Experiment in Tasting

[Troop_lee]

Interesting!

[Blues Tiger]

Okay, I finally had time to sit down and conduct the "test". I followed the instructions and made sure my palate was clean before trying the beans. The flavors I rec'd with my cigar were: Peach, Grapefruit, and Tangerine. I did not inspect the cigar in any way as per the instructions.

I chose to eat all three jellybeans of each flavor instead of one at a time, that is I ate all three of the Peach and so on... After each flavor, I washed my mouth out with water as instructed and moved on to the next. I chose to smoke the cigar immediately after all jellybeans had been consumed.

I cut the cap of the cigar with my Xikar and toasted the foot evenly.

First 1/3: At first, I did not taste anything that I could distinguish. However, after a while I started to notice something. As I continued, I could absolutely taste Peach! I have never been able to discern a flavor like this from a cigar before but there is no doubt that this was Peach I was tasting. I never tasted Tangerine, but as the first third moved into the second third I could still taste Peach and maybe a hint of Orange.

Second 1/3: As I stated above, the second third brought more Peach flavor and a hint of another citrus type flavor that I describe as Orange. I tried to exhale a little out of my nose, and I purged the cigar a few times too. After each purge, the flavor intensified. Honestly, I am very surprised that the flavors are as defined as I tasted them.

Final 1/3: The final third brought an end to the Peach flavor as well as the "Orange", and believe it or not I could now taste a mellow "Grapefruit" flavor. Now I don't know if this is my mind playing tricks on me or if the jellybeans really prepared my palate for this but I am not making this up! The Grapefruit flavor continued until I finally nubbed the cigar.

Overall, I am very excited about what I experienced. I have only been smoking cigars since January, and for the first time I was able to pick out flavors as the smoke progressed. I have no idea what kind of cigar this was, but I enjoyed it immensely and would def. smoke another.

Wayner123, I can't wait to find out what this was, and I can honestly say that I did in fact experience the flavors of the jellybeans except for the Tangerine. Maybe the power of suggestion led to this conclusion, but I hope that this has helped to further "train" my palate to distinguish flavors in cigars.

Thank you!
Blues Tiger

[Volt]

I'm with you a bit on the beans. I can't deciede if I was able to pick out the flavors I did because I nkew what the beans were or if it was an honest "training" of the pallette. At the moment I'm inclined to think it was honest. I may do a test my self wnd have the wife pull out the beans and not tell me what they are. Thanks for the review.

[wayner123]

Thanks for the review Blues Tiger. Two down, 3 to go.

[Volt]

Damn, my spelling normally sux, but cranked up on a narcotic cough medicine, my last post doesn't even make sense to me

[freakygar]

Originally Posted by Volt

I'm with you a bit on the beans. I can't deciede if I was able to pick out the flavors I did because I nkew what the beans were or if it was an honest "training" of the pallette. At the moment I'm inclined to think it was honest. I may do a test my self wnd have the wife pull out the beans and not tell me what they are. Thanks for the review.

WOW don't drive OK?

[Virginia Gent]

First off I thank wayner123 for the opportunity to participate in his experiment. I settled in after lunch with my magic beans, a bottle of water, and my mystery cigar. The bean flavors I received were black pepper, cinnamon, and A&W root beer. I chose to eat all three of the beans at once, giving each flavor about three minutes of mouth time and 10 to 15 minutes and liberal doses of water between each flavor.

The Beans:
Of the sample beans the black pepper was by far the most dominant flavor and took quite a bit longer to clear out than the other two. The flavor was dead-on and my mouth actually felt like I had put a spoonful of pepper in my mouth. The A&W bean started off tasting exactly like A&W but the flavor was unsteady and changed several times. The cinnamon was unspectacular and fleeting.

The Cigar:
The smoke began with a toast and light from the torch. Within the first quarter inch I was hit with a strong black pepper sensation . I say sensation because I can't really say it was a flavor. I got the same mouth-feel and the burning sensation as I got from the bean. It never quite came together into the actual flavor but it was damn close.

After about the first inch the pepper sensation faded away and the cigar lost (or I couldn't identify) any flavor apart from tobacco smoke. It stayed that way until around the final two inches.

At around the final two inch mark I started getting a flavor change. I would pick up a hint of something, something just identifiable as different, and then it was gone again. This kept up for four or five puffs until around the inch and a half mark and then it added a couple new dimensions, just as fleeting. This part of the cigar put me in mind of the A&W bean with it's unsteady flavor. Some of the flavors in this part of the smoke seemed like they were brushing up against some of the root beer bean's but I couldn't hold onto them long enough for them to click into place. It was "yes, no, G*****n it" up until the end.

[Volt]

Hmmmm, well that's 2 out of 3 that found it to be very strong in the tobacco taste. Can't wait to see how the rest go.

[wayner123]

Virginia Gent, thanks so much for your review. These are very good reviews. They answer most of the questions I have. Two more to go. I know DennisP won't be able to do his till this weekend due to a mouth sore, so we have at least until then before I can start wrapping up the data.

[DennisP]

OK, just finished my cigar, haven't read any review yet so I wasn't influenced. Thanks for understanding my delay.

Prelight draw: Airy, light hints of flavor can’t quite nail down, maybe woodsy/cedery.

1/3: Trouble getting good amount of smoke, so flavors are mild. Picking up some peppery hints. There is a sweetness I’m tasting, but can’t relate it to something I’m familiar with yet. The pepper flavor is becoming more noticeable and really strong when I visualize pepper. The cigar is now burning a little cooler, slowing down the puffs, less peppery this way and I’m getting a leathery taste. I also had some hints of a citrus taste like orange, but it was mild and faded quickly.

2/3: Entering the second third the cigar is feeling very loose. The pepper flavor is getting more intense and so far I’m not getting other flavors. I’m finding it hard to not keep it from burning hot, which is where I’m getting the pepper flavor. The problem is when I have it cooled I pick up some other flavors, but can’t pinpoint right away, I take another puff and get the pepper.

Home stretch: Really trying to cool this down. When cool I get some of the leather tastes again. The draw is very, very loose and I’m surprised at the volume of smoking I’m getting from such a lightly packed cigar at this point. Getting towards the end I’m picking up some much different flavors now. I’m getting a toasty nut/burn coffee type of flavor.

As is fairly obvious, the strongest flavor I picked up was pepper. I think if this cigar was rolled with a little more tobacco I could’ve picked up more on the other flavors I occasionally tasted. The beans helped in the visualization aspect, but I did not taste any of the flavors in this cigar.

[DennisP]

Forgot to put the beans I had were watermelon, blueberry, plum, grass and dirt.

Interesting that two flavors I mentioned, lots of pepper and few mild hints of orange were mentioned by others and even used as beans for others. I hadn't read anything yet so the similarities are interesting. I'm wondering if we all had the same cigar or not.

[Volt]

"I'm wondering if we all had the same cigar or not."

Hehe, only Wayne knows the answer to that one. Thanks for your review.

[wayner123]

Originally Posted by DennisP

Forgot to put the beans I had were watermelon, blueberry, plum, grass and dirt.

Interesting that two flavors I mentioned, lots of pepper and few mild hints of orange were mentioned by others and even used as beans for others. I hadn't read anything yet so the similarities are interesting. I'm wondering if we all had the same cigar or not.

Thanks for the review. I only know one other that experienced the pepper you did, Virginia Gent. And we will get into "why" that may be when the testing is complete. I will say that your review went exactly as I had hoped for though.

[Mark C]

Finally did my test tonight. Sorry for slacking, life happened. Since the weather is still awful crappy here, I thought tonight would be a good time to test out another experiment... 'can I smoke in my workshop without getting caught'. The wife'll be back in an hour or so, I'll update on that later

For what it's worth, I have not read any of the posts in this thread since I received the package a week ago. My 'taste package' included 1 unbanded cigar, looked like a maduro with a loose box press, and I'm guessing a robusto but I didn't measure [I did NOT 'inspect' the cigar, but short of smoking blindfolded it's hard to miss size/shape/color]. There were also 3 peanut butter jelly beans, and 2 Dove dark chocolates. I ate the beans first, not what I expected for peanut butter but they were quite tasty. I thought they were more like caramel with a slight nutty flavor mixed in. And the chocolates were excellent (those are a guilty pleasure of mine, thanks!). Then I grabbed a glass of water and went down to my shop to work on a stained glass project.

I fired up the cigar and the chocolate flavor jumped out at me. It was a very smooth cigar, LOTS of thick, dark grey smoke, even burn, good flavor, etc. The draw was a little too loose in my opinion. I'm terrible at guessing body/strength, but I'd say this was a 'full bodied' smoke, but medium strength. The smoke felt thick and heavy in my mouth, though creamy and smooth at the same time. I didn't find any pepper at all, which was a pleasant surprise, I'm not usually a fan of that taste. The first third of the cigar remained pretty constant. I kept looking for that peanut butter flavor, but it just wasn't there for me.

In the 2nd third, the chocolate flavors started to die out and past the halfway mark it started to get a little hot. I wasn't smoking too fast since I had to set the cigar down to work on my glass. At this point another flavor started to take over. I'm not sure exactly what it was, maybe a 'woodsy' taste, cedar maybe? I dunno, but it wasn't a bad thing. Oddly enough once or twice after I set the cigar down and caught a whiff of smoke in the air I thought I caught a hint of that peanut butter flavor, but I may have been looking for it. I also thought I smelled a little vanilla. Probably not 7 yr old Madagascar vanilla, but vanilla nonetheless.

Into the last 3rd, it started to get tough to keep the cigar lit. I had to relight twice and the flavors were the same as the 2nd third, but not as strong. I wasn't getting nearly as much smoke as before either. When it went out the 3rd time I let it die gracefully. Towards the end I started to feel a very slight nicotine buzz, but only just barely and it didn't last long after I let the stogie die.

Overall, I did enjoy the stogie. I think the chocolates in the tasting package helped jog my memory and help identify at least one of the flavors. It seemed to be a fairly simple smoke, while I couldn't identify exactly what the flavors were, it didn't strike me as a complex combination. I'm not even going to begin to guess origin or brand, but I certainly wouldn't mind smoking another one.

Now it's time to go catch up on what everyone else thought!

EDIT - After reading the other reviews, I'll be surprised if all the cigars were the same. Thinking back to that smoke, I can't imagine finding anything that tasted like peach or citrus in the stick I had... then again that could be the point of this exercise. Can't wait to hear the conclusions!

[wayner123]

Whoo Hoo!!! All the reviews are in. Thank you guys so much for helping. I truly appreciate it.

I will have the data crunched and put together by tomorrow. Thanks again!!