Cigar Reviewing - Detecting Flavors

Thank you for the informative post, although I just came across it despite the fact that it was written well before I began smoking cigars. As I continue to grow I continue to find myself picking up "flavors" in cigars, sometimes in the same cigar on different occaisions. I know it will help me immensely to be able to go about enjoying cigars AND continue to develop the "why" I am enjoying particular cigars. And thanks for the bump as well. I probably never would have stumbled across it otherwise, especially with the wealth of information here to browse through...jason
 
You have hit upon one of the most frustrating things for a newbie like me. That is, adequately describing the flavors of the cigars I smoke. Like many, I have been keeping a little notebook where I keep track of my likes and dislikes of the various cigars I have tried. One of my entries is always flavor. I perpetually struggle with what to put there as most often my perception is that the cigar tastes like tobacco. Now that is not to say I don't detect sweetness, bitterness or differentiate between a mild, medium or strong cigar but that elusive catagory of flavor continues to dodge my attempts at description.
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I can definitely identify. Although I am not that new at smoking cigars, I don't seem to get a lot of the flavors I read in descriptions of cigars. I see words like "woody" (I don't eat much wood, so I can't identify with that particular taste) or "a hint of leather" (Is that like chewing on the laces on my old baseball glove? What the hell does leather taste like anyway?). Some are obvious, like the peppery taste of a La Flor Dominicana, but most are more subtle. Me, I generally taste tobacco, and anything bitter or sweet. Apart from that, I'm grasping at straws. Maybe I should try the trick of inhaling a bit through the nose (I hadn't thought of that one).
 
I get leather really well... for me it "tastes like leather smells" if that makes sense. Mostly it's just a hint of a flavor that is evocative of another flavor. I've never had a chocolate cigar, but some light up similar taste buds and the brain processes it like that.

I can usually only pick up three or four flavors max.
 
This is a very interesting thread. Some days it seems like I can detect the slightest nuance in taste and other days all I taste is tobacco.

:hn
 
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