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How do you train your palate?
Cruiser5
Posts: 17 ✭✭
Hello, enthusiasts. As a beginner in the hobby, I seem to be failing hard at experiencing all the great flavors and nuances that are so richly described for my premiums. So either my taste buds are dead, or I'm doing something wrong. As recommended by the fine folks in the forums here, I keep my cigars unwrapped, but still within their cellos. I store them in a perfectly cooled wine-a-dor at the proper temperature and humidity. I use Xykar performance butane to fuel my lighter, which I think it's zippo? I am beginning to think my lighter is the culprit for my bland smoking experiences but I would like to hear from you. Thank-you.
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First question:
Did you enjoy your cigar?
2nd: Have you tried reading the "Developing your palate" thread under the Cigar 101 section?
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
2nd question: how long before you will realize that cigar reviews are mostly a load of crap, not to mention the ones who you can kinda trust have been smoking and working at educating their palates for years.
3rd question, piggy-backing off of Rusty's: do you need to match your experience/flavor findings to the review notes in order to enjoy the cigar?
IMO reviews are speculative and should only be a point of reference.
What @peter4jc might pick up as a nuanced flavor of nutmeg I might pick up as earthy and so on. As a smoker of 8 years now my advice would be don’t try and pick up what others are noting just take the time to enjoy the stick. You will figure out what you like and over time you will experience different profiles even with cigars you have previously smoked.
For a good quick review @VegasFrank can point you in the right direction for a real man’s review.
If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience
If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....
Nah, I think dude man is just worried that he's missing out on something. The bottom line with those reviews is that people who do those tend to have an overactive imagination. This sit in front of a flavor wheel and smoke these things visualizing all the things on the wheel. Then they use their imaginations try to remember sensations.
I smoked more cigars than like at least three people on this forum, and I rarely get any sensations of anything other than wood and occasional baking spices, pepper sensation while smoking (and mostly on the retro), and the occasional chocolate or fruitiness on a cold draw. If I try really hard, like I do during the leaf and libations stuff, I can equate it to other things too, but it's mostly subjective.
What I taste more than anything is good Nicaraguan or Dominican or Brazilian or Honduran or American tobacco. I'm getting better at picking out wrappers and sometimes binder or filler components, and that's after about 5,000 smokes.
But I still enjoy them anyways. I enjoy a lot of things that I have no idea about. I don't know what makes the sound of that hemi Challenger I drive in the morning, but I know it's my favorite sound in the world lol. Am I hearing components of muffler, engine, compression, dampening, other crap I don't know about? Probably. Doesn't matter. It sounds like a devil!
You won’t always get what everyone is getting out of a cigar… which is why you should just pay attention to what you are getting out of it, especially if you like it. When you start to notice that, then you can predict which cigars are going to fall into your wheelhouse…
some people never get those flavors that you see on reviews, and yet they enjoy cigars quite often.
Like Frank I get wood, leather, baking spice, pepper and occasionally some nut or raisin. Then again I'm only a couple of years into the habit.
Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.
Good advice so far. The flavors that reviewers note are flavor analogs, so if someone says that they are getting notes of raisins they're getting a hint of a flavor that reminds them of raisins. Avoiding eating strong food and drink before smoking can help set up your palate to taste more of the nuances of a cigar, but as a beginner you probably don't want to smoke on an empty stomach.
When I smoke a New World Cameroon I get a flavor that reminds me of marzipan, a creamy nuttiness. I just smoked one with a strong, straight Italian style espresso and didn't get any marzipan. Smoking with water or coffee is good, soda or espresso will probably make it hard to taste any nuances.
I gave up drinking soda years ago and noticed that it helped me redefine my ideas of sweetness to be able to taste nuances in coffee and cigars. Sodas have their sweetness dialed up to 11, so by comparison other things will suffer.
A lot of the flavors are picked up in the nose. Bring the smoke into your mouth, chew on it for a bit, and then retrohale it out your nose if you can. Not everyone likes to retrohale and it's not a requirement but it can help your enjoyment.
What I've found too is that if I don't drink much water throughout the day, my cigar is much more bland
Words of wisdom. My cigars and pipes taste much better when I'm not dehydrated.
Smoke cigars, enjoy any and all time you have on this earth with that cigar, read, and again..... enjoy your time with a cigar.
And a reminder, you can learn as much from a bad cigar as you can a good cigar.
Edit for grammar.
If I don’t taste exactly what the pure horse **** review says,I throw it out. If raw figs and stone fruit don’t stand out to me then I certainly don’t want to waste my time.
MOW badge received.
Well said Pete! We miss you on the vherf.
MOW badge received.
Thank you brother. I figure in about a couple weeks I'll be back around.
We will only accept you back if you wear shirts that are too small.
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Yeah!
What youse all said.
My cigars taste like tobacco?
Y'all are such noobs, clearly the best way to train your palate is to taste everything you possibly can. Just go around licking everything.
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17
I'm growing suspicious of cruiserdude
In what way do you think your lighter is a problem?
@Cruiser5 You need to engage with us. You've gotten into this pattern of asking really good newb questions that generate a lot of discussion and you're getting a lot of valuable guidance but where are you? We get no further replies or even reactions from you.
Sleeveless it is!
Is he using a zippo?
Nobody commented on the lighter question, and the lighter question was vague begin with. Plus Rockwell is made by Xikar, not zippo. Maybe it's a autocorrect/typo situation.
See how I'm falling for this thread again?,,,,, now that you pointed out the zippo word? I am trying to help by deciphering bad information with no follow-up help from the OP. That's why I'm losing patience, and also why I'm suspicious. Suspicious because this is how a resident troll would be subtle. Cru5 asks questions that elicit a lot of replies and gets this forum to talk on a subject that a resident troll would already know we tend to enjoy talking about. This thread in particular. We LUUUVE talking about how the reviewers are full of crap with their descriptive terminology. Right? We LUUUVE setting newbies straight on that s***. Right?
I could be wrong about the troll part, but at the very least I'm frustrated by the fact that we are spending time on a newb who does not actually engage with us.
So, Cruiser, checked out that Developing Your Palate thread in the 101 section yet?
If not,
do you happen to know some guys who go by: "Rbeckom", or perhaps "Dbeckom", or even "DZR"?
Looking forward to your response.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Ohh... I was just kidding about the Zippo. LOL
Ohh.. He said zippo. LOL But it doesn't matter,... I was ready to unload that manure truck way before you said zippo.