Glossary · Sensory
Sensory lexicon
Definition
An agreed, defined and reference-anchored vocabulary for describing a product category. A cider lexicon fixes what terms such as "cooked apple" or "barnyard" mean and what standard demonstrates each.
- Subject
- Sensory
In more detail
Lexicons matter because ordinary tasting language is unstable: the same word means different things to different people, and translated terms drift further. Published cider lexicons developed with trained panels are the basis on which CiderHQ’s descriptor vocabulary is organised.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Sensory
Descriptive analysis
A formal sensory method in which a trained panel rates the intensity of each of an agreed set of attributes, producing a quantitative profile that can be analysed statistically.
Sensory
Trained panel
A group of assessors calibrated against reference standards to use an agreed vocabulary consistently, so that their scores measure the drink rather than their preferences.
Sensory
Tasting note
A written description of a drink’s appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel and finish. Its usefulness depends entirely on whether its vocabulary is shared with the reader.
Sensory
Aroma threshold
The lowest concentration at which a compound can be detected in a given medium, usually defined as the level at which half a panel distinguishes it from a blank.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Washington State University cider research programme
Washington State University Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center · university · passage verified 2026-08-24
The single most useful open cider dataset CiderHQ has found. The programme’s cultivar performance database gives juice chemistry, orchard behaviour, bloom and harvest timing and cider-maker tasting notes for 73 cultivars grown at one maritime site over fifteen years, and — unusually — publishes its classification thresholds alongside its figures, so the classification can be checked rather than taken on trust. It also states outright that its results diverge from the English ones. Read in full on 2026-08-24 and transcribed into `data/trials/wsu-mount-vernon.ts`; four published figures were found to be impossible and are withheld there with their reasons.
BJCP Beer Style Guidelines — cider and perry categories
Beer Judge Certification Program · classification framework · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24, and the edition matters. CiderHQ registered the 2015 cider guidelines; BJCP has since published a 2025 cider edition, and the old URL now redirects into the current guidelines index. A competition style guide is a dated framework rather than a standing definition, and citing the wrong edition of one is the same class of error as citing a superseded specification. CiderHQ treats BJCP as one competition framework among several and never as the universal cider taxonomy.