So I've come to a plateau in my tasting experience. I'm only 24yrs old, so I haven't been able to taste every herb and spice in the world. I'm coming to a point in my tasting where I'm identifying tastes by the brand of cigar. A Padron tastes like a Padron, a Monte tastes like a Monte. Does anyone have any tips for widening my taste palette so that I can start picking my cigars apart and become a better reviewer?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
-C
This might be a totally unorthodox answer here, but what came to my mind immediately was a kind of funny Conan O'brien skit with Gary Vanerchuk; a wine taster. Take a look at
Gary Vanerchuk on Conan O'Brien.
This again is more on the funny side, but Gary Vanerchuk has a video wine blog and his tasting notes are based on tastes, scents and smells of everyday things, so I know he's trained his palate by actually tasting a wide variety of things.
The palate of course includes not only taste but smell and vision also. Equating this to cigars, we include taste, smell, sight and feel in our cigar smoking experience, i.e., how does the cigar look? How does the tobacco smell before lit, how does the smoke smell, how does the smoke look, how smooth is it and one of the most important aspects, how is the finish.
In my opinion, I would take note on other smokers comments and then go out and start a collection of things that would help you train your palate. Such as; peanuts, leathers, cherries, woods, grasses, hay....etc....
You would then on a frequent bases, smell and taste these things.
Obviously another way to train your palate is to start exploring the complexities of pairings. Or in other words, what would go good with a certain cigar. i.e., wines, spirits, beer, food, deserts... etc...
I think that most people can develop their palates, it just takes time.
Here are a couple of links:
Circle chart
Cigar Science
