The objective of this paper is to present a new application of shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SHSAW) devices on 36" rotated Y-cut X-propagating LiTaOs for a sensing system that can identify liquid samples. Theoretical sensor sensitivity for acoustoelectric interaction with a liquid loaded on the SAW propagation surface was derived and confirmed with experimental results. The results strongly suggested that by employing SH-SAW devices with different center frequencies the sensor can recognize many liquid samples without a film coated on the substrate surface. In the experiment, the sensing system was fabricated using three SH-SAW devices with center frequencies of 30, 50, and, 100 MHz. Identification of samples, thirteen kinds of whiskies , was achieved by classification in principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. Since the SH-SAW sensor without a coating film has intrinsically good reproducibility and stability, it is effective for identification and quality control of liquid samples.