Saturday, July 02 2011
In honor of José Blanco's recently announced retirement, Doc Stogie gave me permission to post this fascinating article on tasting cigars with the man, himself. - G.K.
By David "Doc Stogie" Diaz | StogieFresh.com
I recently returned from another trip to the Dominican Republic, this time hosted by Miami Cigar & Company and as a guest of La Aurora Cigars. This was my fifth sojourn to the island and it was every bit as enjoyable as my first four visits.
We enjoyed every aspect of this trip including, a tour of the La Aurora factory, a walk through one of their tobacco fields, visits to some great local restaurants, and an excursion to one of the lovely Dominican beaches. Not to mention plenty of cigars and libations.
But perhaps the most educational part of the trip was the nearly 3-hour-long cigar tasting seminar that was put on by José Blanco, Director of Sales for the company. José has been in the game a long time and he has learned many things about cigars and the cigar industry. He is also very eager to share this knowledge with those around him.
The seminar was divided into 2-parts. The first part was designed to demonstrate the effects of different
wrapper types on the overall flavor in a cigar. To accomplish this, José had some cigars created that had 5 different wrapper types on the same cigar (see photo below). With the same filler and
binder throughout the cigar, we were able to taste the differences in the wrapper types as we worked our way through the cigar.
Besides demonstrating that different wrappers would lend distinctly different flavor and body characteristics to a cigar, the seminar also showed us that no matter how many people taste a cigar, it is likely that they will all get slightly different perceptions about the flavors. Most of us attending the seminar had a lot of experience tasting cigars and describing those flavors, but our descriptions of the test cigar varied: sometimes subtly and sometimes substantially.
The second part of the seminar was designed to show us how different filler blends and binders will change the flavors in cigars with the same wrappers. This is the corollary to the first part of the seminar. If different wrapper types will change the flavor and body of cigars with the same filler and binder, then different fillers and binders will no doubt change the flavors of cigars with the same wrapper types. Again, not only was this notion supported, but our descriptions of the flavors and body were diverse, showing once again that individual perceptions of flavor, body and strength are unique to the individual.
I was able to take some video footage during the seminar and after returning from the trip I stitched together some of the high points of the seminar. You can view this video by clicking the video frame below. Enjoy!
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(This article originally appeared in the StogieFresh Newsletter of April 11, 2011)
David "Doc" Diaz is the publisher of Stogie Fresh and the editor of the Stogie Fresh Cigar Journal. He has served as an educator, researcher and writer and has taught in the Health Education and Health Science field for over 30 years. He possesses an earned doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Learn more by visiting www.stogiefresh.com.
