Memory is the least reliable tasting instrument ever made. A journal is the cheapest reliable one. 33 Books, the Portland maker of pocket tasting notebooks, builds its whole range on that premise: small books, one per category of drink, with structured pages that prompt you to record what the bottle actually was before you record what you thought of it.

The range is verified on the maker's own site. The single-subject books include 33 Bottles of Bourbon, listed at USD 6, printed on recycled paper. The Whiskey Tasting Set, listed at USD 30, bundles the range for the drinker who wants the full ledger at once. The maker's collections page carries the complete line, from beer to wine to spirits, all in the same pocket format. Six dollars is the price of a pencil, which is exactly the register a notebook should occupy: cheaper than the pour it records.

The discipline

The value of a tasting journal is not the notes; it is the habit. Write the name, the age, the strength, the date, and where you drank it, every time, before any description. Date every entry: a note without a date is a rumor. Within a year you will own a personal reference that no publication can give you: your own palate, tracked across bottles, with the fashions and moods of the moment visible in the margins. Buy the bourbon book first if bourbon is your drink, or the full set if your shelf is mixed. Then use them. A journal that stays blank is the most expensive kind.