The Sommeliers of Everything

What realm of taste doesn’t have its certified master? These days, even our smallest pleasures require expert advice.

My training as a honey sommelier at the American Honey Tasting Society culminates with eight wineglasses filled with various honeys, lined up from light to dark. My instructor, Carla Marina Marchese, tells me that when we taste honey, we don’t do the ceremonial swirl—the wine expert’s ritual—before we sniff. Honey sommeliers smear. “Smear it on the side…