Affect of Food/Drink on Cigar Taste

[96Brigadier]

I've been smoking cigars off and on for several years, but am really only starting to get serious about it. I recently purchased a Corona Gorda sampler of Cuban cigars and am going through them to see what I like and don't like. My question is more around the effect of food and drink on a cigar. Is there a big affect? i.e. if I smoke two cigars of the same brand, one with food/drink and one without, are they going to taste that much different? If I am sampling different cigars to see what I like and don't like, should I smoke each with the same food/drink to ensure a fair comparison?

So far I've tried the Punch Punch Punch and a Ramon Allones Specially Selected. Of those two, I smoked the Punch without any food or drink and the Ramon while also having a beer. While I enjoyed the Punch, I really enjoyed the Ramon. My.. concern if you will is that I enjoyed the Ramon more than the Punch because of the addition of the beer.

Also, I noticed that the next morning I had a bit of the ash tray mouth after smoking the Punch, but had no after affects the next day after the Ramon. Could that be because of the difference in having a drink with one and not the other, or is that just the cigar?

Any comments/feedback appreciated

[shunoshi]

The short answer is, yes. Food/drink will affect a cigar's flavor (at least how it's perceived). This applies really to anything that can be tasted. Once your palate is introduced to a given flavor profile it will magnify other flavors.

For instance, if you take a bite of chocolate, the flavor will be sweet. Try eating something salty first, then take a bite of the same chocolate. The sweetness will be magnified.

The same can be said for cigars. If you take a sip of a nice stout, then a puff on your cigar, you may notice some of the sweeter flavors of the cigar that would have otherwise been masked without preparing your palate. This is why cigar/food/drink pairing is great.

Hope that all made sense in my non-scientific way of putting it.

[RobustBrad]

Shunoshi is spot on with his response. I"ll just highlight it a bit further. Although not as common, pairing a cigar with food is very similar to pairing wine with foods.

Although I rarely eat/smoke at the same time when I do I try and stay along the same lines as if I was drinking a glass of wine. Red wines / Maduro or darker wrappers with meats and heavier dishes. White wines / lighter wrappers with fish, pastas and lighter dishes.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brad

[96Brigadier]

Originally Posted by RobustBrad

Shunoshi is spot on with his response. I"ll just highlight it a bit further. Although not as common, pairing a cigar with food is very similar to pairing wine with foods.

Although I rarely eat/smoke at the same time when I do I try and stay along the same lines as if I was drinking a glass of wine. Red wines / Maduro or darker wrappers with meats and heavier dishes. White wines / lighter wrappers with fish, pastas and lighter dishes.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brad

Thanks, I suspected as much but good to have confirmation. I'm probably not giving all of these cigars a fair shake if I'm not trying them with food/drink, will have to make sure I do that.

[Flux]

I usually smoke after a meal so I really don't worry about food pairings. I don't drink anymore but when I did I always shied away from pairing wine with a cigar. It seemed that the smoke would always overpower the wine, no matter the type. Nowadays I stick with club soda when I smoke. It's neutral and also a palate cleanser so i get the full flavor profile of whatever I am smoking.

Works for me.

[shunoshi]

Originally Posted by 96Brigadier

Thanks, I suspected as much but good to have confirmation. I'm probably not giving all of these cigars a fair shake if I'm not trying them with food/drink, will have to make sure I do that.

If you're trying to judge one cigar against another, I would remove any other component. Just because one cigar goes good with a given food/drink doesn't mean another will. If you aren't really concerned with judging them, smoke your cigars with whatever pleases you and complements your smoke.

[JamesY]

I had a CAO Gold with an A&W Root Beer the other day and WOW!!! Very delicious! Especially after a spaghetti with meatballs dinner.

[Stench]

I had some dark chocolate with cayenne pepper in it with a cigar yesterday...very interesting!

[e-man]

Here's a neat trick I picked up:

If a cigar's flavor is overwhelming, then drink some Dr. Pepper and it will mellow out. Just one swig of Dr. Pepper can make anything seem bland. Eat a piece of chocolate, drink some Dr. Pepper, then eat another piece. The second piece will be virtually flavorless.


Human senses adapt to their environment. When you stare at a light bulb and close your eves, you still see the bright spot. A swimming pool may feel warm until you sit in the hot tub, then the pool will feel cold as ice. The same processes are at work in your taste buds. Certain aspects of the previous flavor will linger and affect the perception of the next flavor tasted. That's why eating/drinking certain things will "bring out" flavors in a cigar.


There are two schools to cleansing (resetting) your palette. Turning all your receptors on vs. turning all your receptors off. Both approaches result in a net-zero effect (no bias to any particular flavor).


In sushi, you eat pickled ginger between pieces to reset your palette, as it has an intense balance of the five basic flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and hot.

In beer judging, we used IMO (fake sour cream) between beers. Very bland. Kinda sets everything back to zero. However, it is still common practice to start light and work towards the darker beers.

Of course with cigars, there are also oils that coat your mouth and cause the flavor to linger. Most people recommend citrus drinks to cut through those oils and wash them away.

[cherrymax]

Water and beer seem to cleanse the pallet well and make the cigar flavors come through more.