The most exciting thing about artisanal cheeses is their complex, multi-layered flavors. However, for many people, they seem unapproachable. The best way to savor these cheeses is to breakdown the experience from the first encounter (touch and smell) to the last encounter (after-taste).

One of my favorite things about the internet is that it enables people to indulge their creative impulses in ways that would have been difficult or impossible just a couple of decades ago. Take, for instances, this short little internet show that Christopher Masto puts together on a semi-regular basis called, "Does it Go With Tea?" In it, he sits down with a variety of sweet pastries, takes a bite and then sips from a mug of tea in order to determine whether the baked good he just sampled goes with the tea. The episode you see above is the third one he produced, and in it, he tastes a Boston Creme cupcake in order to test it's tea worthiness. In episode four, he tries a buttered blueberry muffin with tea, but you'll just have to watch to find out how that one turns out.

More good news for all you wine lovers out there. ZAP, the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers, will be traveling to various locations across America for Grand Tasting Events, as brought to our attention by Deidre at our sister site Luxist.

The tastings are scheduled for May 8 in Austin, May 10 at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, and will be a part of Winefest No. 12-A Toast To Children's Health in Minneapolis on May 11-12.

The menus accompanying the tastings sound absolutely delicious as well. As an example, the Arizona tasting will feature such fare as Ahi Tuna Bites with Raspberry-Wasabi Sauce, Chili Lime Salmon Satay, Mushroom Stuffed with Pinenuts, and Duck Confit Profiteroles.

If you live in one of those areas and are interesting in participating, details on the events including admission prices can be found on the ZAP website.

Chicken sausages are lower in fat and calories than most pork or beef sausages, but they aren't known for having as much flavor as the two meatier varieties. This isn't to say that they're bad, just that they tend not to be as crave-inducing as their counterparts. But because some chicken sausages aren't all that satisfying doesn't mean that none are. EatingWell magazine set out, in their most recent issue, to do a taste test of 27 different varieties of chicken sausages to find out which ones were the most worth-eating, both when it came to flavor and health.

After an exhaustive and filling trial, EW's tasting panel narrowed the field down to eight top picks from five manufacturers. They all had approximately half the calories and one third of the fat of the average pork sausage, but were still very tasty. The winners included:

• Al Fresco: Buffalo Style, Sweet Italian Style, and Teriyaki Ginger
• Applegate Farms: Chicken & Apple
• Bilinski's: Mild Italian Style; Spinach & Garlic
• Casual Gourmet: Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella
• Coleman Natural: Cilantro

Perfect for a night in with a friend or a significant other, The Tasty Show's Chocolate Tasting for Two kit is a cute way to eat some chocolate, expand your palate and talk about food. The kit includes 15 different kinds of gourmet chocolate, a tasting guide and a couple of ratings cards so you can compare your reactions to the chocolate. The chocolates in the kit are small, but a good size for tasting so that you don't overdose on chocolate (yes, it is possible) and get bored before you get through all the samples.

An alternative to the kit is to simply buy several different types of chocolates from gourmet and specialty stores, but at just under $30, the kit really gives you a wide range of milk and dark chocolates - a wider range that $30 could buy you at many pricey gourmet stores - and you have the added benefit of getting some insight into chocolate tasting from the included guides. After you have something to work from, then you can head out to that specialty store and choose (and appreciate) your favorites, new or old.

There are a lot of flavored waters marketed to kids on the grounds that they are tastier than plain milk or water, but have less sugar than juice or soda. Parents can give heir kids one of the usually colorful drinks and will not have to worry that they are actually drinking it at lunchtime in place of a soda from the vending machine. This week, the Wall Street Journal held a taste test with groups of both adults and children to see if the drinks' taste held up to their marketing hype.

Aroma Water was the must adult-oriented of the four brands, with the flavors (which are actually scents) of either lemon lime or mandarin orange embedded into the bottle cap, not the water itself. 90% of taste actually comes from smell, so there is no flavoring added to the water and yet it still tastes flavored. These were "subtle, natural and refreshing. Waddajuice is a brand of juice diluted with water, just as the name implies. It comes in white grape and apple and has no added sugar. It "retains enough flavor that kids may thing it is the real thing." Crayola Color Coolerz! are waters sweetened with sucralose (Splenda) that are "very tart, extremely sweet and neon-colored." Flavors include Purple Pizazz, Berry Blue and Screamin' Green. Wild Waters are naturally sweetened waters that have minerals and vitamins added for an extra nutritional boost. Flavors include Flippin' Fruit Punch, Groovin' Grape, Twistin' Tropical Punch and Rippin' Raz Lemonade and tasters placed them squarely between Waddajuice and Crayola in terms of sweetness.

Waddajuice and Wild Waters are the best choice for kids as they are sweeter than Aroma Water, which adults will probably enjoy, and have no artificial ingredients.

The HJ Heinz Company has had the highest consumer satisfaction rating in the country for the past six years, and it's no wonder because, although they make many different products, they make one of the most popular and best loved condiments you can name: Heinz ketchup. Everyone likes Heinz, or at least, they think they do. Endless taste tests rank it sometimes higher and sometimes lower than other brands, and the brand still averages a high score. One recent test, however, may actually forecast a change in the way Heinz makes their ketchup. In it, Organic Heinz came out above regular Heinz.

For years, organic goods such as sauces and, of course, ketchup, had a hard time catching on with consumers since their flavors and consistency were too unfamiliar. Perhaps tastes have grown up a bit, or the technology is simply better, but if the organic version is now scoring higher with tasters, we could see a resulting increase in the availability of organic ketchup, possibly in place of the traditional stuff.

Where would you rank Organic Heinz? Is it as french-fry worthy as the classic?

Honey is a symbol of the sweet year ahead during the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, but it isn't an ingredient that gets as much respect as it deserves, largely because people tend to stick to the generic grocery store honeys. Now, it's not that there is anything wrong with a generic honey, but they do lack the nuances that many more specific varieties have to offer. These honeys often come from just one type of plant or one small area of land and, rather than just tasting sweet, they offer notes of berries, flowers, citrus and spices that can take a dessert - or even a piece of toast - to a new level. Epicurious picked out some of their favorites, which include:

• Black Sage Honey, mild with notes of apple and vanilla
• Star Thistle Honey, intensely floral
• Rosemary and Lavender Honey, very mildly herbal
• Javanese Island Honey Rambutan Blossom, strong taste of sandalwood and patchouli
• Forest Honey, dark and molasses-like

More can be found with the Honey Locator. You'll also be able to find some more exotic honeys by visiting a smaller, specialty grocer or perhaps just by taking a closer look at the labels at the supermarket. If you see more than one you like, you can always host your own honey tasting.

While browsing del.icio.us the other day I came across a link to WikiHow page on tasting dark chocolate. There are 11 suggested steps to getting the most out of your chocolate tasting experience. The first encourages you to "mute all kinds of background noise, such as television, music, a crying baby, etc." (Will someone please mute the baby?) After that comes palate cleansing and several tips for taking in the aroma, visual appearance and texture of the chocolate. There is also a list of suggested brands, in case you want to do some side-by-side comparisons.

Wine reviews can sometimes be a bit... annoying. Once in a while, the flavors described in a review will actually come through in the wine, but more often than not the "crisp" flavor and "pineapple notes" are nowhere to be seen. Or, at least, they cannot be identified by the average wine drinker.

To actually get some use out of the reviews, we've come up with a game to play the next time you have some friends over. Print out a copy of the review and pour each of your friends a glass of the wine. As they sample it, get them to try and guess how the reviewer described it. They almost always involve a fruit or a wood, so that's a good one to guess, but you can get creative. Here's a review to get you started:

It's not surprising that a lot of celebrities lend their names to various products through endorsement deals, but the growing number of celebrity wines is a rather unusual trend. From sports stars to singers, it seems like everyone wants their own chardonnay these days, and the celebs aren't just putting their name on the bottles anymore. Instead, some are buying the wineries and having a say in the wine-making process.

In some cases, it turns out that celebrities should stick with what they get paid to do, whether it is acting or singing, because the wines are not worthy of the A-list, B-list or C-list, but there are more than a handful that are really excellent and worth a taste or two. Besides, who wouldn't like to have a celebrity join them at the dinner table once in while?

Compiled by the Wall Street Journal, here is the The Dow Jones Paparazzi Wines Index, with their picks for the best celebrity wines:

It looks like the famous 1976 Paris wine tasting could be made into a movie.  A Los Angeles production firm bought the movie rights to George Taber's book on the blind tasting, in which the California wines Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 and Ridge Montebello 71 beat the favored First Growths Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 70 and Haut Brion 70. The studio says that they plan to focus on the interaction between Steven Spurrier, the wine mastermind who arranged the tasting, and the Californians, who will be portrayed as the underdogs.

The film sounds like it will be an interesting one. The studio has already suggested Jude Law and Hugh Grant for the role of Spurrier, who wanted someone British and young to play him, as he was 34 when he organized the tasting. He objects to both choices of actor, claiming that "they are far too old."

I should note here that Jude Law is actually only 33, so it's not entirely clear if Spurrier knows who the actor is or how young he wants to look in the film. He could always call up Stephen, 24, from Top Chef, if he wants someone really young. I bet he could do a British accent.

[via The Food Section]

The New York Times recently featured a story about the tastings and tours offered by several California olive farms. Located mostly around Napa, many of these olive-growing, olive-oil-producing farms allow visitors to check out their facilities and sample what they produce. The article also gives some insight into the blend of old and new technology involved in harvesting olives and creating a variety of nuanced oils. There's also talk of the proper way to taste olive oil, which, if done correctly involves lots of slurping and coughing.

[Photo: Peter DaSilva/NYT]

The fashion in wine glasses is for them to be varietal, which means that the shape of each glass is specifically designed to enhance the flavor and aroma of that type of wine. It also means that connoisseurs have to buy a lot more stemware if they want to have the best experience with their favorite wine. A new type of glass, the Zafferano Esperienze glass, promises to be the ultimate in wine tasting. These glasses are varietal and come in 15 different shapes. The rippling at the base of each glass is designed to allow the wine to develop its optimal flavor by giving it maximum exposure to the surface of the glass.

The glasses were recently recommended by David Rosengarten (who loved them) and mentioned in the New York Times, so perhaps there is more to their design than just hype. They are $29.99 for four and will be available at Macy's, followed by Bloomingdale's and Bed, Bath & Beyond, later this month.

The tongue, in addition to being the best way to taste the food we love so much, is one of the most sensitive and perceptive transmitters in the entire body. Scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are working on a way to take advantage of the sensory capabilities of the tongue for far more than just taste. Using a small plastic strip to connect 144 micro-electrodes to the tongue, information about stationary and moving objects is sent to the wearer from a helmet known as the "Brain Port," which is equipped with small sensors and other equipment to take stock of the environment the wearer is in. In effect, this means that the tongue can allow people to "see" their environment when normal sight isn't possible or convenient, like underwater. Instead of having to read a device like a compass or a sonar machine while diving, a diver can receive directions through his tongue. One diver who was testing the device underwater "likened the feeling on his tongue to Pop Rocks candies," but could easily locate a small object via cues from the device on his tongue. Tests of the technology with blind participants showed that subjects could easily find doors and catch balls.

The scientists foresee military applications for the technology and will be demonstrating it to Navy and Marine Corps divers later this year.