Identifying tastes, flavors.

[ToothyNipper]

I'm a new smoker, being a newbie in the jungle and all, and I'm just now finding cigars that I like. It's taken me months to discern what cigars have the flavors and aromas that not only agree with, but also please my palate, taste buds, and smell.

And as I smoke more often, and as my tastes prefer what I think to be better grades of cigars, I'm finding it difficult to identify the tastes and flavors in the cigars. I know I like what I'm tasting, like tonight, when I smoked a Camacho Corojo Perfecto, but I can't figure out just what I'm tasting.

I wonder if it's my sense of taste, or if it's just my breadth of taste knowledge. If anyone has any advice, or stories about similar expieriences, I'd love to hear it all.

Thanks,
Jesse

[TU09]

My tastes are not honed to the degree of CA reviewers but I can pick out coffee, cocoa, toast, wood, nuts, and can make a few distinctions within these categories (cafe au lait, peanuts, toasted nuts, etc.). For me, these abilities seem to have come with experience and reading other BOTLs reviews.

Flavors, of course, are difficult to describe. It is impossible to describe flavor in absolute terms and produce anything meaningful. Subsequently, we relate the flavors we experience to other items with similar qualities such as those items listed above. As such, we describe cigar flavors primarily using common foodstuffs as opposed to degrees of sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness.

When I first started drinking wine I encountered a similar situation. There would be flavors in the wine which were familiar, but I could not determine what, exactly, they resembled. I started reading tasting reviews while and after drinking and found that I recognized all the tastes described by the reviewers but had not been able to verbalize them. The more I taste and the more I read, the better I am able to describe the flavors I experience in terms of other items; black currants, lemon grass, black pepper, etc.

I think that reading reviews by others who have enjoyed the same product is a great way to build your flavor describing abilities, it has been for me at least. This is just my experience and I am sure it differs from some other primates.

[ToothyNipper]

Thanks a lot. That helps more than you know. I agree, too, with a lot of what you say, and you're taste buds are impressive.

[Corona Gigante]

Sideways is a really funny film about a wine lover, Miles, and his horny friend, Jack, on vacation in the California wine country. At one point, Miles tries to teach Jack to identify flavors in the wine.

A little citrus. Maybe some strawberry. Mmm. Passion fruit, mmm, and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like, uh, asparagus, and, there's a, just a flutter of, like a, like a nutty Edam cheese.

I can't find the full quote, but at one point, Miles identifies a hint of "baby diaper." According to Paul Giamatti, who plays Miles in the movie, baby diaper is an actual scent listed on professional wine taster's "scent wheel."

Chocolate, coffee, black cherry, leather, citrus, nuts are all pretty easily identifiable flavors. I've noticed hints of manure (both cow and horse), boot polish, and "new car smell" in some of the smokes I've enjoyed recently. So go to town! As TU09 said, it can be fun and instructive to compare one's own observations with other people's and a great way to tune your palate. Only, if you can taste hints of burnt 7-year old Madagascar Vanilla, it's probably better to keep that to yourself.