Buzz
While alcoholic drinks often dominate in the world of beverage flights and pairings, there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks, like kombucha, that deserve a chance to shine with a bit of thoughtful comparison.
The beauty of beverage flights lies in their ability to encourage mindfulness. When you sample similar drinks in succession, you can discover and savor the subtle differences that make each one unique. To create a fun and engaging flight, I use what I call 'Joel’s Rule of Threes,' a method that our senior video producer uses to design his cheese plates, and it works just as well for beverages.
The basic idea is to choose three drinks that either share a common characteristic or differ in a specific way. For example, with cheese, you might select three varieties made from the same animal's milk—say, goat milk—or you could choose three that differ in texture—like a hard cheese, a semi-soft one, and a creamy, gooey one. If you're putting together a kombucha tasting, you could choose all tropical fruit flavors or go for a mix with distinct flavor profiles—perhaps one herbal, one fruity, and one unusual flavor like cola. Pour equal portions into similar glassware, and sip from the least to the most intense flavor. Beyond kombucha, there are many other beverages that make for interesting tasting flights:
Tea Flights—Chai is an especially fun option.
Hot Chocolate Flights—Think dark, milk, and spicy varieties!
Soda Flights—There are some really artisanal root beers and ginger ales to explore.
Milkshake Flights—Go ahead and indulge yourself.
Apple Cider Flights—Perfect for the season. Try it plain, spiced, and with a dash of ginger.
Anything you can drink can be part of a tasting flight. I've even spotted water flights on menus, so don’t hold back. But if you decide to go with a water flight, make it interesting—seltzer, for example. A grapefruit seltzer flight could offer some surprising insights.
