Same Cigar... Different Tasting Notes

Have you ever smoked a cigar with someone and wondered if you were actually smoking the same thing?

You taste coffee and chocolate.

They taste cedar and pepper.

Someone else says they just taste… cigar.

So, who is right?

Probably all of you.

Taste is subjective, but there is a little more to it than that.

Your palate is trained by experience.

When you first start smoking cigars, it can be difficult to pick out individual flavors. You might recognize that a cigar is sweet, spicy, strong or creamy, but identifying something specific like cocoa, espresso, leather or dried fruit can be harder.

Over time, your brain gets better at connecting what you are tasting with flavors you already know.

It’s really no different than wine, coffee or whiskey. The more intentionally you taste something, the more you begin to notice.

But experience isn’t the only thing that changes what you taste.

What you ate before smoking matters. What you’re drinking matters. How fast you smoke matters. Even the time of day can change the experience.

A cigar first thing in the morning with coffee can taste completely different than that same cigar after a steak dinner and a glass of bourbon.

Your smoking speed is another big one.

Smoke too quickly and you increase the temperature of the cigar. As it gets hotter, some of the sweetness and nuance can disappear and bitterness can take over.

This is one reason I always encourage people to slow down.

There’s also the tobacco itself.

Premium cigars are handmade agricultural products. Tobacco leaves are not manufactured to be identical. Even leaves from the same plant can have slightly different characteristics depending on where they grew on the stalk.

Good cigar makers spend an enormous amount of time sorting, aging and blending tobacco to create consistency, but there will always be some natural variation.

So how do you get better at tasting cigars?

Don’t try too hard.

I think people sometimes make cigar tasting more complicated than it needs to be.

Start broad.

Is it sweet or dry?

Creamy or earthy?

Peppery or smooth?

Does it remind you of coffee? Chocolate? Nuts? Wood? Fruit?

From there, you can start getting more specific.

Instead of just “coffee,” maybe eventually you recognize espresso.

Instead of “sweet,” maybe it reminds you of caramel, vanilla or dried fruit.

There isn’t a test at the end.

And if I tell you I taste dark chocolate and you taste roasted nuts, that doesn’t mean one of us is wrong.

The entire point is to pay attention to what YOU enjoy.

The better you understand your own palate, the easier it becomes for us to recommend cigars you’re actually going to like.

And that might be the most useful tasting note of all.