How long did it take for you to develop your "nose"?

[badwhale]

I don't really read Cigar Aficionado or any other publications like that. It's also hard to trust retailer "tasting notes" as they're trying to sell you something.

That said, I can identify essences of different flavors when smoking tobacco. Mostly spice, leather, oil. Beyond that there's the texture of the smoke, the aftertaste of the flavors, and how well they blend together.

YMMV

Will

[prophetic_joe]

I don't really read Cigar Aficionado or any other publications like that. It's also hard to trust retailer "tasting notes" as they're trying to sell you something.

That said, I can identify essences of different flavors when smoking tobacco. Mostly spice, leather, oil. Beyond that there's the texture of the smoke, the aftertaste of the flavors, and how well they blend together.

YMMV

Will

What Will said. I have found things in cigars that remind me of things, cigars that make me feel like I am or should be sitting by a camp fire, earthy notes, woodsy notes. Like Will said I have found things like spice, leather, and oil, every once in awhile I may find a smoke that feels nutty or creamy but it really isn't that the flavor is there but it's just the way you feel about the smoke, it's the best way you can describe that particular cigar I guess.

[Devil Doc]

I would point out two things to you gentlemen. If you weren't a cigar smoker prior to CA's inception, you've been influenced whether you read the rag or not. And two, from what I've read and personally experienced, Cuban and Cuban Americans think we're nuts for tasting the things we think we taste in cigars.

Doc.

[Paddy]

I smoked a cigar last week that tasted like a Big Mac & French Fries

[nhcigarfan]

I smoked a java once. I tasted coffee.

[WinstonSpencer]

I believe it is 90% marketing and 10% people sucking at talking. But scientifically it is possible for the same molecule that is responsble for say, the taste of citrus, to be found in a cigar. Whether this happens at a discernable level is a matter of debate (obviously). Again, marketing and people talking out their ass. Also, complex flavors like leather and oil are more difficult to describe than one dimensional flavors. I love the art/science barrier. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[badwhale]

Dammit, if you're not tasting freshly mown hay with an aftertaste of mint-cherry frappachino cheesecake, you're not living.

Cubans....pffftt what do they know about tobacco?

[prophetic_joe]

I believe it is 90% marketing and 10% people sucking at talking. But scientifically it is possible for the same molecule that is responsble for say, the taste of citrus, to be found in a cigar. Whether this happens at a discernable level is a matter of debate (obviously). Again, marketing and people talking out their ass. Also, complex flavors like leather and oil are more difficult to describe than one dimensional flavors. I love the art/science barrier. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

See this is basically what I was meaning. There are things we taste in a cigar but you just can't put into words what it is so you grasp at something to describe it. It would really make it difficult to describe the experience to a non-cigar person by saying "Well a cigar taste like a cigar" it's like when you say a certain meat tastes like chicken, it really doesn't taste like chicken you can just pick up similarities and so because your brain can't come up with a better way to describe the experience you say "it tastes like chicken".

As far as Cubans and Cuban Americans thinking we're crazy for tasting what we taste, I have personally spoken to some of the cigar makers that were formerly from Cuba and they describe their cigars in similar ways. Now while I know this is marketing a bit but if the guys who make the cigars can't come up with a better way to describe the smoking experience to other guys that have actually smoked their products there probably is something to it.

Like I said it's like tastes like chicken, it's not exactly the same but there is something in the flavor that gives your brain a similar reaction. And every cigar does taste different.