Tuesday, September 12 2006
How about those cigar tasting reviews that mention "hints of nuts and coffee," "notes of wood," "leather," "nutmeg," "cocoa and coffee bean," etc.? Do these flavors really exist? Well, the reviewers certainly wouldn't make them up now, would they?
I believe it all started with Cigar Aficionado magazine. M. Shanken Communications, which also publishes Wine Spectator, the leading wine connoisseur magazine that preceded it, probably felt that using wine-tasting parlance as the basis for describing cigars in Aficionado made sense. And if you compare wine to cigars, they have a lot in common - but that's a subject for another article.
Although some cigar smokers contend that such tasting descriptions are a lot of "BS," to be fair, when it comes to cigar tasting, what you taste in the smoke is exclusively subjective. I, myself, have tasted many of those very flavors mentioned above and use them in describing the cigars in my online reviews, as well as for the Famous Smoke Shop website and catalog. Believe it or not, I try to play down specific flavors unless I taste them on a consistent basis. Go to any of the major cigar manufacturer websites, cigar community sites, or the dozens of other online cigar retailers, and you'll find similar descriptions.
On the other hand, I've met many experienced cigar smokers who've never tasted any of these flavors. One could argue that some of these flavors are more present in the aroma of the smoke rather than how they're defined by your palate, and more often than not, it's a combination of the two.
So let's get down to it. The flavors you taste in a cigar depend entirely on the sensitivity of your particular taste buds. It's easier to say that a cigar is simply "mild," "robust," "toasty," or "creamy" because those are terms to which we can easily relate. I think most cigars can be summed up into essentially four "flavor" categories: "woody," "sweet," "earthy," and "spicy." A mix of some, or all, of the latter would make the cigar "complex" or "multidimensional."
It all comes down to two things that literally allow you to experience the "taste" of a cigar: your tongue and your sinuses. These organs are designed to tell you if a cigar is peppery, spicy, salty, sweet, etc. While your tongue provides the basic taste readings, it's the sinuses that deliver the more subtle variations in flavor. If you can blow the smoke through your nose without inhaling you will really get a nice read on the cigar, but it takes a little practice (cigarette smokers are good at this).
According to an article I read on this topic a few years ago, one of the best times to taste anything - coffee, cigars, even wine - is in the morning when your taste buds are wide awake and you haven't had anything to eat or drink in the past eight hours. But you don't have to smoke a fine cigar at 7:00 AM to appreciate its finer qualities. The best time to light-up is when you have the chance to kick back and really enjoy it, like after dinner or at a cigar-friendly establishment (if you can find one now). That said, even what you ate before you light-up can affect your palate's response to a particular blend.
It also helps if you smoke the cigar indoors. Ever notice how food tastes and even smells different outdoors? Wind, temperature and humidity can affect both the burn and the flavor of a cigar as well.
The ability to appreciate the taste of a fine cigar really comes down to your particular biochemistry and maybe even more importantly, the experience of smoking many different cigars over time. To that end, as one's palate becomes more "sophisticated," cigars that may have been "strong" or "spicy" to you in the past, may now be considered "mild" or "robust." Suffice to say, to each his (or her) own. Whatever cigar you smoke, the important thing is that you enjoy it.
~ Gary Korb
