How to Host a Tasting People Actually Enjoy

Put water within reach, serve substantial food, and set out similar tasting glasses. One glass per person works if you rinse between pours; three per person lets guests return to the earlier samples. Give everyone somewhere to set a phone without balancing it beside a full glass.

For six tasters, six optional half-ounce samples use 3 ounces from each bottle, or 1½ ounces per person across all three. Measure samples rather than filling by eye; any can be left unfinished. Offer a zero-proof drink with the same care; The Long Light is one option.

If you choose a blind lineup, cover the bottles and label the physical samples in their flight order. The app can hide names on a guest’s screen, but it cannot hide a label sitting on the table. Arrange rides before serving alcohol.

Sign in and check Flight Deck Plus before planning invitations. If you need an account, select Sign In, then Create an account. Complete the form, follow the verification link in your email, and sign in. Creating and starting a private group tasting require Plus; joining one is free. Guests can use their own free accounts or the guest joining flow.

Check each bottle’s expression and strength against its label. If one is missing from the app, search in Find, choose Add a missing bottle, and enter its brand, bottle name, style, and strength when known. That creates a private bottle. Mark it On Hand if you want to find it through that collection choice.

Open More, then My Group Tastings, and choose Create a Group Tasting. Name this one Three Pours Around the Table, enter its scheduled time, and write a brief welcome message explaining the three-bottle comparison.

Set taster capacity to six, turn on Allow guests, and decide whether to use Blind lineup. Leave Host will taste on for this example. If you are only facilitating, turn it off; the host then does not take a taster seat. Keep the form open while you choose the flight.

The flight is your bottle lineup. A personal tasting records one person’s experience; a group tasting gives invited people that shared lineup and a host who moves the pours forward. Building a flight does not open a group or invite anyone.

Choose Build a New Flight, then Build It Yourself. Continue, select three bottles, arrange their order with the arrows, and choose Review Flight. Use This Flight returns the lineup to the group form. You can also reuse a Saved Flight or choose from the Flight Library. Start Tasting starts a personal session; use the group form for this evening.

With the lineup selected, accept the conduct agreement and choose Create Group Tasting. This saves the scheduled plan. You open its lobby later.

Create the group’s private invitation and open its sharing panel. You can copy the invitation code or link, share the link, or show its QR code at the table. Send the invitation to the people you intend to host and tell them when the lobby will open.

A guest follows the link or scans the QR code, enters a display name, and accepts the conduct agreement. A signed-in guest chooses Join with account; someone without an account chooses Join as guest. They can see the welcome and scheduled time while waiting for you to open the lobby.

Keep the invitation available for an arrival who needs it. If you regenerate it, the previous code stops working, so pass along the new invitation rather than leaving guests with two competing links.

When the table is ready, choose Open lobby. Check that the people shown match the people tasting. Add short host instructions: small optional samples, water ready, and no need to finish a pour.

Each taster chooses I’m ready. Because you are tasting too, you do the same. Start Tasting unlocks when every active taster is ready. If you change the lobby instructions, everyone confirms readiness again. Use that pause to check glasses and water rather than rushing the start.

Once everyone has arrived, you can stop new guests from joining. If someone arrives during the tasting, the host can allow joining again. Ask guests who joined without an account to keep their browser tab open; their guest access belongs to that session.

Start with the first physical sample and the matching pour in the app. Give people a quiet moment to smell and taste before announcing what the producer says they should find. Each taster can draft a rating, select flavor tags, and write private pour notes.

Then ask a plain question: what stood out, or what changed from the last pour? A person who finds vanilla and a person who finds oak can both be useful contributors. Leave room for someone whose whole note is simply that they would order it again.

Use the host’s Next Pour control when the room is ready. In a blind lineup, participants see hidden bottle identities until the reveal; the host knows the bottles. Keep breaks and water part of your pacing. The app’s sequence does not require everyone to drink at the same speed.

At the final pour, guests choose Review My Tasting. They can revisit entries, correct a flavor selection, and add an overall rating or reflection before choosing Save My Tasting. Let people complete that step while the impressions are still fresh.

Saving the tasting is different from requiring a score for every whiskey. Someone can leave a pour unrated. Check that every active taster has saved, including yourself; the host’s final reveal and results controls depend on those saved submissions.

Private pour notes and overall reflections stay private. The host and other tasters do not receive someone’s email, collection, or private notes through the group. Explain that distinction before inviting people to write candidly, and let anyone share their thoughts aloud by choice.

If the lineup was blind, choose Reveal Bottle Lineup after everyone saves. Put the bottle names beside the physical samples and give guests a moment to connect their impressions with the labels.

Choose Post Group Results to share the group’s averages and common flavor tags. Those summaries need at least three eligible numeric ratings for that pour. Six people at the table do not guarantee six ratings, and a two-person tasting can finish without a displayed group average.

Treat the result as a record of this table’s preferences. Ask whether the favorite is also the bottle someone would serve with food or choose for another evening. Posting results does not finish the session: choose Complete Group Tasting when the tasting is done.

Signed-in tasters can revisit a completed group tasting in Journal, including their own saved ratings and private notes. A guest can sign in and connect the guest seat to keep the tasting in their account Journal. Do that while the original guest tab is open so its private notes can be carried over too.

A guest’s personal tasting keepsake includes their own saved ratings, flavor tags, and private notes alongside posted group results. Open that keepsake and use Print, save, or share PDF to keep it; review private commentary before sharing. The PDF opened from group Journal history contains only shared group results. Choose the record that fits what you want to keep.

If a guest loses access, the host can issue a reconnect code or link for that seat and its saved ratings and flavor tags. Private notes stay in the original browser session, even after Save My Tasting. Closing that tab or changing devices can lose them. Keep the personal PDF or sign in and connect the seat before closing the tab. Then put the bottles away, bring out more food or coffee, and let the evening continue.