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

[Devil Doc]

The esters responsible for flavors in wine and scotch actually exist in those two drinks, and are not destroyed when consumed. I don't believe they do in tobacco and even if they did, it wouldn't take a degree in organic chemistry to realize what happens to organic compounds when set on fire.

Doc.

[ashauler]

The esters responsible for flavors in wine and scotch actually exist in those two drinks, and are not destroyed when consumed. I don't believe they do in tobacco and even if they did, it wouldn't take a degree in organic chemistry to realize what happens to organic compounds when set on fire.

Doc.

Indeed tobacco does contain sucroester to varying degrees. Here's a link to one strain of burley tobacco's chemical analysis:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/obs.pl?1129698

[buzz]

They better not be putting flowers in my floral-tasting wine/scotch...

or easter eggs.

[WinstonSpencer]

The esters responsible for flavors in wine and scotch actually exist in those two drinks, and are not destroyed when consumed. I don't believe they do in tobacco and even if they did, it wouldn't take a degree in organic chemistry to realize what happens to organic compounds when set on fire.

Doc.

Combustion doesn't necessarily decompose all organic compounds into "tasteless entities". Not only can combustion create new molecules (e.g. salts) but preexisting volatile organic compounds can adsorb to larger solid particles in smoke and therefore travel to your taste receptors.

Also, I would love to get to the point where I could comfortably say "this tastes like Honduran tobacco" but IMO that is a much more esoteric descriptor than "chocolate" and much less specific.

[buzz]

I think this might explain where Doc is coming from. Definitely no cocoa taste from those Kinky's.

[Devil Doc]

I think this might explain where Doc is coming from. Definitely no cocoa taste from those Kinky's.

You got too much time on your hands. There were no Kinky Friedman cigars in existence at the time of that post. If you're going to be the board clown, ya got to do better.
Edited to add: Your the only poster who hasn't made a cogent argument in defense of your position. Just wise ass remarks. Now I understand that, I'm a board clown on other cigar boards, but once in a while you need to show you got something between your ears besides swiss cheese. Just a little friendly advice from someone who has just a touch more experience than you. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Doc.

[buzz]

You got too much time on your hands. There were no Kinky Friedman cigars in existence at the time of that post. If you're going to be the board clown, ya got to do better.
Edited to add: Your the only poster who hasn't made a cogent argument in defense of your position. Just wise ass remarks. Now I understand that, I'm a board clown on other cigar boards, but once in a while you need to show you got something between your ears besides swiss cheese. Just a little friendly advice from someone who has just a touch more experience than you. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Doc.

Thicker skin, Doc - thicker skin. I know you think you are wiser than everyone else here, but lighten up.

By the way, poking fun at your condescending attitude towards people who like to describe cigar tastes using words like "chocolate" isn't being a clown.

[Devil Doc]

Not everyone Buzz, just you.

Doc.

[mrtr33]

You got too much time on your hands. There were no Kinky Friedman cigars in existence at the time of that post. If you're going to be the board clown, ya got to do better.
Edited to add: Your the only poster who hasn't made a cogent argument in defense of your position. Just wise ass remarks. Now I understand that, I'm a board clown on other cigar boards, but once in a while you need to show you got something between your ears besides swiss cheese. Just a little friendly advice from someone who has just a touch more experience than you. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Doc.

This is uncalled for. So is this entire rant about others opinions. If you don't share the same opinion, that's fine. But to label the rest of us as antagonists in your "crusade against those who would perpetrate their pathologhy, gustatory hallucinations, upon the more rational among us." is ridiculous.

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.

More bullshit. My father-in-law, who introduced me to cigars, is a very descriptive person when it comes to flavors - be it food, cigars, wine, coffee, whatever. I don't share his opinions. But I certainly don't ridicule him for it. You should hear the crazy terms he uses to describe flavors. I certainly don't share them, but it's interesting to hear what flavors he gets from them. My father thinks that cigars taste like shit. He describes flavors of putrid crap, like diapers full of Indian food over flooding a septic tank near a paper factory. I don't share those flavors with him, either, but respect his opinion and his tastes.

Now I can stop worrying about it and just relax and continue to enjoy a good cigar without feeling like I'm lacking in something, or losing out on something.

This seems to be the overall attitude all other posters have had in this thread - no one smokes cigars for a chocolate taste, or spiciness, or lemon sour ball flavor. They smoke because the aromas and experience is pleasurable to them. That's what's great about this hobby - it's completely subjective and only the smoker is left to discern their opinion. Disagreeing with a opinion is one thing - ridiculing it is something different.

Of course they all don't taste the same. If they did I wouldn't need so much damn humidor space.
I grew up in my grandmothers variety store. Mini-Mart to you young fellas. Back in those days we sold over 100 brands of cigarettes. Blind, I could identify many of them. Hey, I couldn't smoke them all. With cigars, if you were to give me a Dominican puro, Nic Puro, Honduran Puro (this one might be a problem) and a Cuban, I am reasonably certain I could identify which was which. But none of them would taste like essence of chocolate or sweet cocoa. They would taste like what they were, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Cuban tobacco. They are all quite distinctive to me. People should concentrate their efforts on being able to distinguish those attributes, the flavors that come from the soil, not getting frustrated by not being able to taste what those hacks at CA tell us we should taste.

Doc.

Probably the most sensible post you've made in this thread thus far. No one else is attacking your opinion. You portray yourself as this wise old man, referring to everyone here as a "young fella", but you're leaking respect in this thread. Lighten up a little. Wisdom and experience go a long way only sometimes.

And if you think it's just Buzz, you're not paying attention to other posts that have been made in other threads.

ETA: It's not that I personally wouldn't prefer to identify the origin of the tobacco I'm smoking - quite the contrary. One of the reasons I brought back the Puro Pot Pass was an effort to help everyone identify the cigars they were smoking. I asked for almost a mini-review of each blind puro smoked, in an effort to capture the smoker's experiences in smoking that puro. Badwhale pointed out some taste consistencies above that I agree with. So it's certainly not that we're keeping a blind eye towards the flavor profiles we're experiencing, and are trying to improve.
The same goes with growing the tobacco - that was an incredible experience for me, to watch that process develop. My only regret was that I didn't salvage any of that dried tobacco to make something smokable. It's not like I'm not trying to develop my expertise in this hobby.