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Tasting diluted cocktail ingredients

A four-step routine for learning cocktail ingredients by diluting 14ml in 1L of water, sipping, and taking notes. Applies to bases, bitters, liquors, juices, and syrups; hot-spicy tinctures need a different ratio.

  1. Mix 14ml of an ingredient with 1L of water
  2. Sip it and consider the ingredient’s qualities
  3. Take notes
  4. Repeat

I use this method with bases, bitters, liquors, juices, and syrups. Diluting each with water and tasting them over time helps understand each ingredient. I experimented with various ratios—7ml of this and 45ml of that—before settling on 14ml per liter, except for hot-spicy ingredients like Scrappy’s Fire Tincture.