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Once Flavorful, Now Dull

ericfincher67ericfincher67 Posts: 35 ✭✭
Hello

Ive been smoking premium cigars for about a year and the cigars I smoke usually taste rich and flavorful all the way to the end.  Lately, though, I’ve noticed those same cigars that normally taste great now have very little flavor and are bland.  

 These are cigars that I’ve recently purchased from a brick and mortar shop and are always properly humidified and in good shape.  I try to mix it up between medium to full bodied with some mild once in a while.  This has never happened to me before until recently, the past week or so.  Any ideas for why? 

  Note:  I’ve been mixing in some swisher sweets when I’m at work and am wondering if those are ruining my palate?  Your thoughts?  Thanks 

Comments

  • CalvinAndHoboCalvinAndHobo Posts: 2,928 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Welcome to the forum. In terms of new people introducing themselves, this is much better than asking how to season your humidor. 

    Are you using any nasal sprays? Have you been sick? Do you get seasonal allergies? Did you burn your tongue at some point last week? It could be any number of things. Maybe someone else on the forum has had this happen. 

    I'm sure the swishers aren't helping anything, but I wouldn't know whether those would mess up your taste buds later in the day.  
  • ericfincher67ericfincher67 Posts: 35 ✭✭
    Hi, sorry for neglecting to introduce myself properly.  

    Haven’t been sick.  I do suffer from seasonal allergies but so far it’s just been some sneezing.  Haven’t burned my tongue.  

    At first I thought it was the cigars but that seems unlikely given that they are coming from different brands, different batches.  It is really driving me mad.  Every time I smoke a stogie I’m left glaring at it and thinking, “WHY is there no flavor!?”
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 25,527 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Zinc from lozenges and denture creams can dull your taste buds. It could also be allergies from all the pollen dulling tour sense of smell. Has the taste of foods been affected as well?

    Also you can miss a lot smoking outside instead of in. Maybe since it's warmer you've moved where you smoke.

    Good luck, and welcome to the forum.
    I'll gladly bomb you Tuesday for an Opus today. 

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  • VegasFrankVegasFrank Posts: 16,587 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Get off of Swisher sweets bro. Go buy some cigarillos or some cheap United pencils.  

    one or two Swisher's won't hurt you I wouldn't think, but if you're smoking six or eight Swisher sweets a day that will probably do it. That's almost the same as smoking cigarettes, and I can attest that cigarettes are no good for your palate.

    Could also be other prescription medication. If you're taking an antibiotic or hair pills or **** pills oh, that might do it. I know this because a friend told me so.
    Don't look ↑
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Welcome to the forum @ericfincher67

    Good suggestions so far.

    If you're on any new medication, (either prescription or over the counter,) or new vitamins. Or new diet items. For instance, have you started eating grapefruit every day, and you weren't before? It could be something to consider. Have you started mowing the grass a week ago? Maybe there's a few noxious weeds or poison ivy you could be mowing over and breathing the vapor from that.  Also if you've lately  been using chemicals like roundup weed killer or cleaning products with ammonia or anything with caustic and or potent vapors, consider those things too.

    I would drop the swisher sweets just to see if it helps. Especially if you've only been doing that only a short time, that would be suspicious.

     I hope it clears up for you. I'd hate to not be able to taste 'em. 
      
  • BKDogBKDog Posts: 1,229 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hello

    Ive been smoking premium cigars for about a year and the cigars I smoke usually taste rich and flavorful all the way to the end.  Lately, though, I’ve noticed those same cigars that normally taste great now have very little flavor and are bland.  
     
    If all of the above doesn't fit in for you, the one thing I can think of is proper cigar humidity and resting. I've smoked one just arrived to the collection and found the same deal, and after I've allowed the others to rest a couple weeks in my perfectly controlled humidor, it was like fourth of July. A B&M could be great at humidifying, but maybe they just got their stock recently, who knows the list of variables. One thing I do know, I've never tried mixing Swisher Sweets with my premium cigar smoking routine...
    I hope you figure this out and enjoy your cigars again!
    "Love is a dung heap, Betty and I am but a c.o.c.k. that climbs upon it to crow."
  • deadmandeadman Posts: 8,804 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Get off of Swisher sweets bro. Go buy some cigarillos or some cheap United pencils.  

    one or two Swisher's won't hurt you I wouldn't think, but if you're smoking six or eight Swisher sweets a day that will probably do it. That's almost the same as smoking cigarettes, and I can attest that cigarettes are no good for your palate.

    Could also be other prescription medication. If you're taking an antibiotic or hair pills or **** pills oh, that might do it. I know this because a friend told me so.
    I have cut way back on cigarettes and noticed a difference immediately. As suggested I would recommend cutting the swisher sweets out.
  • ericfincher67ericfincher67 Posts: 35 ✭✭
    **UPDATE**

    Took a long lunch break today at work and swung by the B&M I buy from which is right down the road from work. (Note:  I left out the Swishers today, but did start the morning off with a mild-ish La Galera Connecticut.  Got some decent notes off that stick so I was optimistic going forward.)

    Anyway, came into the B&M around lunch time and picked out a LFD Double Ligero chisel.  I’d had that one a few times before and knew it was known as being a fairly strong stick.  If I cant taste this, I thought, then I’m surely screwed.

     Lit up and right away, big flavor across my palate.  That’s the ticket, I thought and went outside to smoke on the patio.  A couple puffs in and the flavor began to dissipate into just a general mild tobacco taste.  A quarter of the way down and I’m not getting anything other than a slick smoke across my tongue but basically no outstanding flavors.  I smoked it all the way through and tried to enjoy it nonetheless.

       Fast forward to about an hour ago, just got in from work.  There’s a newly purchased Aganorsa Leaf Signature Series sitting on my mantle and I reluctantly unwrap it and clip it, thinking what’s the use of wasting another good stick if I’m not going to get the full flavors.

      I step outside and light that baby up and BAM! big huge rich flavor floods my palate.  My eyes must have lit up as bright as that flame.  I settle in with it and continue taking steady, slow draws and the flavor continues to build.  At this point I feel like a man who has just struck oil.  I’m over an hour into this smoke and the flavor has been steady, rich and full.  I am so delighted right now!  I can taste the thing!

    i don’t know what’s been going on with the other sticks I’ve been smoking. They have by no means been subpar cigars:  Illusione Rothchildes, LFD Double Ligero, Mi Querida, Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real, Punch Gran Puro.  None of these have had the flavor I was expecting like the one I’m smoking right now.  Finally, though a breakthrough. 

    So maybe it’s not my palate.  Could be that the ones I’ve been smoking are just in to the B&M.  I have no idea.  I really hope it all begins to open up across the board, though.  

    Thanks to all who have offered advice.  You’ve been very helpful.

    Eric
  • dirtdudedirtdude Posts: 5,641 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Have you been spraying for weeds lately, seems we had a member a while back lost his taste after some weed killing affair.
    A little dirt never hurt
  • AlbinfkAlbinfk Posts: 1,923 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You may be dehydrated and not even know it. This happens to me once in a while. Drink some water! More than you think.
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 25,527 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Biotene Dry Mouth mouthwash can help with the dry mouth that I sometimes get from cigars, I wonder if it helps with taste too.
    I'll gladly bomb you Tuesday for an Opus today. 

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  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019
    **UPDATE**

     There’s a newly purchased Aganorsa Leaf Signature Series sitting on my mantle ...
    Eric
    1.  Sitting on a mantle...in a humidor?  In a tupperware container?  Is this where you usually keep your cigars, on the mantle?  Could be the problem.

    2.  We tend to assume that a cigar bought at a seemingly up-to-speed B&M is going to be properly humidified, but it isn't always so.  

    3.  No matter where you get them, your best bet is to give them time to rest in a proper environment.  As an example, I buy the Perdomo Mistakes once or twice a year.  It's an OK stick, nothing special.  Fresh on delivery, the last batch I purchased was so-so, at best.  Disappointing would be a better description.  Had one last night after 3 or 4 months in my humidor and it was, quite simply put, fantastic!  This is at least a part of the reason most of us here have a cooler full of cigars, and probably a couple desktop humidors as well.  Well, that and we're kind of crazy. 

    Everyone else seems to have covered everything else I could think of, and maybe I missed this suggestion above.  If so, forgive me.  
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • chrisloldschrislolds Posts: 434 ✭✭
    **UPDATE**
    1.  Sitting on a mantle...in a humidor?  In a tupperware container?  Is this where you usually keep your cigars, on the mantle?  Could be the problem.
    So wait... You're telling me that if I just leave my cigars on the fireplace mantle with the heat toasting them every night throughout the winter that it will cause problems?

    ****.
  • Did you ever find out the issue?

    It happens to me all the time. Ive given it a rest and come back, cigars still taste like cardboard/metallic/burnt and the aroma isnt there anymore or is annoying. Some days are good, some days are bad. I notice when cigars taste bad, their smoke doesnt smell good either. They always go together in my case. I believe it has to do with allergies or sinus infections. I have lots of plants and trees on my house and when it gets windy I sneeze alot and have sinus issues, and this could be the culprit of my "dead palate." For me a davidoff would taste the same as any cheap cuban sandwich out there. I bought some air purifiers and I'll wait for the improvement on the upcoming days.
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