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

[Devil Doc]

Whew!

For a while there I thought there was something seriously wrong with my palate so I'm VERY glad to see this thread.

I don't detect a lot of the flavors the CA folks state they do for cigars I've tried that they have reviewed and I thought it was me. (just for the record, my wife bought me a one year subscription to CA in April of 10 for my b'day, I've not renewed it....lol)

I can, and do detect stronger flavors like spicey, leathery and woody.

I find some cigar smoke has texture to it as well. Some can be kind of heavy and oily. When someone here refers to a cigar as being "toothy" I always assume they mean it's got a heavy/oily kind of texture to the smoke. I've also discovered "creamy" which I like a lot too. The Rocky Patel Vintage 1990's to me have a nice creamy texture to them for example.

But some of the stuff I've read in reviews in CA have had me shaking my head.

I'm glad to see it's not just me!

I know what I like and what tastes good to me and I've tried in the past to sit and really taste a cigar to see if I couldn't find all these other interesting flavors and was disappointed when I couldn't. 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.

You made my day, young fella and have added new vigor and vitality to my crusade against those who would perpetrate their pathologhy, gustatory hallucinations, upon the more rational among us.

Doc.

[ashauler]

You made my day, young fella and have added new vigor and vitality to my crusade against those who would perpetrate their pathologhy, gustatory hallucinations, upon the more rational among us.

Doc.

Sweet, so now you're in a good mood.

Cigars don't all taste the same to me, and I would assume they don't to you either. Is taste not a subjective thing?

[Devil Doc]

Sweet, so now you're in a good mood.

Cigars don't all taste the same to me, and I would assume they don't to you either. Is taste not a subjective thing?

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.

[badwhale]

<snip> 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. <snip>Doc.

Again, I'm not big on trying to match what I'm getting from someone else's flavor profile description, and some of the real oddball descriptors are ridiculous but what's wrong with going about distinguishing between tobacco origins making a mental attribute based on a flavor you recognize?

We are almost done with another Puro Pot Pass here, and this year there were a bunch of losers, including myself.

For me (and I know you're gonna love this!):
Nicaraguan: The level of pepper like spice sensation is what I recognize with these.
Honduran: More of a balance of sweet tobacco, and some bitter oil. Not as spicy.
Dominican: For me, the oil or bitterness defines these. Kind of the sensation the skin on a shelled walnut gives.
Cuban: The best way I can describe it is a saltwater taffy aftertaste. It's more a sensation. Not the candy, sugar like aspect, the saltwater part.

I don't sweat it if I don't taste hints of caramel and toffee with a touch of orange peel in a Padron '26. I can see your angle too that over time, you should be able to light one up, sit back and say, "that tastes like it has a lot of Nicaraguan tobacco in it...and based on the smoothness and complexity, they used some very choice aged tobacco in it"...or maybe just "mmmm, that tastes goddamn good"

Will

[ashauler]

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.

No disagreement here. I do, however, think there are valid comparisons between the flavors tasted in tobacco and other familiar tastes/aromas.

For an example, sweetness or sugar, or particularly burnt sugar. I can see where a tobacco strain with a high sugar content, if processed in a manner to preserve the sugar content during fermentation, might remind one of a burnt sugar taste.

[ashauler]

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.

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.

[nhcigarfan]

I can sometimes taste flavors but I attribute it more to the smoke/leaf combo triggering multiple taste bud types at the same time and in roughly the same quantity as the flavor it is mimicking. Like sweet and bitter along with a thicker smoke gives 'hints' of cocoa.

That's about as much thinking as I'm going to do on the subject.

[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.

[cheepvaporizer]

That's a bummer...had to require mine in for a brand new timing belt not too in the past. NO fun...

[Paddy]

that's a bummer...had to require mine in for a brand new timing belt not too in the past. No fun...

wtf ????????????

[b.read]

This spambot again?


Edit: Just realized that was my quote again...that spambot has a hard-on for me I guess...

That's a bummer...had to take mine in for a new timing belt not too long ago. NO fun...

[nhcigarfan]

That kind is of funny talk. Spam bot know english good not.

[themadwacker1]

Not sure if I have a "cigar nose" but I have learned that if I can detect ammonia or other metallic notes its going to be a shit smoke, I think a cigar should smell like something natural (duh) if it smells overly musty, moldy or manure-like I stay away. I just had a bad smoke not to long ago & funny thing is it was my nose that told me NO but I went ahead anyway because it was a free stick...the nose was right it was a real shitstick! Just my two cents

Rene

[Gben-chalice]

somewhere out there there's a small insular community of reviewers (probably from new york and san fran) where your standing is determined by the range of illusory tases you can claim to detect....it's possible they support themselves by selling high end bottled water

[BHK54]

Think I'm still developing it ... have heard that practice makes it perfect, so it seems i just have to continue smoking