staff-tasting

---
name: staff-tasting
description: Turns one drink a week into a twenty minute team session with four lines every member of staff can say out loud, the units and allergen facts they will actually be asked for, the sentences they must never use, the measures they are legally required to offer, and a signed register a licensing officer would accept. Use when the team says "it's nice" to every question, or when nobody on the floor can answer what is in the house red.
---

# A team who can recommend, in twenty minutes a week

You give this one drink, its supplier specification, your measures and prices, and the list of who is on the rota. You get back one dated file: a four line tasting note written in words a nineteen year old on their third shift can say without rehearsing, the unit arithmetic for every serve size you sell it in, the allergen position with the document it came from, the three sentences staff must never use about it with the rule behind each, the refusal and age verification points that belong in the same twenty minutes, and a register page for signatures. It will not write a health benefit and it will not tell you how much extra you will sell.

## What it does

1. **Pick one drink and write four lines, not a paragraph.** Line one: what it is and where it is from, in nine words. Line two: what it tastes of, in three concrete nouns a customer would recognise, not in wine language. Line three: what to drink it with, or when. Line four: what to say if the customer does not want it, which is the name of the next drink along and why it differs. Four lines because a paragraph gets skimmed, forgotten by Thursday and paraphrased into something untrue by Saturday. One drink a week because fifty-two drinks a year is a team that knows the list, and a list read out in one afternoon is a team that knows nothing by Tuesday.

2. **Separate what is a fact from what is an opinion, and mark each line.** The origin, the grape or the malt, the strength, the producer and the price are facts and belong to the supplier specification. "Smooth", "goes well with the lamb" and "my favourite" are opinions, and staff may offer them as their own. The line that gets a venue into trouble is the one that sounds like a fact and is not: "it's organic", "it's local", "it's award winning", "it's gluten free". Each of those needs a document behind it before anyone says it across a bar, and the tasting note is where you attach the document or delete the claim.

3. **Do the unit arithmetic for every serve size you actually sell, and put it on the card.** Units are ABV multiplied by millilitres and divided by 1000. Staff are asked this constantly and answer it badly. Give them the exact numbers for your own 125ml, 175ml and 250ml pours, your 25ml and 35ml measures and your half, two-thirds and pint, rather than a general rule. Put beside it the UK Chief Medical Officers' figure, so the answer to "is that a lot" has a source: "To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level it is safest not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis", and "If you regularly drink as much as 14 units per week, it is best to spread your drinking evenly over 3 or more days."

4. **Settle the allergen answer before service, because the wrong one is the most expensive sentence on the floor.** Sulphur dioxide and sulphites are one of the fourteen regulated allergens, at "concentrations of more than 10 mg/kg or 10 mg/ (litre) in terms of the total SO2 which are to be calculated for products as proposed ready for consumption or as reconstituted according to the instructions of the manufacturers", which catches most wine and a good deal else. Two traps worth teaching. Fish is an allergen, but the list excepts "preparations of fish gelatine or Isinglass used as a fining agent in beer and wine". Cereals containing gluten are an allergen, but the list excepts "cereals used for making alcoholic distillates including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin". So the honest answer to "is this gin gluten free" is not a guess, it is the supplier's specification.

5. **Set the format the allergen information is given in, not just its content.** The Food Standards Agency's best practice for non-prepacked food is that allergen information should be "easily available in writing" and "be underpinned with a conversation", and it is explicit that this is a change in best practice rather than a change in the law: "The minimum legislative requirement for information to be provided by any means (with a sign indicating when it will be provided verbally) has not changed." For a bar that means a written source behind the bar that the team can point to, and a trained conversation on top of it. The twenty minutes is where the conversation gets practised, out loud, with somebody playing the customer.

6. **Teach the measures as a legal duty, not as an upsell.** The mandatory licence condition requires that beer or cider be available in ½ pint, gin, rum, vodka or whisky in 25ml or 35ml, and still wine in a glass in 125ml; that "these measures are displayed in a menu, price list or other printed material which is available to customers on the premises"; and that "where a customer does not in relation to a sale of alcohol specify the quantity of alcohol to be sold, the customer is made aware that these measures are available". The Home Office guidance adds that the premises licence holder "must ensure that staff are made aware of the application of this condition". That last sentence is why this belongs in a training file and not on a poster.

7. **Rehearse the refusal, because it is the one thing nobody practises and everybody needs.** Section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 makes it an offence for a person with authority to sell alcohol on relevant premises to "knowingly sell or attempt to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, or allow alcohol to be sold to such a person", punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, and it bites on the member of staff as well as on the licence holder and the designated premises supervisor. Section 140 makes it an offence to knowingly allow disorderly conduct on relevant premises. Write the exact words the team will use, who they call, and where it gets logged, and have two people say them out loud in the session.

8. **Cover age verification in the same twenty minutes, including where it has just changed.** The mandatory condition requires an age verification policy, and the Home Office guidance updated on 15 September 2026 sets out that identification is checked "by either: i. producing on request a physical document bearing their photograph, date of birth, and either a holographic mark or ultraviolet feature; or ii. providing means by which a digital form of identification which meets the conditions set out below can be checked". On digital it is firm: holders "must not rely solely on visual inspection to determine whether a digital form of identification is genuine", and verification must be by a service on the DVS register. It also notes that holders "are not required to accept digital forms of identification". Record which your venue accepts, because the team needs one answer and not a debate.

9. **Run it in twenty minutes and keep the register, because the register is the part that survives.** Pour the drink, read the four lines, have every person say line two and line three back in their own words, work one unit calculation together, run one refusal, and sign. One page per session: the date, the drink, who attended, who was absent, the four lines as taught, the units per serve, the allergen source document and its date, and a signature per person. A licensing officer, an environmental health officer or an insurer asking what training you do is asking for this page, and a venue that has fifty-two of them is in a different position from a venue with a policy document nobody has read.

## Then it checks

1. The tasting note is exactly four lines, each under about twenty-five words, and every line is marked fact or opinion.
2. Every objective claim in the note names the supplier document that evidences it, with the document's date, or the claim is deleted rather than kept with a caveat.
3. The units figure is given for every serve size the venue actually sells that drink in, with the arithmetic shown, and no serve size is left out.
4. The allergen line names its source document and its date, and says explicitly where the answer is unknown rather than giving a reassuring guess.
5. The session file contains the measures the law requires to be available for that drink's category, and states where they are displayed in printed material on the premises.
6. The register page exists for this session with the date, the drink, every name on the rota marked present or absent, and a signature line per attendee, and the absent list carries the date each person will catch up.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is. A tasting note written as though the chef or the licensee said it goes to them first.
- Never write a health, fitness, weight or wellbeing benefit for a drink, and never let one into a tasting note as an aside. The CAP Code permits only the nutrition claims "low-alcohol", "reduced alcohol" and "reduced energy" and bars health, fitness and weight-control claims, and staff repeat what is written on the card.
- Never tell staff a drink is safe for someone with an allergy or an intolerance. The answer is the supplier's specification, or it is "I do not know and I will find out", and the second answer is a good answer.
- Never state how much more the team will sell after training, or quote a conversion rate, an average spend uplift or a "venues that train see" figure. No such figure exists for one independent venue.
- Never teach a mandatory measure as a way to sell less or more. It is a condition of the licence, it applies whether or not it suits the offer that week, and describing it as a tactic is how it gets quietly dropped.
- Never run a session that involves staff drinking alcohol on shift. Tasting is spitting or sipping with a spittoon and water, the amount is recorded, and anyone under 18 on the team tastes nothing.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own supplier specifications, measures and prices, and for their licensing officer, environmental health officer or trade body to check before it is relied on. It gathers published requirements and published guidance into a training session; it is not legal advice, it is not allergen advice for any individual customer and it does not certify that any drink is free of anything.

## Built from
- UK Chief Medical Officers, "UK Chief Medical Officers' Low Risk Drinking Guidelines", https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80b7ed40f0b623026951db/UK_CMOs__report.pdf, dated August 2016 on the document, read 16 September 2026: the 14 units weekly guideline and the spread over three or more days wording quoted in step 3.
- Food Standards Agency, "Allergen Information for Non-Prepacked Foods Best Practice", https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/allergen-information-for-non-prepacked-foods-best-practice-approach, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: the sulphites threshold, the isinglass and alcoholic distillate exceptions in step 4, and the written information underpinned with a conversation approach and the unchanged legal minimum in step 5.
- The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014, SI 2014/2440, Schedule paragraphs 3 and 4, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2440/made, made 11 September 2014 and in force 1 October 2014, read 16 September 2026: the age verification policy condition and the measures condition quoted in steps 6 and 8.
- Home Office, "Revised guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 (September 2026) - accessible version", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-memorandum-revised-guidance-issued-under-s-182-of-licensing-act-2003/revised-guidance-issued-under-section-182-of-the-licensing-act-2003-september-2026-accessible-version, page published 13 October 2014 and last updated 15 September 2026, read 16 September 2026: paragraph 10.69 on staff being made aware of the measures condition in step 6, and paragraphs 10.45 to 10.49 on physical and digital identification in step 8.
- Licensing Act 2003, sections 140 and 141, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/141 and https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/140, no publication date shown on the pages, read 16 September 2026: the offences and the level 3 fine quoted in step 7.
- Committee of Advertising Practice, CAP Code (Edition 12), Section 18 "Alcohol", https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/18.html, no publication date shown on the page, read 16 September 2026: rule 18.17 on permitted nutrition claims and prohibited health, fitness and weight-control claims, and rule 18.7 on therapeutic qualities, both behind step 2 and the rule against health benefits.

# staff-tasting

## You are given
One drink for this week's session, with its name, producer, region or origin, ABV, and the supplier specification document that states each of those, with the document's date. The venue's serve sizes and prices for that drink. The four line tasting note already written, with each line marked fact or opinion. Any evidence documents behind objective claims in the note, such as an organic certificate, an award letter, a supplier allergen statement or a gluten testing result, each with its date. The rota for the session with every name on it and each person's date of birth confirmation status. The venue's age verification policy, stating whether digital identification is accepted and by which verification service. The mandatory measures for each drink category, supplied as text. The weekly unit guideline figure, supplied with its source. And the register of previous sessions, if one exists.

## Produce
Write into a `./staff-tasting-output/` folder:

1. `tasting-note.md` with exactly four numbered lines copied verbatim from the input, each followed by its `fact` or `opinion` marker and, for a fact, the name and date of the document that evidences it. Any fact with no document is written with the literal text `no evidence document supplied` in place of the document name and is listed in `gaps.md`. Nothing in this file is written, reworded or shortened by Codex.
2. `claims-register.csv` with these columns in this order: `claim_ref`, `claim_text_verbatim`, `line_number`, `claim_type`, `evidence_document`, `evidence_date`, `substantiated`. `claim_ref` is C001 upward. `claim_type` is exactly one of `origin`, `ingredient or variety`, `strength`, `production method`, `certification`, `award or accolade`, `allergen`, `price`, `opinion`. `substantiated` is `yes` or `no`.
3. `units-card.csv` with columns: `serve_name`, `serve_ml`, `abv_percent`, `units`, `arithmetic_shown`, `price_gbp`. One row per serve size the venue actually sells this drink in. `units` is ABV multiplied by serve_ml divided by 1000, to two decimal places. `arithmetic_shown` spells the calculation out in full for that row. A final row with `serve_name` set to `weekly guideline` carries the supplied guideline figure and its source in `arithmetic_shown`, and no other comparison is made.
4. `allergen-position.csv` with columns: `allergen`, `present`, `source_document`, `source_date`, `exception_applies`, `exception_wording_verbatim`. One row for each of the fourteen regulated allergens. `present` is exactly one of `yes`, `no`, `not stated by supplier`. `exception_applies` is `yes` or `no`, and where `yes` the exception wording is copied from the supplied allergen list verbatim. Every `not stated by supplier` row goes in `gaps.md`.
5. `session-plan.md` with the running order and a minute figure against each element, totalling twenty minutes: pour, read the four lines, two staff repeat lines two and three, one unit calculation worked together, one refusal rehearsed, measures read out, age verification position read out, sign. Each element names the file above that supplies its content.
6. `register.csv` with columns: `session_date`, `drink_name`, `staff_name`, `attended`, `signature_line`, `catch_up_date`, `sessions_attended_to_date`. One row per name on the rota. `attended` is `yes` or `no`, and every `no` carries a `catch_up_date`. `sessions_attended_to_date` is counted from the supplied previous register, never estimated.
7. `gaps.md` with a numbered list of: every fact in the tasting note with no evidence document; every claim in `claims-register.csv` with `substantiated` set to `no`; every allergen row reading `not stated by supplier`; every serve size sold by the venue with no row in `units-card.csv`; every person on the rota marked absent with no catch up date; the fact if the age verification policy does not state a position on digital identification; and the fact if no previous register was supplied.

## Rules
- Codex records, calculates, counts and lists. It never writes or rewrites a tasting note, never converts an opinion into a fact or a fact into an opinion, never supplies a missing allergen answer, and never fills an absent signature.
- Never write a health, fitness, weight, calorie or wellbeing benefit into any file, and never carry one across from supplied text into `tasting-note.md`. Where the supplied note contains one, record it verbatim in `claims-register.csv` with `claim_type` set to `certification` or `ingredient or variety` as applicable, mark `substantiated` as `no`, and list it in `gaps.md`.
- Never write that a drink is free from an allergen, suitable for an allergy, or safe for anyone. The allergen file records what the supplier's document states and nothing else.
- Never mark a claim substantiated without a supplied evidence document named in the row with its date.
- Never write a sales uplift, conversion rate, average spend figure or any claim about what training achieves. No such figure exists for one independent venue and none is to appear in any file.
- Units are calculated only from the supplied ABV and the supplied serve size, to two decimal places, with the arithmetic written out in the row. Never round the ABV and never infer a serve size the venue did not state.
- Never record anyone under 18 as tasting. Where a rota name has no age confirmation, the row is written with `attended` as supplied and the missing confirmation is listed in `gaps.md`.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own supplier specifications, measures and prices, and for their licensing officer, environmental health officer or trade body to check before it is relied on. It is not legal advice, it is not allergen advice for any individual customer and it does not certify that any drink is free of anything.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written, the row count of each CSV, the drink and session date, the number of claims registered and how many are unsubstantiated with each one named, the units figure for every serve size, the count of allergens recorded as present, as not present and as not stated by the supplier with the not stated ones named, the total minutes in `session-plan.md`, the number on the rota with attended and absent counts and every catch up date set, whether the age verification policy states a digital position, and the `gaps.md` item count.