Tongue in Cheek Experience!

When tasting whisky, take a large enough sip to fill your mouth, then roll it over your tongue - even 'chew' it. First you want to register the 'texture' of the whisky. It may be smooth and silky and viscous, spirity or astringent and dry. Then you want to identify the primary tastes - the immediate flavours your tongue collects - sweet, salty, sour, bitter or umami. Most whiskies will present a mixture of one or more of these flavours, sometimes beautifully balanced, sometimes less so. What other flavours can you detect? Are they consistent with the whisky's aroma, or have new elements appeared? As with wine, you can sometimes encounter whiskies which have a wonderful nose, but a rather insipid palate - or vice versa. Note your impressions. Over the course of tasting, you might also notice that the flavours change for better or worse - and sometimes quite dramatically. A truly great whisky, like a great wine can seem to be endlessly complex. Aromas and flavours dazzle the senses defying simplistic descriptions. Once swallowed or spat out, the length of aftertaste is another defining characteristic of a great whisky. Is there any after-taste at all, is it pleasant or unpleasant? Does the flavour linger in your mouth like a northern sunset, or does it fade rapidly like a shooting star? Are there any echoes of former tastes or aromas? If you are being really analytic you could measure the intensity of these sensations on a numerical scale