Reviewing: My Descriptors = Your Adjectives

[Capn Jimbo]

New rum drinkers are wise to not pay too much attention to the tasting notes of others. The professionals are so dense that you wonder how they possibly found all that in your humble dram of rum. Confusing and intimidating. Sue Sea and I have gotten pretty darn good - to the point that sometimes we wonder just where did that taster get all that?

Just not there. Honest.

But at a point you will get much better. Just takes time. Descriptors we use to agonize over now pop up much faster and more easily. And more reliably. On a couple of occasions we've retasted a rum and were more than relieved to discover our experience - and descriptors - were pretty darn consistent.

Be reassured.

A great example is Dave Broom and his review of Wray & Nephew White Overproof. Broom's reviews have always seemed remote and inaccessible to us. Not like RnD or El Machete (see links over the main website, link under my sig).

In this case he reported banana, molasses and grassy in his tasting. With consideration we actually found this reassuring as we were picking up the same components but using different but similar descriptors:

Broom's "banana" is Sue Sea's "licorice and anise", which in effect, is pretty close to ripe banana. Seriously. His "molasses" is likewise similar to my "leathery sourness" (we have a molasses tester). And last his "grassy" is Sue Sea's "celery/reedy". Good.

The point: don't sell yourself short if your descriptors, I mean adjectives, may differ - as long as they are similar and consistent...