Sensory evaluation in practice¶
Now we come to the heart of Tastebuddy: the sensory evaluation of wines and spirits.
Categories of tastings¶
Tastebuddy distinguishes between two different types of sensory evaluation, designed to meet two different broad use cases:
- Punctual or one-off tasting: evaluation of a single product by a single taster on the move;
- Tasting session: comparative sensory evaluation of two or more products at the same time, which share common characteristics, by one or more assessors, in order to highlight the differences between these products and to establish a ranking between them;
One of the main differences between the two situations is that the former allows the "unprepared" evaluation of samples (i.e. the evaluation of a sample that is unknown and unplanned before the tasting itself), while the latter requires preparation work and usually fulfils a precise objective as to what the comparative evaluation of the samples should highlight.
You can read examples of use on this page.
Punctual tasting¶
To evaluate a sample on the go, from your home page, click Taste a spirit or
Taste a wine at the bottom of the card corresponding to the tasting sheet you
want to use.
Product information¶
You will be taken to the tasting form. At the top of the form, you can enter
information about the product. The name and category will be suggested if any
records are found in the database. Click Additional information to add
more product related fields.
At this stage, only the product name is required. The product information can always be updated later (see Updating Product information). It is strongly recommended to fill in all available information for possible further analysis.
Filling in product information
Although product names and categories are suggested when filling in the information in the appropriate field, there is currently no link between the two, so it is possible to create a new product record in the database by associating the wrong category with the product name.
If two different products have been created and you would like to merge them into one, please contact your administrator to get in touch with us.
Naming convention
When naming products and categories, try to follow your organisation's guidelines to make it easier to find and compare products in the long term.
Product evaluation¶
The second part of the form concerns the evaluation of the product itself. Depending on the tasting grid, different characteristics must be rated according to a pre-defined scale.
For each criterion, choose the score you think the product deserves. Depending on how the tasting grid has been designed, you may also be asked to add comments or tasting notes to justify your scores.
Once you have completed all the criteria, click Submit to save your results. If some criteria are missing, they will be highlighted in red when you submit your results. If all the information is correct, you will be returned to the home page with a confirmation message.
Just About Right
Wines and spirits are usually rated according to a set of selected criteria to which a rating scale is assigned. The rating scale is usually not used as an intensity scale, but as a "just about right" scale. The maximum score therefore corresponds to the exact expected expression of the criterion in question.
For example, you might rate the sweetness of a particular product. In this case, a scale of 1 to 10 should not be understood as
from not sweet at all to excessively sweet
but as
from too sweet or not sweet enough to perfectly sweet
Remember to update the product information as soon as it becomes available if you were unable to do so at the time of tasting.
You can visualise the result of the sensory evaluation by accessing the corresponding dashboard on https://tastebuddy.io/dashboards/, accessible from the left side bar or from the top right menu .
Tasting sessions¶
Entering a tasting session¶
Each tasting session you are assigned to will appear on your home page in
the NEXT TASTING SESSIONS section. Once open, click on Access to join the
tasting.
Note that you will not be able to access the tasting session before the scheduled date. It will also expire after a delay set when the session was created, and you won't be able to access it unless an administrator reopens it.
Evaluating samples and submitting results¶
In this case, no product information is required as this information has been specified by the administrator when the session was first created.
Depending on whether the session has been made anonymous, the names of the samples may or may not be displayed.
Be careful with the order of the samples you rate, as each form on this page relates to a specific sample!
At the top of the page you can switch between samples by clicking on the appropriate tab, which will show the name of the sample or its order. As in the case of punctual tasting, fill in the scores per criterion for each individual sample and justify your scores in the text box if necessary.
At the bottom of each page, click Validate Sample to check that all the
required information has been completed for that particular sample. You can
always return to a sample after you have validated it.
About Sample Validation and Submission
The Sample Validation is simply a check to ensure that all the required information has been filled in on the relevant form. It provides a visual validation by highlighting in red any field that has not been filled in, and also your progress through the tasting session by displaying your progress on the Session progress administrator page.
However, it does not submit any results to the database. Clicking on Submit all results will save your results and return you to the home page. However, if you are missing information in any field, you will not leave the page, the missing field will also be highlighted in red, but you will not automatically be taken to the Missing Information tab.
Don't leave the page manually as your results will not be saved! If everything is correct, you will be automatically redirected after clicking on Submit all results
-
The Validate sample only confirms all fields are correct -
The Submit all results button save the results and redirect to the home page
You can view the results of the tasting session by accessing the corresponding dashboard on https://tastebuddy.io/dashboards/, accessible from the left side bar or from the top right menu . Note that the dashboard will only be available once all the assigned tasters have submitted their results or after the delay set by the administrator has elapsed. The following section explains how to read the dashboards and what conclusions to draw from them.