloyd

For many years I've used a stainless steel tasting spoon. A few ml of distillate and 2 to 4 times more water depending on the strength of the distillate to gauge the collection from heads to hearts.

No more I tell ya. I'm now using a glazed ceramic spoon because it gives me a more pure flavor. The metallic taste of the SS spoon is now in my history. Stainless is supposed to be tasteless and orderless but I can taste the stainless when I touch it to my tongue. Glass or glazed ceramic for me from now on.

The distillate has a "hot" taste, almost bitter, with stainless compared to ceramic and I now believe that a ceramic Tasting Spoon is superior to a SS tasting spoon.

punkin

Nice 'ahhh' moment mate. I love it when that happens.

grim

Do I sense a new product here? Sommelier tasting cup?

acfixer69

Guess the gravy ladle my not make it back from the Thanksgiving diner Thursday

Smaug

@acfixer69 said: Guess the gravy ladle my not make it back from the Thanksgiving diner Thursday

:))

vooharmy

I too use a ceramic tasting soon, purely coincidence though. My wife had it with one of the children's baby bowls and the bowl broke so it became mine!

Lloyd

I got a PM from a member concerned that a SS column would impart unfavorable flavors because of this post but please let me assure you all that I do not lick my stainless steel still while tasting my hooch.
Just saying that when sampling my booze I now find that tasting is best done with a non-metallic spoon... and more often than not with a ceramic coffee cup (maybe too much to imbibe?) which led to this conclusion.

I encourage everyone to taste the distillate with both metal and non-metal and report the difference. I know it is a small thing but making cuts is highly critical and every edge or advantage can help.

Its a simple change for me even after so long of using a metal tasting spoon.
Hope it helps.

grim

I remember reading about this phenomenon on some food science blogs, the gist of the discussion was:

It's not that the metal is imparting taste to the food (or much of it anyway), but that your mouth and tongue are sensitive to the taste of metals. There is a scientist that is doing research into whether or not we actually have receptors on our tongue for "metallic" tastes, which is interesting, because most metals have very distinct tastes to me. Others speculate it is a kind of galvanic corrosion driven by different metallic ions and the steel in saliva. Some dismissed the use of stainless steel flatware in high end restaurants for exactly this reason. Again, not because it imparts a flavor, but because we're sensitive to the "flavor" of the metal used to deliver. Some said that silver tasted better than copper, and others yet said that gold plate flatware tasted the best (riiiiiight). Still others said that plastics were the best, however, there have been studies that indicated that diners were more apt to rate the food as higher quality if the flatware was heavier and of better quality.

Either way, the phenomenon is clearly more linked to the delivery mechanism and not what's being delivered. Even if you don't think the fork or spoon taste like anything, surely you've bit your tongue or cut your lip and noticed the distinctly metallic taste of blood (iron). Besides, copper tastes absolutely foul.

Plenty of coffee and tea geeks seem to think that drinking from ceramic provides the overall better experience, especially compared to a stainless mug, where the mug is clearly in good contact with your lips and tongue.

Lloyd

Thanks @grim. You get it.

Just saying a non-metallic tasting spoon for making cuts is better than a metallic one.
You try it and you will see.

...but never had a gold spoon to play with....

Myles

My grandmother always insisted on eating her boiled egg with a carved horn spoon. Or was it bone? Anyway the reason was the same. Metal spoon didn't taste nice.

Lloyd

Picked up a few of these graduated eye droppers.
Now I can be a bit more scientific when tasting samples.
0.5ml of about 92% plus 1ml of water should give about 30% ABV which is about right for tasting.

brewsmith

Yep, use a little 3mL syringe to make accurate small dilutions for tasting and making cuts

Lloyd

The only syringes I could find were plastic, OK for water but not so good for very high proof ethanol. The eye droppers are easy to find if ungraduated so when I stumbled onto these couldn't help but snatch up a few.

Lloyd

The only syringes I could find were plastic, OK for water but not so good for very high proof ethanol. The eye droppers are easy to find if ungraduated so when I stumbled onto these couldn't help but snatch up a few.

CothermanDistilling

double posting 13 minutes apart... must be an american over-celebrating Thanksgiving in China!.....

Lloyd

Nah, internet came to a crawl and pages wouldn't refresh. Happens sometimes when switching on or off the VPN while Tan's streaming videos in the other room and I haven't restarted this bucket of bolts laptop for a week. And Flash is trying to download an update in the background, and etc...
Might also help to close about 20 browser tabs?

CothermanDistilling

sure.... you were just testing your tasting spoon!

Philter

@Lloyd said: The only syringes I could find were plastic, OK for water but not so good for very high proof ethanol. The eye droppers are easy to find if ungraduated so when I stumbled onto these couldn't help but snatch up a few.

These are good from ebay 5ml syringe

or for the more adventurous 200ml :)

Manofconstantsorrow

@Philter Looking at the last one you posted gives me shivers "200ml Glass Enemator Rectal Syringe Irrigation Syringe" as mines an exit not an entrance! =))