Home Cigar 101

Developing Your Palate

135678

Comments

  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    kuzi16:
    a lot of times ill often describe that as "grassy"
    aww yes grassy would be a great way to describe that.... umm its no good haha

    i really liked this blueberry flavor though it certainly caught me off gaurd
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    i think a grass flavor can have its place if its done right. all too often it isnt done right.
  • kaspera79kaspera79 Posts: 7,257 ✭✭✭
    kuzi16:
    i think a grass flavor can have its place if its done right. all too often it isnt done right.
    I would take your comment one step further, very seldom is a grass flavor done right,

    (in cigars). Except maybe at the very start, and very short before a BIG flavor explosion.
  • FourtotheflushFourtotheflush Posts: 2,555
    Bluberries in Bourbon!
    Interesting, Ive never been down that road
  • LukoLuko Posts: 2,003 ✭✭
    I smoked something with a "grassy" flavor in college once. It was weird.
  • urbinourbino Posts: 4,517
    Fourtotheflush:
    Blueberries in Bourbon!
    Interesting, Ive never been down that road
    Likewise. It's wacky. Wacky, I say. Frankly, I think maddy is making it up.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    its amazing what you may be able to find in a cigar or in any other thing that has a fermentation proscess to it.

    one thing that i do in my everyday life to help develop my cigar life is to pay an abnormal amount of time to taste. If i eat something i really try to think of the flavor as i eat it. I dont just casually taste something anymore. I actively taste things. this simple daily thing helps more than i ever thought it would.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    urbino:
    Fourtotheflush:
    Blueberries in Bourbon!
    Interesting, Ive never been down that road
    Likewise. It's wacky. Wacky, I say. Frankly, I think maddy is making it up.
    It was actually one a buddy brought me he was smoking the same one and it took us a few minutes to pin down the flavor and neither of us could believe it was bluberries. BTW I was SMOKING a makers mark 10th not drinking.
  • urbinourbino Posts: 4,517
    madurofan:
    urbino:
    Fourtotheflush:
    Blueberries in Bourbon!
    Interesting, Ive never been down that road
    Likewise. It's wacky. Wacky, I say. Frankly, I think maddy is making it up.
    It was actually one a buddy brought me he was smoking the same one and it took us a few minutes to pin down the flavor and neither of us could believe it was bluberries. BTW I was SMOKING a makers mark 10th not drinking.
    Oh oh oh. I thought you were drinking. I can totally believe blueberry flavors in a cigar.
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    hmm well like i mentioned earlier i found a blueberry flavor in a cigar and it wasnt like a acid or one of those flavored cigars. how is this possible? how do these nutty, vanilla, chocolate, leather, and everything in between flavors get into the tobacco smoke? is some of this just like in the smokers head?
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    its not that the flavors are put there. Its that they are hinted at. or that its on that side of, or that it reminds you of that.
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    so it is in the mind im not sure what you mean by hinted at though
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    BigDan.:
    so it is in the mind im not sure what you mean by hinted at though
    did you read the original post in this thread?

    go out and try it. you will then understand. this requires participation.

    i cant explain "tastes" without using another taste. its like referencing a color without making mention of another color:

    what does blue look like?

    wel... it looks blue.
    is that in your mind? if so then so are tastes.

    go back read the first post again. try the things i was talking about. If you dont understand by then, you may have a longer road in front of you when it comes to developing your palate.
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    well im not sure how this will work however im not going to knock it before i try it so ill give it a shot today actually and ill come back ive found that coffee works great when trying to taste the flavors however ive found that a lot of other drinks and foods make my mouth to acidic is there a good way to tone this down?
  • rusiriusrusirius Posts: 565 ✭✭
    kuzi16:
    BigDan.:
    so it is in the mind im not sure what you mean by hinted at though
    did you read the original post in this thread?

    go out and try it. you will then understand. this requires participation.

    i cant explain "tastes" without using another taste. its like referencing a color without making mention of another color:

    what does blue look like?

    wel... it looks blue.
    is that in your mind? if so then so are tastes.

    go back read the first post again. try the things i was talking about. If you dont understand by then, you may have a longer road in front of you when it comes to developing your palate.
    Big Dan... Let me get all Zen on ya for a minute... Bwhahaha...

    EVERYTHING is mind...

    If you think of the way we experience things through our senses... Let's think of touch... Touching something generates electrical pulses which are carried to our brains and then "interpreted" into what we experience... EVERY sense works this same way... Which is why for example someone in a great mood can say it's a "decent" day outside while someone in a foul mood will think the weather on the same day is terrible...

    Taste is no different...

    So yes, to answer your question it is all in your mind... but so is everything else... so am I... so is kuzi... If it weren't for your mind you'd no longer be a receiver and the world would no longer exist...

    With that said... How you interpret something could be WILDLY different than how I do... What I experience as red could very well be what you experience as blue... But if red is red to me and red is red to you, why does it matter if your red is my blue?

    With that said, as kuzi stated, some things you just have to experience for yourself...
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    ok well today i had the 5 vegas A it was my first stick in about a week and a half or so. it had a really dark wrapper which totally turned me off at first and the initial flavor seemed spicy and not quite what i was
    .
    looking for in a morning smoke but what the heck. well i lit this baby up and fell in love it seemed just the perfect amount of flavor and body like a medium-full and it had the most amazing flavors

    at first i tasted a dark chocolate flavor which i wasnt expecting because im not a chocolate person however this was fantastic then i had some nutty type flavors i would say maybe

    peanut but not exactly at one point for about 2 or 3 draws i tasted a new car taste that totally cought me off gaurd however i loved it , it was a true sensation, i also had some very pleasant floral notes near the end, unfortunatly i didnt have the full time to complete this cigar i wanted to smoke it to the

    very tip but i had to go after about a hour and 45 minutes and there was almost a inch left it was sad, i really enjoyed the Fonseca but i think this is my new favorite cigar, i loved the slight spicyness

    to it and the dark wrapper was exceptional i couldnt get enough of this cigar , i would love to hear more about cigars like this to eventually try them out
  • j0z3rj0z3r Posts: 9,403 ✭✭
    If you can find it anywhere Dan, I'd recommend checking out the Cusano P1 line of cigars, especially the corona and churchill. They go for around the same price as a 5 Vegas, and I think they're wonderful smokes. Medium-full and chock full of dark flavors like cocoa and espresso. I actually did a full review of each size in the line if you look around the reviews section. I think you'd like this one if you liked the 5 Vegas Series "A".
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    hey thanks joe ill go check those out, is the series A limited or the p1 , im actually not a churchill person but i would probably enjoy the corona i like sticks around 5 1/2 with a 48 or over ring gauge. im going to read those reviews right now thanks again joe
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    do you understand now how tastes work?

    this comes thruogh the development of your palate.
  • BigDan.BigDan. Posts: 211
    i understand how it works its not like a dominant flavor but like the flavors that are there will remind me of things or like you said "hint" at it thats the only way i can put it. i dont know how great my palate is right now but i made a lot of progress. thanks Kuzi and everyone else that helped
  • j0z3rj0z3r Posts: 9,403 ✭✭
    BigDan.:
    hey thanks joe ill go check those out, is the series A limited or the p1 , im actually not a churchill person but i would probably enjoy the corona i like sticks around 5 1/2 with a 48 or over ring gauge. im going to read those reviews right now thanks again joe
    The P1 isn't limited, I just don't know how wide-spread it would be in shops. You can find them here on ccom, but you've already mentioned you're not old enough to buy from here, so that limits your options.

    Also a note on developing your palate... this is not going to happen overnight, hell it probably won't happen over the course of a month. I haven't been smoking for a long time, less than a year, and my palate is still developing. Kuzi's guide will point you in the right direction and is quite informative, but ultimately you just need to smoke different cigars for a good while and note what flavors you recognize and contemplate on what you can't quite place. As with all good things, it takes some time.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    j0z3r:
    Also a note on developing your palate... this is not going to happen overnight, hell it probably won't happen over the course of a month.
    this is a good point. but dont be upset. even if you are only at the "i like that" or I dont like that" stage and you have no idea why, thats fine. the point is that you enjoy cigars and thats good enough for me.

    I may have an unfair advantage when it comes to the subject of taste. most of what i do in life is taste. I cook for a living. i have no less than a case of wine in the house at any given moment. I enjoy all types of beer. I cook with my wife. I take cooking classes for fun. I smoke cigars.
    I would say that 90% of my life has something to do with taste. when you are this focused on taste you cant help but develop your palate.
  • Glad this thread is here, i definately need help developing my palette. I have a hard time detecting subtle smells (and therefore tastes) I've come to the conclusion that my sense of smell was damaged from chronic sinusitis when I was a kid.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    im glad it helped. make sure to get plenty of practice.

    and dont feel bad if you dont get a bunch of flavors all the time, as long as you like it, thats the big thing.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    Ive been meaning to put these up here for quite some time. I think some of you may already have these.

    image

    image

    image

  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    VERY KEWL Kuzi, Thank You.
  • kaspera79kaspera79 Posts: 7,257 ✭✭✭
    Yeah, I got this from you a few months ago and refer to them frequently.. Very Nice. Thanks for posting them. These will help identify that taste you can't quite put your finger( or tastebud) on. I especially like the yellow one.
  • urbinourbino Posts: 4,517
    Yes, thanks, kuz! Very handy.

    It's odd that the top one lists "Sweaty" and "Butyric Acid" as two separate odors/tastes. Butyric acid is the primary component of B.O.
  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    urbino:
    Yes, thanks, kuz! Very handy.

    It's odd that the top one lists "Sweaty" and "Butyric Acid" as two separate odors/tastes. Butyric acid is the primary component of B.O.

    Urbi... have you ever had a stick which could be described like that?
    Sounds like a stick which was kept "fresh" in a sweaty Gym sock :(
  • urbinourbino Posts: 4,517
    Can't say that I have, happily. OTOH, butyric acid is also a prominent component of butter (hence the name), and I have had cigars that tasted buttery.
Sign In or Register to comment.