Tasting sheet
CiderHQ · fill in what you observe, not what you conclude
Conditions
First, not last. Two notes on the same cider that disagree are usually two different serving temperatures.
What it is — optional, and better filled in afterwards
Date
Temperature — °C
Glass
How it was poured — off the sediment, through it, from height
Appearance
Observations, not conclusions. A haze has at least five causes that look identical.
Colour
Clarity
Bead or mousse — size, and whether it holds
Aroma — through the nose
Short sniffs rather than one long one. Place it in a family before reaching for a word.
Overall intensity
Families: Fresh apple · Ripe apple · Cooked and baked apple · Pear · Citrus · Stone fruit · Tropical fruit · Berry · Floral · Honeyed · Spice · Herbal and vegetal · Earthy · Woody · Phenolic · Fermentation-derived · Dairy and lactic · Oxidative · Sulphur · Volatile and fault-related
What you can smell — with an intensity against each
Flavour — while drinking
Sip, hold briefly, breathe out through the nose. A separate measurement from the aroma, not a repeat of it: a cider can smell one way and taste of something the nose never reported.
What you can taste — and whether it matches the aroma
Structure
Ring a box on each line. Leave a line blank rather than guessing — an unrecorded reading is more honest than an invented one.
Sweetness
Acidity
Bitterness
Tannin
Astringency
Body
Carbonation
Alcohol
Finish
Keep attending for ten or fifteen seconds after swallowing. Mousiness appears here and nowhere else, so an empty finish line is where a fault hides.
Length — gone at once, short, medium, long
Persistence — holds, fades to one note, changes
What persists
Kept apart
Also observed — what you noticed — not whether you liked it
Suspected, not observed — a hypothesis, and what would confirm it
An observation stays true; a hypothesis may be wrong. A note that fuses the two cannot be re-read against anything you learn later.