What causes salty or sour off-tastes?

[Kenyth]

I'm a newer smoker and experimenting with brands a bit. I've recently had a run of dog rockets. With these came not just an uneventful smoke, but some strange nasty off-tastes to boot. What causes salty or sour off-tastes in Cigars?

The salty one had an almost impossible burn to it. It was like there was a chimney in the middle and the outside edges wouldn't burn at all. The sour one burned OK. Another note is that my AC was out for a week and the humidity in the humidor increased to about 80% during this time.

[Drake]

well, the humidity probably caused the burn problem. i don't know if anyone else will agree with me on this, but i taste a slight sour taste in most sungrown wrappers. but not in a bad way. i've never noticed salty, but i'm also a fairly new cigar smoker.

[cigarsarge]

Gotta be the humidity problem. Cigars that are too moist taste like crap and burn badly.

[Bkcloud114]

Humidity could definitely be a problem, I now keep my ciagrs at 60-65%... I seem to like it much better.

Something else I wanted to point out about bad tasting smokes..... I was on the beach last week and was smoking a Sherpa Mystic- Dos Capas. Usually a great tasting cigar (I like em so much I bought a bundle). That day the cigar was very bitter and tasted horrible. Then my wife looked at me and said, "damn, you smoked that quick". I realized that it was kinda windy that day at the beach and it was fueling the burn of the cigar causing the cigar to burn very hot. I then turned my back to the wind and let the cigar "cool off". What a difference in the flavor..... Just thought I would share that.

Sorry for the Thread-jack

[Chè]

Yes the humidity is likely the cause of all your problems. @ 80% humidity I'd expect a very poor burn, not to mention mold any minute now. The tobacco is simply not as combustible as it should be at that humidity level.

Because the tobacco was not burning properly you likely had a build up of smoke and tar from what little you did burn which is the likely cause of the bitter or sour taste in particular. The wrappers didn't have signs of mold on them did they?

[Kenyth]

Nope, no mold. The humidity in the house has taken almost a week to stabilize at 65-70% again. Rainy weather didn't help. Although my humidifier with 50/50 Prop Glycol/water seems to do a good job of keeping things humidified when it's under 70% It doesn't seem to do so well at de-humidifying things. I've been told a good place to dry out damp cigars is in the fridge

Also, I'm finding out quick that there are a lot of cigars that are nothing but glorified cigarettes, and many that aren't rolled worth a damn. The cheaper the cigars are, the higher the chance of a bad smoke. I've found quite a few I like so far, so maybe I should do less experimenting and more buying of the ones I like.

So far, my favs are Romeo Y Julietta Maduro, JL Salazar Y Hermanos, Diablo Piemente, and Don Kiki Brown label.

Other milder ones I found enjoyable were made by Arturo Fuente, Montecristo, Cuesta-Rey, and Don Kiki.

[MMAB]

without a doubt, a cigar that's too moist. Sour taste goes along with it.

Salty? That's a new one on me too.

When the first H2000 wrapped cigars came out a few years back, I recall that many of them were terrible and I actually tasted a "briney fish" sort of taste. Horrible. Particularly Indian Tabac H2000 stuff but did notice it in others. I learned that many factories didn't know how to properly age H2000. That seems to be a problem that has been corrected lately though.

[Kenyth]

Well, I don't think my humidity is entirely to blame. I just smoked a Don Kiki Green last night. Nothing fancy, but a nice smoke while grilling or something. It tasted just fine. It's been in the same humidor for the same amount of time as the others. No doubt the sour one was a little moist, but also no doubt it was just a bad cigar too.

The salty one's burn problem was something someone called "booked" tobacco? I guess the leaves were simply stacked flat and rolled haphazardly? Apparently, that causes a hot burn chimney up the middle from a hole in the middle of the roll, and makes it very difficult to keep the edges lit because the leaves are packed together real tightly. The terrible burning this causes produces all kinds of strange off-flavors. Quality control at even the lowliest of factories should have caught this, but apparently, some sneak through. Badly fermented tobacco is also a possible culprit.