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Deliciously different... The last few years have seen a growing interest in the US about all things food. People not only want their food to taste good, they want to to know where it comes from, who made, it and what makes it special.
That's where Tammy's Tastings comes in. I'd love to host a customized tasting for you at your party or other event. You're probably familiar with wine tastings, but I take that concept and apply it to the whole universe of food and beverages. Chocolate. Cheese. Bread. Wine. You pick the item or area of the world that you'd like to focus on, and I'll do the rest - buy and prepare the food, research its origins, and lead your guests through a fun and interactive tasting.
Sure, we've all heard of wine tastings. But why stop there? Tasting is a frame of mind. It's opening yourself up to the possibilities - trying something new, trying something again, maybe even trying something you don't think you like. Tastings I've attended or hosted have included: - bacon
- maple syrup
- cheese
- wine
- chocolate
- olive oil and vinegar
- tropical fruit
And that's just to name a few. Tasting is not just eating. It's more interesting. It's thinking about the food you're putting in your mouth - how it got from the producer to your plate, what makes it taste different/ better/ more interesting than the next thing. Understanding why you like product A, but not product B. It makes you a smarter consumer. There's a saying in wine tasting circles that the person who likes the $5 wine is the winner - if you don't have to spend more to get something that will make you happy, then why should you? And most of all, tasting is fun. You probably can't take 10 of your best friends on a tour of the Mediterranean with you - but you can all taste your way through a dozen different olives from the region and be temporarily transported. Or maybe you want to travel the world in single varietal chocolates. Or eat your way through America with bacon from eight different states. The possibilities are infinite! Contact me to learn more and set up your own tasting event. 
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Contact me to book a tasting event! Tastings are: - Suitable for groups large and small
- Available for nearly every budget and timeframe
- Fully customized to your and your guest's interests
- Great for wedding showers, baby showers, and other gatherings of friends and family!
- A unique appreciation event for clients or employees
An example: - For a group of 8-12 people, a typical tasting would feature a minimum of four tastes, up to as many as a dozen.
- Depending on the style of the tasting and what's being tasted, guests might taste "blind" (without knowing the details of what they are tasting), open, or some combination.
- They'll take notes using "See-smell-savor-score" forms, and share their perceptions with the other guests as they go along.
- I'll ask questions and provide interesting tidbits of information to keep the conversation moving and people engaged.
- In a blind tasting, a big "reveal" caps off the event, as guests learn who liked the English Farmhouse Cheddar best, and who is happiest wth plain old Kraft.
- Guests leave with their own tasting sheet, as well as brief written descriptions and sources for everything they tasted at the event.
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| The Importance of Tasting I named this blog Tammy's Tastings for a couple of reasons. One, I like alliteration. And two, and perhaps more importantly, because I think that consciously tasting is the best way to learn about food. I've run and attended tastings of a huge variety of foods - olive oil, vinegar, bacon, maple syrup, to name but a few. When my husband bought me a four pack of single origin chocolate bars for Valentines Day, the first thing I did was invite friends over for a side by side compare and contrast. Blind tasting in particular is important. Every month I learn something new from the blind tastings we use in my wine club. Whenever we eat or drink something, we bring to it a lifetime's worth of experience and emotion and knowledge. I "know" that I like French wines better than domestic. So hand me a glass of California Chardonnay and a glass of White Burgundy, and I'm going to look for things I like in the Burgundy, and things I don't like in the California Chard. It's human nature. Hiding all the identifying features of a wine, or a food, or whatever it is, really lets you taste it on its own terms. I was inspired to write this post by a recent experience with apples. I grew up eating Macintosh apples. That's what my family bought, and I barely knew that other kinds of apples existed! (Okay, I knew about Red Delicious, but even then I recognized that they were a triumph of appearance over flavor.) When I grew older and more worldly, I started eating other kinds of apples. Jonagolds, Empire, Pink Lady, Granny Smith. I found a couple that I particularly liked - Golden Delicious and Honeycrisp - but for the most part I wasn't an apple fan. I never bought Macintosh. Those were the "average" apples. The "regular" apples. I was a gourmet. I was too sophisticated for the simple Mac. A couple weeks ago, someone put some apples out for dessert. The package just said "apples." I took one, and it was the best apple I'd tasted in years. And - as I'm sure you've guessed - it turned out to be a Mac. Tasting is important. Taste of the Tropics  | I came back from Florida with a suitcase full of fruit. Not oranges and grapefruits, as might be expected this time of year. My selections were a little more unusual. Spiraling clockwise to the center from bottom left: kumquats, black sapote, papaya, guava, dragonfruit, passionfruit, atemoya and carambola. I'd tried some of these before, but others were completely new. I'd always rather share a new discovery than keep it to myself, so I invited a bunch of friends over for a Taste of the Tropics. |
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