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

[mrtr33]

Why not try it in the Puro Pot Pass? Tell ya what, I'll add a 5'er to the prize pack if you play and win.

Same here.

[Devil Doc]

Why not try it in the Puro Pot Pass? Tell ya what, I'll add a 5'er to the prize pack if you play and win.

Intriguing idea. I'd be willing to risk failure and embarrassment, but not under those circumstances and certainly not for five cigars.

I think it's interesting, and there must be some message there, that we've gone from me trying to help a newbie not feel inadequate because he doesn't taste food in his cigars to some getting up in arms about their belief system being challenged. It's a shame that there are very few pre-boom cigar smokers left in this world. I feel so alone and misunderstood.
I quite understand why CA invented a way, flawed as it may be, to review cigars. Those smokers who lived through the boom understand the damage they caused. The shortage of tobacco, the really bad tobacco and the outrageous prices they had to endure because of that publications avarice.The problem is that many new to the hobby don't realize that it's a literary device and end up feeling unworthy because all they taste is tobacco. Certainly, cigar reviews would be boring without associating what we taste in our cigars with food, but there has to be a better way. What that way is, I have no idea. I'm not a wordsmith. My metaphors and similes are amateurish but someone out there should be able to.

Doc.

[ashauler]

Intriguing idea. I'd be willing to risk failure and embarrassment, but not under those circumstances and certainly not for five cigars.

I think it's interesting, and there must be some message there, that we've gone from me trying to help a newbie not feel inadequate because he doesn't taste food in his cigars to some getting up in arms about their belief system being challenged. It's a shame that there are very few pre-boom cigar smokers left in this world. I feel so alone and misunderstood.
I quite understand why CA invented a way, flawed as it may be, to review cigars. Those smokers who lived through the boom understand the damage they caused. The shortage of tobacco, the really bad tobacco and the outrageous prices they had to endure because of that publications avarice.The problem is that many new to the hobby don't realize that it's a literary device and end up feeling unworthy because all they taste is tobacco. Certainly, cigar reviews would be boring without associating what we taste in our cigars with food, but there has to be a better way. What that way is, I have no idea. I'm not a wordsmith. My metaphors and similes are amateurish but someone out there should be able to.

Doc.

Well, the rules of the pot pass are pretty much set, the same for everyone. I'm not a rich man so 5 cigars is about the best I could add to the pot. I do have some pretty good cigars in the cooler though.

I don't think anyone here is extolling the virtues of the pompous and overblown reviews in CA...in fact, I think you'll find plenty of posts on here disparaging that rag. That being said, there is no getting around the fact that something common between the reviewer and the audience must be used to relate the experience of smoking a particular cigar. Since the "taste" of the smoke is the most important thing, at least to me, what else is there to use?

I know, nobody eats leather or wood.

ETA: I wasn't smoking cigars during the boom, but, trust me, I have lots of recent experience with the taste of poorly grown, badly fermented, horribly processed tobacco.

[Devil Doc]

ETA: I wasn't smoking cigars during the boom, but, trust me, I have lots of recent experience with the taste of poorly grown, badly fermented, horribly processed tobacco.

There's a start.

Doc.

[ashauler]

[/B]

There's a start.

Doc.

Ok, a start. Let's see if we can improve. I grew some tobacco that performed very well in the garden and produced a very nice leaf. I picked it too early, cured it improperly, and it dried with a greenish tint....not completely green, but you could see just a touch in the leaf. I was able to sweat out the green by using a mock flue cure process.

Here's how I would have reviewed it:

It was sickly sweet tasting, and reminded me of freshly mown grass. The aftertaste was bitter and lingering, and the aroma of the smoke was barely tolerable. The nasal exhale proved to be more a test of my man-hood than a method to get a better grasp of the flavor.

Better description than the "start"? Easier for a reader to identify with? To me yes, to others, maybe not.

[badwhale]

<snip>The nasal exhale proved to be more a test of my man-hood than a method to get a better grasp of the flavor.
<snip>

[ashauler]

Well, I passed, dammit.

[buzz]

No wonder the zombies are always after my brains...

[prophetic_joe]

Speaking of the Puro Pot Pass, I know I would fail miserably but, someone let me know when the next one is cause i would like to get in on it.

[badwhale]

Speaking of the Puro Pot Pass, I know I would fail miserably but, someone let me know when the next one is cause i would like to get in on it.

I believe it's still open, brother!

Will

[Mangyrat]

Speaking of the Puro Pot Pass, I know I would fail miserably but, someone let me know when the next one is cause i would like to get in on it.

Say the word and ill add your name to the list.

[Paddy]

I take offense to that. I've tasted coco in a few cigars. Now it might not be choco chocolatey chocolate truffles, but some hints of coco none the less.

Now I'm beginning to think you don't like my reviews. Guess I'll be sitting the next MEGA Review out.


Btw ->


There have been times where I'll pick up a flavor I can't describe too well, so I do my best. And I may come up with an obscure description like coco or citrus, but normally those are only "hints of" that particular flavor or are reminiscent of it.

I have tasted a coco flavor on the retro-hale. Epernay comes to mind.

[Paddy]

No wonder the zombies are always after my brains...

Buzz, Just wondering are you smoking POT in the Puro pot pass........

[prophetic_joe]

Say the word and ill add your name to the list.

Do it sir!

[Mangyrat]

Do it sir!

You name is on the list #17.

[CoventryCat86]

I've been waiting 40 yrs. to taste chocolate in my cigars. Hasn't happed yet and I doubt it ever will. Tobacco tastes like tobacco. Some folks have vivid imaginations and are influenced by publications such as Cigar Aficionado. If my memory serves me correctly, no one else did either before those idiots started writing their drivel.

Doc.

I'm with Doc on this one, cigars taste like tobacco to me.

[prophetic_joe]

I'm with Doc on this one, cigars taste like tobacco to me.

Yeah but you're old and crotchety so your opinion doesn't count anymore. I mean I'm sure with the senility even things that aren't made of tobacco may in fact taste that way at this point. I bet you peas taste like sugar pops or something too.

[craig]

Different tobacco tastes different. Describing taste - whether food, drink, or smoke - in some standardized way seems desirable to me. There are mappings of terms to the spectrum of taste all over the Internet - the Blind Mega-review used one. One could use a scale (also used in the Mega-review), e.g., How sweet from 1 to 5.

As for CA and the cigar boom, I think Shanken was lucky - and seized the day. There was a general boom in luxury goods in those years, and cigars were part of that. Yes, CA was able to harness newcomers' blind faith in numeric ratings into incredible power for itself in the industry, but that is entrepreneurship.

The boom is over. CA is still with us, but is ignorable in many respects now, thanks in part due to forums like this.

[WIP]

I have to disagree with the folks that say "tobacco tastes like tobacco".

I have spent well over a decade developing my palate into what it is. I can pull hints of different flavors out of cigars easily. This ability mainly comes from my work in coffee. I would venture to say that coffee and cigars are similar. What you are tasting is the flavor after the plant material is burned or roasted.

Some people think "coffee tastes like coffee" as well, but that isn't true to a large community of coffee drinkers either.

Each palate is different, BUT each palate also has the ability to grow and develop into a discerning one. If you are struggling to pull flavors from your cigars, I would suggest sitting down with someone that can pull those flavors and smoke one with them. See if you can grasp what they are describing. Eventually, you will get it.

Another thing that tasters do is describe their feeling of what they are tasting. I had a friend that once said "This coffee tastes like San Luis Obispo". We found that what he was describing wasn't what he tasted, but what the shops smelled like and what it reminded him of. A combo of a candy shop and a bakery next to the ocean. Maybe you can start by describing what it reminds you of. After all, scent is most closely linked to memory.

[buzz]

If you are struggling to pull flavors from your cigars, I would suggest sitting down with someone that can pull those flavors and smoke one with them.

I've found that if I look at someone else's tasting notes while smoking a cigar I am able to pick out some of the flavors they describe. The mega reviews are great for this in my (biased) opinion. I've also smoked cigars and read through my notes where I describe tastes from the first time I smoked them that I don't find the second time. Pairing with different drinks (or food) has some impact too.

We used this for a guide in the last mega review and it helped me a little:
http://www.aspiringgentleman.com/wp-...igarwheel1.jpg

I've yet to experience the "horsey" taste though...