Identifying Flavours

[Undercover]

Thanks - yes, funnily enough after I wrote that I thought of the chocolate brownies in the canteen at the last place I was working. Absolutely delicious. Best I've ever had. Yet on reflection, they don't really taste much of chocolate at all!

[PeeJay]

Great post Paul and chocolate is a great example of a perceived flavour. Next time you have chocolate cake try a piece of chocolate too. The cake probably won't taste anything like chocolate and why should it, its flavoured with cocoa. We're conditioned to accept that as chocolate cake and that can sometimes be the case with what we perceive when we smoke our cigars.

[Undercover]

Too true. We could all smoke the same cigar and the taste and aroma would evoke something different in each of us. Our own individual experiences of the same brand/size cigar will vary too. And given we are talking about identifying 'flavours' in something our brain isn't conditioned to 'tasting' (smoke), is it any wonder we only ever get hints or ideas of what it is? My brain thinks coffee is a warm brown liquid and chocolate is a solid brown lump. Even coffee cake gets 'confusing' unless it's very strong flavouring.

In fact, my sense of taste and smell is pretty poor and I used to get hung up on not being able to identify anything. I've got a bit 'better' at it, but it has to be a pretty obvious taste for me to get it. The value is in mentally cataloging what cigars I enjoy and if I can ascribe some familiar tastes and smells, that makes it interesting. To be honest, a lot of the pleasure of cigars for me is in the overall 'general' experience rather than the tiny details of whether I can taste nutmeg or cocoa.

There are some cigars I enjoy just because I do. I couldn't tell you why. They just tick the right boxes. That's how I started - varying degrees of like or dislike, tasty/delicious or not tasty, smells nice or horrible - and that's all you really need. If you love chocolate and taste that one day, great. If you don't, well, did you still enjoy the cigar and how much? Worth getting another? Worth getting a whole box? Worth telling your friends about it?

When I read a review, I remind myself it's one individual's experience of one cigar. It might prompt me to try it, but I don't expect it to smoke the same way.

[Simon G]

great advice tippexx

[Monty Cristo]

Have to agree here. This is not a science. It's a personal, subjective opinion on a cigar and there are plenty of people out there that try to think of ever more obscure descriptives to prove how clever they are. Just relax, enjoy your cigar and if it reminds you of something, then by all means file it away or feel free to say so. Just don't go all Jilly Goolden on us!

[PeeJay]

And too many reviewers talk a load of shit. Easier and less confounding just to enjoy your cigars.

Too bloody true!

[oskihen]

Tippex, talk a load of shit and just enjoy your cigar , two of the best statements I've read on here spot on advice sir

[tippexx]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this sounds silly but any tips on identifying particular flavours in cigars? I can taste the different flavours but cant quite pick out what they are!

It isn't silly at all. There are no 'flavours' in cigars just chemical enzymes released in the smoke and which your brain attempts to rationalise (identify) by calling upon all the taste sensations in your memory. Your mouth does very little, it recognises only bitter, sour, salty and sweet. All the real work is done in the nose. Your nose can pick-out thousands of tastes, but unless your brain knows what they are you can't identify them.

If you were a dog I would say you were useless, a dog can pick up more smells on a walk than you will in a lifetime, but by the time he's got home he'll have forgotten 99.99% of them. When I smoke my cigars most of the tastes are unidentifiable, it's only occasionally I hit on something I might claim as a specific .... as my old cigar mentor once said .... it's all in the head. And too many reviewers talk a load of shit. Easier and less confounding just to enjoy your cigars.

[SteveGriff]

Picking up flavours is also about practice and experience IMO. You will pick up flavours but understanding what you're tasting isn't as easy as it seems first time round. Plus over time you'll work what nuances makes up one brand and makes up another.

[STEVEYB112]

I have reverse tasting... Smoke first, cannot pick out anything I recognise...Then for several days after find it in everything I eat!

I smoked a P2 as one of my first cigars, didnt recognise a thing...Later I had some Christmas cake, Partagas...Then a few days later, chocolate, Partagas...And so it continues!

[jmorgo7]

I'll pop over now!

[cj121]

Why don't you pop over to the newbie greets, introduce yourself, and get some

[jmorgo7]

Cigar wheel will be a big help!

Really like matching my ciagrs with a drink (red wine seems the best so far) and ive been smoking very casually for five years now.

I'm a fan of maduro cigars which seem to have lots of flavour. Also I found retrohaling to give me a better idea of flavour but its a bit difficult with full strength cigars.

[oskihen]

See if this helps

[DogManDude]

Take your time. Focus. Close your eyes and see what comes to mind. It might help if you read other people's 'tasting notes.'

I used to be shite at it. Probably down to wolfing my food and drink. I used to neck scotch too and only when I slowed down and used my eyes and nose as well as my palette did I start to distinguish tastes.

Remember too that much of what we think of as taste is actually smell.

Take me your time. Unless you're one of those people who have a blind spot to tastes - pardon the pun - it'll come to you I'm sure.