So! You’re enjoying baijiu and you want to record your thoughts about it. Or you’re hosting a get-together with friends and want to introduce them to baijiu, and you want to help them really pay attention to the unique and surprising flavors they’ll experience. Or you’re just detail-oriented!  Well, here is the current working version of the Baijiu Review Scorecard:

The scorecard is a 3-up PDF; you can print this out at letter size, and then record notes about what you’re tasting.

The scorecard is simple: at the top you note your name and the product you’re tasting. Sometimes westerners will have trouble distinguishing the brand/distillery from the actual product name itself – that’s OK! Just write down whatever  info you can get from the bottle or bartender. There’s a simple Aroma Category checkbox, in case that’s helpful.

The tasting notes are broken down into three categories: Nose, Palate, and Finish.  Professionals can give you better ways to think about these, but we generally tell people:

Nose: what flavors do you actually smell before you taste? Baijiu includes a wild variety here. And you can also get a second sense of the aroma when you hold the baijiu in your mouth, and let the smell circulate there, too.

Palate: we often tell people to drink a small amount and let the baijiu sit on your tongue: as the initial shock of the high-proof alcohol fades, you’ll get a lot of different flavor notes. Give it some time.

Finish: what experience is left as an aftertaste? Some baijius are one-note wonders, others have post-credit scenes.

How you use it is up to you, but we hope you’ll come back to baijiureview.com and enter your ratings and reviews here too!