Identifying Flavours

[Undercover]

Too true. We could all smoke the same cigar and the taste and aroma would evoke something different in each of us. Our own individual experiences of the same brand/size cigar will vary too. And given we are talking about identifying 'flavours' in something our brain isn't conditioned to 'tasting' (smoke), is it any wonder we only ever get hints or ideas of what it is? My brain thinks coffee is a warm brown liquid and chocolate is a solid brown lump. Even coffee cake gets 'confusing' unless it's very strong flavouring.

In fact, my sense of taste and smell is pretty poor and I used to get hung up on not being able to identify anything. I've got a bit 'better' at it, but it has to be a pretty obvious taste for me to get it. The value is in mentally cataloging what cigars I enjoy and if I can ascribe some familiar tastes and smells, that makes it interesting. To be honest, a lot of the pleasure of cigars for me is in the overall 'general' experience rather than the tiny details of whether I can taste nutmeg or cocoa.

There are some cigars I enjoy just because I do. I couldn't tell you why. They just tick the right boxes. That's how I started - varying degrees of like or dislike, tasty/delicious or not tasty, smells nice or horrible - and that's all you really need. If you love chocolate and taste that one day, great. If you don't, well, did you still enjoy the cigar and how much? Worth getting another? Worth getting a whole box? Worth telling your friends about it?

When I read a review, I remind myself it's one individual's experience of one cigar. It might prompt me to try it, but I don't expect it to smoke the same way.

[PeeJay]

Great post Paul and chocolate is a great example of a perceived flavour. Next time you have chocolate cake try a piece of chocolate too. The cake probably won't taste anything like chocolate and why should it, its flavoured with cocoa. We're conditioned to accept that as chocolate cake and that can sometimes be the case with what we perceive when we smoke our cigars.

[Undercover]

Thanks - yes, funnily enough after I wrote that I thought of the chocolate brownies in the canteen at the last place I was working. Absolutely delicious. Best I've ever had. Yet on reflection, they don't really taste much of chocolate at all!

[oskihen]

My son and I make brownies every week and I can assure you homemade proper brownies have a lot of chocolate in them but proper chocolate not that 25% cadburys dairy milk poop 85% cocoa lovely

[butternutsquashpie]

Your mouth does very little, it recognises only bitter, sour, salty and sweet. All the real work is done in the nose. Your nose can pick-out thousands of tastes, but unless your brain knows what they are you can't identify them

this is truee.
Try tasting your nearest food source whilst plugging your nose. It becomes devoid of most flavours.

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[wayne_w]

But I love Dairy Milk..

True words from everyone, I love chocolate but, can't stand chocolate ice-cream! It tastes horrid.
It took me around 4 months of smoking one cigar a day to get my palette to identify certain flavours, even now when someone says that they can taste x or y in a cigar, I try that particular brand & can't get what they did. We're all different, food & drink plays a big part too. I think that there's so many variables when it comes to taste etc.

[DannyDean1984]

Too bloody true!

I stopped reading reveiws all together at one point because i was focusing to hard trying to find the flavours they said they was getting and not enjoying the cigar as much as i should be. Now i just sit back and enjoy [emoji4]

[PeeJay]

Last year MarkLondon and I did a joint review on a cigar that was supposed to have notes of cinnamon. What a LOB. Cinnamon is such a distinctive flavour that you notice even the tiniest amounts and needless to say we didn't.

[jmorgo7]

Good to know!

Was reading some reviews on cigars that had a list as long as my arm with flavours the reviewer had tasted and i thought I was missing out big time.

I know I enjoy the taste of them so I guess thats all I need to know!

[JonnyO]

I'm slowly getting there. I managed to get a hint of Marzipan of all bloody things from the last Por Laranga I had. Cream is an easy one too.

[Krist]

Well, following my first 'greet' post, this thread is one of the reasons I knew it was a worthwhile adventure joining up!

I can literally only taste 'cigar', I do get the fact that they taste differently, but bringing it back to chocolate, so do all chocolates. However on the tasting notes, I do prefer the smooth chocolatey flavour if that doesn't contradict what i've just said too much.

[Joss]

Identifying Flavours

My advice on recognising flavours is this- keep the flavour wheel to hand when you next have a smoke. Its quite enjoyable reading through them trying to identify the flavours on your palette.

Also, the slower you exhale the more you will taste the cigar. Sometimes helps to 'chew' the smoke around in your mouth before blowing out.

I also think that you need to be sitting down, relaxing to enjoy the flavours of a cigar to their best. If you are outside in cold weather, walking or doing something else it impairs the way you taste the cigar.




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[Tendarus]

This is a really interesting topic for me as I?m definitely on the lower end of being able to pick out flavours. For me this extends to food and drink as well. I think in large part its genetics and therefore luck how easily any given person can pick out different flavours, and then secondly identify what they remind them of.

So I think where some reviewers give a big list of flavours I don?t think that on the whole they?re making it up or anything, they?re just very blessed to be extremely sensitive to cigar flavours. That said I?m sure there are a few who do make stuff up to make themselves sound better.

Two things that I?ve done that I?d recommend to fellow strugglers in this field. Firstly there is a certain amount that can be improved by your technique. For example I was initially holding my breath when taking a puff, but as others have said the majority of the flavours are in the smell so I was losing a lot of it. I found a really good YouTube video on this - I?m at work now so can?t link it, but it?s by cigarobsession and is called something like: ?how to taste the most flavours in a cigar?.

Secondly, in terms of identifying a flavour as chocolate, coffee etc., I?d suggest finding one of the good reviewers, who can list out a lot of flavours, and then try cigars they?ve reviewed and try to tie back what they say to what you get.

[PeeJay]

Or watch a review of the cigar you're smoking whilst you're doing it and see if you get the same impressions or just think the guy is a total twat. Sometimes it can help to pin down an elusive flavour.

[Krist]

Update from my last post on here, I can definitely pick out more flavours than before, I think it just comes with time and with concentration on the flavours of the cigar.

I have done a few wine tastings and it helps to taste the same cigar/drink/food with someone and compare. Even more so with someone who has been at it a while. Theres usually 3 distinct thirds that you will be able to compare in a single stick which might help you pick out a distinct flavour is comparing it to only 5/10 minutes ago.

One of my fallbacks was drawing too heavily and that distorting the flavour, I draw softer and smoother now and really notice the difference.