The Absolute Best Snacks To Eat At A Bourbon Tasting

While bourbon might seem like a fairly specific category, made from at least 51% corn, there are several different kinds to get to know, and even more brands within each of those subcategories. One of the best ways to explore is a bourbon tasting — this can be a fun, conversation-starting activity with friends, or it can be an educational tool you take seriously as an early step on a bourbon-expertise journey. Either way, there are tips to remember for hosting a successful bourbon tasting. One of the most important ones is to serve the right snacks. To find out what those might be, we asked an expert, Chris Blatner, Executive Bourbon Steward and creator of @urbanbourbonist on Instagram.

"If it is a tasting for fun, then salty snacks like pretzels, roasted nuts, and dark chocolate are great for a bourbon tasting," Blatner says. "Their flavors complement the natural sweetness, spice, and smokiness of the bourbon. If you are doing a tasting to educate and really explore the flavors of bourbon, then unsalted versions of pretzels, nuts, and plain crackers are best. They will help to cleanse the palate without overwhelming it." Snacks are important when tasting spirits. They slow down your imbibing and how quickly alcohol reaches your small intestine to be absorbed so your body has time to adjust. There are flavor pairings to pick up on, too, and snacks build the tasting out into more of an experience.

Because of the functional reasons for having snacks at a bourbon tasting, like providing participants with something somewhat hearty to balance the booze, you want items that lean healthier rather than something people might absent-mindedly fill up on. Pretzels, nuts, and dark chocolate are carby, protein-packed, and, when it comes to the dark chocolate versus milk chocolate, less full of added sugar. But these specific picks are also important flavor-wise, as Chris Blatner mentions.

Consider some of the most common tasting notes for bourbon. You get woody notes from the barrel and nutty notes from the grain bill; plus vanilla; fruits like figs, peaches, and pears; honey, caramel, and toffee; spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, and black pepper; and some smoke from the barrels being charred. Pretzels are a neutral snack any of these characteristics can play against, matching the sweeter notes while tempering them with a touch of savoriness and salt. The nuts will play up those nutty bourbon qualities, and the slightly sweet, bitter-leaning dark chocolate also provides nice balance and can help bring out things like tropical fruit or coffee. Of course, as Blatner advises, you may want to tone down these snack choices, like by skipping salted options, if you're doing a more serious educational tasting, because you don't want as many different competing notes. Plain nuts and pretzels let things like cinnamon, honey, and smoke take center stage.