Cigar Tasting

RoosterTX

So I've smoked a lot of cigars the past month or two. Have a nicely stocked humidor coming along with a tasty blend of what I like. As a relative newbie, I currently am in love with Nicaraguan maduros. I like the sweetness and almost feel like I can start tasting individual flavors in the cigars. Can anyone give me some hints on how I can start sniffing out individual flavors and better enjoying my smokes? I feel like I am on the cusp of doing so, but I am missing something. Any and all rookie help will be appreciated.

bbass2

Find a post by kuzi and click the link in his sig. It's a good place to start.

xmacro

bbass2:

Find a post by kuzi and click the link in his sig. It's a good place to start.

+1

Kuzi's already written the closest thing this forum has ever seen to a definitive guide to developing your palate

kuzi16

awe thanks guys

here is the link

RoosterTX

Thanks guys. Now I can try to start judging my cigars beyond "delicious" and "not delicious".

kuzi16

You should still decide that but now you know why.

webmost

Hey thanks for posting that link to kuzi's how-to. I have it in my bookmarks but it's been too long since I visited. Went back and read the thing again just now. It is right on. I can remember tasting a belt while smoking a cigar, trying to figure out why an on line review I was looking at said the cigar tasted like leather.

I used to ask kuzi all sorts of oddball questions. He was always helpful.

I would like to add one thing, though: Write your own reviews. Ever since the advent of writing, none of us have accurate memories. So jot it down. Some use a notebook. I use a free android app called rate my cigar. You don't have to write a page and a half of prose; just enough notes to remember your impression. The point is, writing it down makes you concentrate and identify in order to accurately express what you find. And it also helps you compare your notes from one cigar of the same blend to another, or from one blend of cigar to another.

I have only been smoking cigars about a year and a half, so I am still tuning in. But I have become very methodical. I try always to smoke robustos in order to have the same ratio of filler to wrap. I spend a whole lot of time inspecting and sniffing and admiring before I even uncap the thing. I always try to light with one wooden match. I don't vary much in what I drink while smoking: water, weak lemonade, Coors, or if it's a spicy one, hard ginger cider. If it's something I have not smoked before, then I I always take a picture for my android review app, with the band on, so that I can identify next time I'm in the store. After I have smoked for a while and I think I can identify flavors, then I might look up some on line reviews and see what they say and compare. Often they are full of it. Other times, I say "that's it".

Now, next time I have that same stick, I look at my notes and see if I was right on or confused.

Half the fun is trying to figure these things out. There's just so many of them.