Improving one's palette...

[Not A Nice Person]

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.

Well, yes and no. Fermentation of the leaf unlocks all sorts of compounds that do effect the flavor of the smoke . . . otherwise all cigars would taste exactly the same!

While "granola smoothie" and "mochachino" descriptors, or what sounds like a listing of Julia Childs' spice cabinet, are more than a little overblown, we only have so many kinds of taste receptors---sweet, sour, salt, usw. The particular combinations and percentages of each, combined with aroma, are what create differentiation among flavors, and if the smoke from a particular leaf happens to come close to that . . . then as has been noted, it's common to associate it with the familiar, to use a food/flavor based shorthand for what it reminds us of.

Knowing food, especially spices, and tasting experiences with wine and Scotch, all contribute to the ability to describe cigar flavors . . . and, no doubt, the tendency to overstate them as well.

~Boar

 

[CRQuarto]

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.

If all you do is enjoy your smoke and relax while doing so, you aren't missing anything at all. At that point, life is simply good. :thumbs:

 

[ChiTown_Huck]

For me it has been about finding my own language. Every person is going to have a different level of palette. Trying new and different cigars helps broaden your palette. But it still comes back to what you are experiencing. I do find it helps to read a review on a cigar I smoked or am going to smoke because sometimes I will pick up something extra that way. If you keep notes, then you can remember what you liked and try to find more of that. Plus if you have a good B&M, you can use your words to describe what you like or dislike about certain cigars, and then he should be able to steer you to other similar sticks.

 

[emoshun]

The more I drink coffee, the more I taste it in certain cigars.

This is so true! The experience while drinking a cup a premium coffee elevates your palette's awareness IMHO.

You even taste nuances in the coffee that you hadn't before incorporating the cigar.

:thumbs: