Great post Shelby07. I had been wanting to ask if there was a way to educate my taste buds, but was hesitant to do so. I read in a thread here somewhere about searching for previous reviews and then seeing if you could detect the same flavors that another reviewer had, and I have been doing that, but wonder if it is the influence of the previous review, or something that I am really detecting. So far I have been able to detect chocolate, cedar, and vague "spicy" flavors that I can't really define.

Another piece of advice I got here is to peel the band and stick it on a 3 x 5 card the first time I smoke a particular cigar, record my impressions, and then review the card the next time I smoke the same cigar to see if I can pick up anything additional, or if it has changed any over time.

I seem to drink coffee with most of my cigars, maybe I will try just water for awhile and see if that helps.