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Improving one's palette...

Willie56

Willie56

New Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
39
I have been lurking for a couple of weeks now. One thing I have found interesting are some of the cigar reviews. At least I think they are cigar reviews. Some of them refer to tasting vanilla and cherry so perhaps they are desert reviews. ;) My question is how can I improve my taste for cigars? I do not pick up on all the subtle flavors that others are describing. Does this improve with experience? How can I fine tune my taste buds?
 
I know one thing that helped my palate when I first started was finding out how the "tasting" worked. The science behind it (as is the case with most things for me - I like knowing how things work).

Read HERE


Read HERE

Read HERE

Those are a few articles I found interesting about taste.


Though it isn't likely that you'll immediately pick up on wonderful flavors of granola smoothie :whistling:, it may help you to discern some of the flavors more quickly. Personally, I can pick up on the easy stuff, hay like flavors, sweetness, peppery spice, woodsy tones, etc but can't discern from a stronger black pepper spice or a lighter white pepper spice.


In the end, taste is subjective. Don't pressure yourself in trying to pin point the nuances of the cigar, just enjoy it for what you find in it.



Edit:

HERE is another good article I forgot about.
 
b.dawson posted some very good material about this, and is certainly right about taking it easy and just learning to enjoy the cigar. I am fortunate in that due to my upbringing in an Italian family, food, wine and beer tastings were a very regular thing (though for me, only food until I was old enough...yeah, that sounds good...) and so I already have a decently developed palate. The transition to cigars was pretty easy because of this, though I am still learning. For instance, I can pick up the flavors in a cigar, but I would be hard pressed to say, "Hrmm, this cigar tastes like such and such, so it must be a Padron 1964 maduro!". There are those that can do it and do it well, a perfect example would be some of the blind review threads.

In the end, I would recommend sticking to puros, drink something carbonated with a clean finish to help scrub the palate clean between puffs, and just learn the hardest part of it all: how to sit back, relax, and let the tastes come to you. If you can learn to tune everything out and just sit there and lazily attempt to pick out what something tastes similar to, you'll eventually get it. Not to mention, you'll be even more relaxed! ;)
 
Some folks are more prone to gustatory hallucinations than others. Don't sweat it. You don't have a problem. They might. Cigars taste like tobacco, not chocolate. If they did, my wife would be smoking them.
Doc.
 
Devil Doc said:
Some folks are more prone to gustatory hallucinations than others. Don't sweat it. You don't have a problem. They might. Cigars taste like tobacco, not chocolate. If they did, my wife would be smoking them.
Doc.
Click to expand...

Hilarious and true!
 
The more I drink coffee, the more I taste it in certain cigars.
 
as others have said, definitely about letting it just come to you. and really relaxing and giving your brain time to process the complexities that you are tasting. it took me a while to be able to do this with wine, but now it comes fairly easy, so much in the same way that CRQuarto mentioned... my italian upbringing and ability to taste the complexities in wine, has lent itself to my cigar palate.

Just relax and smoke...about one puff a minute and really savor the smoke you take in!

have fun!
 
bluue13 said:
as others have said, definitely about letting it just come to you. and really relaxing and giving your brain time to process the complexities that you are tasting. it took me a while to be able to do this with wine, but now it comes fairly easy, so much in the same way that CRQuarto mentioned... my italian upbringing and ability to taste the complexities in wine, has lent itself to my cigar palate.

Just relax and smoke...about one puff a minute and really savor the smoke you take in!

have fun!
Click to expand...

You can't compare wine or scotch to cigars. The esters, the chemical components responsible for smells and flavors, actually exist in wine and scotch. They do not in cigar smoke. CA, during the cigar boom, in order to make their reviews "interesting" invented this nonsense of tasting food in cigars. Those of us who have been around longer than the infamous and contrived cigar boom, by CA, know better.

Doc.
 
It's funny because I have been sweating the same thing. I see people talking about earth, cocoa, pepper, and leather. Yes, I know what these taste like on there own but I don't know what they taste like in a cigar. Then I had a realization...... I smoke because I like the flavors, so I sit back and enjoy my cigars. I am figuring out what I like the most and that is all that matters. Do I hope that one day I can pick all these flavors out, and am able to describe them? Of course I do. For now though I enjoy my smokes, meet people, make friends on the forums, and learn as much as I possibly can.
 
I will occasionally get a hit of something in a cigar that reminds me of a food, cherry, orange peel, leather, and anise are probably the most common. I cannot do it at will, and it is a rare occurance that just pops in there. In addition, it may have been one or two puffs from the whole cigar. I have smoked hundreds of Padrons, and to this day have never tasted coffee or cocoa.

I have no endeavors to be a famous cigar reviewer, no sense of urgency to describe a cigar in terms of food flavors.
I just want to enjoy my cigar as mindlessly as possible, other than oooh's and aaah's. I also don't feel like I am missing out on any part of the experience.

If you want to make that endeavor part of your experience, more power to you. The main thing is to enjoy what you're doing.
If you enjoy the exercise of tasting foods and finding those flavors in cigars, what the hey, you're having fun.

At a minimum, while trying to commit those food flavors to memory, you might at least have some luck figuring out recipes.
 
Devil Doc said:
bluue13 said:
as others have said, definitely about letting it just come to you. and really relaxing and giving your brain time to process the complexities that you are tasting. it took me a while to be able to do this with wine, but now it comes fairly easy, so much in the same way that CRQuarto mentioned... my italian upbringing and ability to taste the complexities in wine, has lent itself to my cigar palate.

Just relax and smoke...about one puff a minute and really savor the smoke you take in!

have fun!
Click to expand...

You can't compare wine or scotch to cigars. The esters, the chemical components responsible for smells and flavors, actually exist in wine and scotch. They do not in cigar smoke. CA, during the cigar boom, in order to make their reviews "interesting" invented this nonsense of tasting food in cigars. Those of us who have been around longer than the infamous and contrived cigar boom, by CA, know better.

Doc.
Click to expand...
Well, it is true that the older you get, the less your sense of taste works.

I used to try to pick flavors out in cigars, but realized I was just BS'ng myself into thinking I was.


I do however, pick up on certain fleeting taste at times, or smells that remind me of certain things I've smelled or tasted in my lifetime. Most of the time I can't place it, but others I can.

I guess it's what CA would refer to as "Notes".
I do taste cocoa, dried cherries, or coffee at times. Mind you it's not like eating a chocolate bar, or sucking down a cup of joe, but it's there, even if very faint.
I smoked a T110 not long ago and it reminded me of a damp forest floor that I knew as a teenager who used to backpack all the time. Strong case of Dejavu! I wasn't looking for it, so you can't convince me it was psychosomatic.
Most of the time though, I do just taste tobacco and I either like it, or I don't. That and I think of things like Creamy, mild, full, or in your face.........Not Granola Smoothie.
 
I dont think its so much as tasting actual chocolate or coffee, just that its the best way to describe what you're tasting. I do, however, think that you can compare cigars to wine. While they may lack the same chemical components as wine, you can at least describe what you taste in the same manner as you would while reviewing and describing the flavor of a wine. I do apologize, Doc, if I have offended. I was merely contributing what I know from my own experience of smoking cigars. I think in life when we try to describe something to someone, we use words or flavors that people are familiar with. Therefore instead of saying it just tastes like smoke, we can say, it has flavors of cocoa and coffee.

I guess this is just an example of how many people can feel differently about the same subject. I just enjoy cigars the best way I know how and thats by seeing what I can taste!
 
I thoroughly enjoy having gustatory hallucinations. :D

I try to write a review of a new cigar at least every weekend, sometimes more, sometimes less. I do also have a cigar daily, every evening after I get home from work. Sit back, relax, and just enjoy the experience without putting much thought into it. It's extremely enjoyable for me to pay attention to a new smoke, describing it as best I can though. Just something I love doing.
 
I tried to taste the various tastes that people talk about in cigars. I've pretty much narrowed it down to: sweet, spicy, leather, cocoa, tobacco, good, bad, great, and sh*ty. And ya know what? I'm quite happy with that.

You got into cigars to enjoy them. Focus more on the fact of if you like the cigar or not. If you happen to have that, "oh this tastes like coffee" moment, then so be it.
 
Pugman1943 said:
Doc, you gave me a good laugh. If it tasted like chocolate my wife would smoke them reminds me so much of Yogi Berra. I needed that.
Click to expand...

Indeed, that got sigtagged. Ain't the first time.

Suck on that reviewers! Oh wait...
 
Hot topic. Thanks for all the feedback. I guess my original post was meant to see if I was missing something. I will certainly relax and enjoy my cigars. Tomorrow night I have a 2 hour drive. That is one of my favorite times for a smoke.
 
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