Cigar Tasting For Noobs-Updated

I posted this on Puff a while ago and a few people seemed to get something out of it so I updated it for the Bums.

Cigar Tasting For Noobs

A lot of noobs have asked me to clarify some of the terms I use when I post cigar reviews so I thought I would do a quick primer on terminology and tasting. Please note I do not claim to be an expert on this subject and there are plenty of members here whose palates are more refined than mine and can more eloquently describe the flavors in a cigar.

Like fine wine or haute cuisine cigars offer a plethora of flavors for you to explore, identify and enjoy. Tasting cigars is an “art” and not a science that’s because while cigars have some basic flavors the more subtle flavors can be described differently from one reviewer to the next and neither would be wrong. Cigar tasting is very subjective and there are few rules when it comes to tasting so if you are interested in doing reviews don’t feel intimidated just write about what you taste.

The Basics: Body & Strength

Many people are confused by the terms body and strength, and they are sometimes used interchangeably, which is often incorrect.

Body-refers the way the smoke feels in you mouth. A mild bodied cigar is said to have thin smoke and sometimes lacks any stand out flavors. The smoke from a mild bodied cigar could be described like water, where as a medium bodied cigars may be more akin to Kool Aid or juice and full-bodied cigars have the mouth feel of chocolate milk.

Quality of smoke also plays a role in describing the body of smoke. Is the smoke smooth & silky, harsh, gritty, oily or drying?

Strength- refers to the nicotine content and the potential adverse effects it may have on the smoker. I describe mild strength as feeling a little lightheaded and some mild palpitations, medium strength means I’m starting to sweat and my stomach is getting upset and full strength means I’ve probably got the bed spins and am about ready to hurl. Everyone metabolizes nicotine differently and one person’s mild strength is another man’s vomit comet. As you smoke more often you may build a tolerance to full strength cigars, but some people never do including yours truly.

Flavors: Real Versus Perceived

Many people describe flavors of cigars in two separate fashions. First is the actual flavor they get on their tongue or in their mouth. The other is more of what the taste reminds you of or a memory of a smell from your past. For example a lot of people describe a cigar as having flavors of leather, have they eaten leather in the past to know what it tastes like. I hope not, but we all know that smell the first time we got a new leather jacket or carved a belt out of naugahyde in our high school shop class.

How Can You Learn To Taste Better?

Not grammatically correct I know, but what are some things you can do to improve your ability to perceive flavors in cigars.

Lighting: Many people espouse the benefits of toasting a cigar, while others view it as a ploy by manufacturers to sell more butane. Regardless of your stance on this issue the cooler burning a cigar the less harsh flavors it will have. The goal in lighting is to get all three parts (filler, binder, wrapper) of the cigar burning at the same time without overheating it.

Breathe: The first thing to do is breathe when you draw on a cigar. Many people close their airways when they draw in the smoke and smelling is just as important to identifying flavors as tastes.

Hold: Hold the smoke in your mouth for a few seconds before blowing it out let it wash over your taste buds.

Retrohale: This is the process of blowing the smoke out of your nose, again similar to breathing on inhale, you are smelling the remainder of the smoke again hopefully leading to more perceptible flavors

Lip/Tongue Smack: Not sure what else to call it but touch your lips together and the tongue to the roof of your mouth again and again after you expel the smoke and try to see what residual flavors remain. For me personally this is how I best identify the flavors when I’m doing a review.

Draw: Draw can have a huge impact on the flavors of your cigar. While I would love to tell you that there is one correct way to take a draw each cigar may require a totally different approach to enjoying it. Does the cigar have a loose pack or tight pack? Did you punch or cut the cigar? Is it a large or small ring gauge stick? Is it an “A” size or a half corona? All of these factors will require you to adjust how often, how hard & deep a draw to take. One thing I can tell you for sure, taking multiple draws within a few seconds will heat up the cherry and provide harsh flavors.

Slow Down- While this primarily related to draw, smoking fast can also heat up the cherry. So if you are not getting a lot of flavor, or your getting harsh hot flavors out of your cigar slow down. A good rule of thumb is also to slow down heading into the last third of the cigar to keep the stick cool and to prevent pulling the tar build up into the smoke.

Reference Tools:

I’m somewhat lucky in that I have decent taste buds and can pick up a lot of flavors in anything I drink, eat and smoke. Growing up watching my mother cook and later in life developing a passion for gourmet cooking helped me identify flavors. Knowing which spices produce different flavors in a dish helps me identify similar flavors in cigars. The same goes for my passion for wine and understanding the different flavors that are imparted by the terroir, grapes and oak versus steel conditioning. As a homebrewer, I learned which malts; grains and yeast strains would produce different flavors in the beer. All of these past experiences have aided me as I moved to the cigar hobby.

I have attached a few references two cigar flavor wheels, a coffee flavor wheel and a link to a spice chart. Keep these in front of you when you are smoking a cigar and look at the charts as a tool and see if you can match up flavors in your cigar and the charts to help you better understand what you taste in your smoke.

I hope you found this information helpful in getting more flavor and enjoyment out of your cigars. If there is one sure direction I can point you in to learn more about flavors its to light up as often as you can and do your own research.

Spice Chart

http://www.cooksmarts.com/cooking-sc...voring-spices/

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/...psfd9n9tox.png

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/...psaumsczui.jpg

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/...psnksa7sf8.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Browns7213

How Can You Learn To Taste Better?

Not grammatically correct I know, but what are some things you can do to improve your ability to perceive flavors in cigars.

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I think it should be, "How Can You Learn To Taste More Better?"

This is a great and pretty much comprehensive post, David.

I think it's worth emphasizing the idea of slowing down. My perception is that a lot of people smoke too fast, which in turn makes the cigar burn too hot and can damage the flavors. I don't get any less pleasure from smoking a little slower, even setting aside the benefits of better taste and less ashtray-mouth.

The ONLY thing I can think to add is kind of the opposite of the retrohale, where you let a little bit of smoke exit your mouth and then inhale it through your nose. I get a lot of flavor from doing that, wind permitting of course. I've read of that being called a French inhale, so I guess we'd call it a Freedom inhale :cool:

Awesome Post @Browns7213 (MDSPhoto so much easier, damn you!) This should be a sticky

Thanks for the great post.
Information like this is exactly why I joined up!