Quote Originally Posted by FlyersFan View Post
I'm a 2 to 3 a week smoker and over the last 2 days something strange has happened - I'm no longer enjoying my cigars.

Due to the crap weather I hadn't had a cigar in over a week, but the weather was tolerable enough last night to camp out with a RyJ 1875 robusto that's been resting for a couple of months. I'd never had one but it came highly recommended so I picked one up. The initial light was kinda harsh but I've had that happen before so I just powered through the first 1/2 inch and waited for it to settle down. Never happened. I made it through about halfway before I finally gave up and crossed it off my list as not my style.

Today the weather was still tolerable so I grabbed a favorite short smoke, Guerrilla Warfare petite corona, and headed outside. And ended up with the same result - a harsh tasting smoke that felt like my tastebuds were burning. I smoked it to the end hoping that something would change but it never did.

I hope this is a temporary thing and not an indicator that my cigar smoking career is coming to an end. I'm not getting sick and I was only drinking water so I don't think any outside factors are coming into play. Maybe I need to just give it a couple of weeks off and try again because I really do enjoy the down time associated with a good stick but it won't be as enjoyable if this keeps up.
A few factors to take into consideration:

1. Per your profile you're in GA, that's not a state that's used to cold weather. Your cigars could be slightly dry and be smoking differently due to faster burn, etc. This will change the flavor.

2. Temperature matters. Something I was taught several years ago, and I've found to be true, is smoking in cold weather is not as enjoyable as smoking in comfortable weather. The reason is our bodies are not comfortable. But, more importantly it's our sinuses. When it's cold our sinuses aren't operating as normal. If you smoke "Cigar A" in a 75 degree room, and then smoke the same cigar in a 40 degree room...the flavors are different. Also, people tend to smoke faster when it's cold. This leads to a hotter cigar which can lead to a "harsh" taste.

There are other possible factors of course, but take into consideration the above two.