There are two schools of teaching. In the first the teacher acts as the smartest person in the room, the sole owner of a sacred knowledge whose job it is to pass it on by rote to the less educated palates in the room. The second is founded on the idea that people are better at teaching themselves; that the teacher only can offer some skills and the opportunity to use them. That understanding comes from the marriage of knowledge and experience.

Dan Strongin teaches basic skills of how to taste, provides an opportunity for guests to use them, and leaves the subjective to each attendee to decide for themselves. The aim is not for the teacher to look smart, but for everyone to share in an adventure in learning.

Using what he calls "the Geography of the Mouth™" he explains how the sense of taste works introducing an objective way to describe the experience of it.

Even first timers find themselves fully experiencing what is happening in their own mouths and are able to describe it like veterans.