Tasting Exercise
Part of the Food Preparation collection, this professional-grade Tasting Exercise set from Nienhuis features nine amber glass dropper bottles housed in a quality wooden tray with recessed compartments for organized storage. The alternating black and pink rubber droppers provide visual distinction while children explore gustatory discrimination through carefully prepared taste samples, developing their sensory perception and vocabulary for describing flavors.
“The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.”
The Tasting Exercise with amber glass dropper bottles addresses the child's critical need to refine gustatory discrimination during the sensorial sensitive period.
- Gustatory discrimination between sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes
- Precise fine motor control through dropper manipulation
- Vocabulary development for describing taste sensations
- Sequential thinking through systematic taste exploration
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Between ages three and six, children actively seek experiences that isolate and clarify each sense, and the Tasting Exercise provides precise control through its dropper bottles that release exact amounts of liquid. The wooden tray's recessed compartments create an ordered environment where children can methodically explore sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes. The alternating black and pink rubber droppers enable children to establish a system for organizing their taste explorations, transforming abstract flavor concepts into concrete experiences. Through repeated work with these nine bottles, children build the neural pathways necessary for refined taste discrimination, laying groundwork for future appreciation of subtle flavors in foods. The amber glass protects taste solutions from light degradation while allowing children to observe the careful handling required for this precise sensorial work.
How to present it
Follow the Montessori method of presentation for optimal child development.
Prepare taste solutions: sweet (sugar water), salty (salt water), sour (lemon water), bitter (tonic water). Fill bottles in matching pairs plus one control. Place bottles in wooden tray compartments.
- 1
Demonstrate proper dropper technique: squeeze bulb before inserting, release slowly to draw liquid, squeeze gently to dispense one drop
Practice with water first to perfect the single-drop technique - 2
Show child how to place one drop on tongue tip, close mouth, and experience the taste fully
Wait 10 seconds between tastes for clear discrimination - 3
Introduce taste vocabulary: 'This tastes sweet' while child experiences the sensation
Use descriptive language only after child has tasted - 4
Progress to matching exercises: taste from one bottle, then find its pair
Start with contrasting tastes (sweet/bitter) before similar ones - 5
Introduce mixed solutions for advanced work
Sweet-sour combinations challenge refined discrimination
Every Child Is a Little Creator
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Since 1929
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