Tasting Club’s ~ A Fun New Form of Entertaining

Tasting Club’s ~ A Fun New Form of Entertaining ~

An Educational Approach

• Create a group of family & friends who are or want to be “locavores” or “foodies”
• 6 or twelve couples or individuals make sense from a calendaring standpoint.
• Rotate the events to different venues – meet monthly or 6 times yearly, meet on the same day if possible.
• Food items to consider include: artisan cheeses, charcuterie, honey, olive oil, vinegars (balsamic), apples, squash, peaches, melons, heirloom tomatoes, sea salt, chocolate, wild mushrooms, tea and winter greens as starting point
• Beverage tasting might include beers, wines, hard ciders, vodkas, sake, whiskey, scotch, teas, etc…
• Try pairing beer styles with foods as a fun alternative. Learn about ethnic foods.
• Consider time of day based on what is being tasted (i.e. honey & tea tasting may be held earlier in the day, Beer & wine tasting events should be after work or on weekends). Choose a relaxed time of day to taste!
• Have pens and tasting grids for everyone to take notes. Blank grids work well for “pot luck” format. Encourage note taking, logs and taking the information home to “catalogue” your new found resources. Small binders work great.
• Have other foods available the pair well with what’s being tasted (tea sandwiches, Scones, fruit, light appetizers, cookies as examples).
• Theme the event with the tasting format (i.e. Chocolate tasting for a bridal shower, Beer tasting for Super bowl or tailgate events, Christmas Buffet with cured meats tasting, apple tasting for Rosh Hashanah, Tea tasting for book club or spa day).
• Learn about your palate and senses…Study the tongue as how we taste as a precursor. It is suggested we taste 4 basics: bitter, sweet, salty & sour. There are scientific suggestions there may be a 5th region called umami (savory) that identifies msg, wild mushrooms and seaweed characteristics. The nasal passages, although overlooked many times in tasting can identify thousands of smells! Practice “deep tasting” where we allow foods to touch all regions of the mouth, which play into our tasting opportunities.
• Plan your costs and format – host provided and al pay a fee or a potluck format where each guest will bring an item. Either way, each guest has out of pocket expense and host coordination is crucial to you success. (Overlapping items comes to mind first here). A per head or couple fee is recommended to spread the burden of cost equally.
• Enjoy a new wonderful way to experience family, friends and the abundance of great foods available to us every day!

Check out Tasting Club by Dina Cheney for more ideas