When i see reviews on here i laugh at some of the tastes that people claim they taste. How do you know what leather taste like? I have seen some strange descriptions on cigars.






leather
wet leather
dried orange peel
mineral
charcoal
pencil lead
grubby oakwood
sweet wood
green wood




I wonder what kind of childhood some of these people have lived. I'll admit to eating some mudpie as a kid.But i have never had any pencil lead or dried orange peel for cryin out loud.

I can't describe like that either, but keep in mind that taste is primarily a function of smelling.

My wife can't smell at all (has its advantages 🙂 ), and consequently, has very little interest in food quality.

I suspect that some of these folks really do get triggered in their synapses of smell relations. Much like wine drinkers.

I can tell the differences in a much more aggregated way, as I am sure that most of us can.
I describe broadly - as in the AF Cuban Belli I just smoked - that was yummy!

if you have ever smelled wet wood, burnt toast, orange peel... then you have avery good idea of exactly how they taste.

Now can I taste all this, no. I have noticed hints of chocolate, bitter coffee, pepper, and a woody taste.

an aroma of peanuts with a tinge of Gravy Train

I understand the whole smell and taste thing i guess. I just wonder if a more pleasing description would be better than dried orange peel or pencil lead. I dont want to smoke pencil lead. And i have bit into a fresh orange peel,so i cant even guess what a dried one would taste like.


Now if you will excuse me i need to go find some grubby wood to lick...oh...wait..that sounds...kinda...ah nevermind

I hear ya did not realize you were pointing at selling descriptions.

I have seen some descriptions that I don't even finish reading.

I have put alot of things in my mouth over the years (Shut up no comment from the peanut gallery) so I'm one of those sick individuals that write reviews of tasting these things.

I still have a lot to learn about isolating tastes in cigars but I believe I have the basic tastes down which I consider to be.
Leather - kind of tastes like wine tanins
Nuts - can't pick out which kind yet just roasted nuts in general
toast - every one knows what burnt toast smells like
spice - for me it ends up being black or red pepper.
sweet - usually gets described as honey

But I also have been drinking and rating wine for more years then I've been smokeing cigars and after awhile you do get to the point where you can isolate and describe tastes better. And yes it is more a scent issue then a taste issue.

Plus I'm unfortunate enough to have married a hound dog who can isolate and describe scents very well. LOL

Since smell is a major part of taste we can smell things and infer what they would taste like. If you have a taste in your mouth and it tastes like what leather smells like, then that is the description you would use, no?

i can tell you that this Drew industrial press boxie i'm smoking right now has a DISTINCT aftertaste of a "brick red" crayola crayon! seriously!

not that this is a BAD thing, mind you.

but wait... no, it's more of a red dyed pistachio. *nod nod* that's it. that's where the red thing came from.

NOOOOOOOOOO! i've GOT it -- and it's scary: this has the same aftertaste as a barbie doll leg! that kind of rubberized plastic that barbie legs used to be made of (and perhaps still are). i remember that i used to chew on one of these for some reason way back when i was a wee little kid. and no, i don't know why. but it's AMAZING the way smell/taste work together to dredge up a memory of something THAT bizarre.

but it IS perfectly accurate. scarily so!

Ok now, put your hands up and slowwwly back away from the keyboard. I've got a whiffle bat & I'm not afraid to use it on a crayola-tasting, barbie leg-munching, pistachio-sniffing maniac.

But seriously, I can taste aluminum & rum when I smoke my Rum Rivers through a hole in my Miller Draft can.

I've been a cigar smoker for about 8 years now, and I have yet to notice some of the tastes that others have from the same brand of cigar.

Now if I could only find the cigar that tastes like the paint chips and craft glue from my youth......

As I have been smoking more and more, learning and such. I wondered as well about all these tastes that people describe. But I have found now as I am learning to smoke and enjoy ...savor more, I will come across a taste in a cigar....then I think to myself, self, that must be the leather taste some claim. Or the nutty taste....etc. The spice and some others like you all said above are pretty easy of course. Still haven't tasted any orange peel though.

Dave

Thats exactly how it evolves Dave. It just takes practice. And you Cavallo are you still a leg man? LOL

hensed: hey, i worry enough about my own legs these days to be too concerned with others! lol

nah, i appreciate the whoooooooooole package from top to bottom... the feet, the shoulder, that place in the middle where you just sigh and say "ahhhhhhh! life is GOOD!"

hey! get your minds outta da gutter. i'm talking about cigars! (yeah, that's the ticket!) 😉

put that whiffle bat down, bloody spaniard! 😃

If I may elaborate upon what someone else said. Spice can also be used to describe a "nutmeg" kind of taste that can't quite be described as "pepperey" I break down the spicey tastes that way, because some cigars have undercurrents similar to what Spice Cake tastes like, but no 'pepper'! 1959 Exodus Gold comes to mind!

and seriously, if i tasted "orange peel" i'd spit it out! gack!

ditto to what CW said about spice. i have learned to differentiate. there's "sweet spice" and there's "peppery" and it breaks on down from there to black pepper or red pepper and there's ALL kinds of "spice."

the more i smoke, as dave pointed out, the more i can taste the "notes" some talk about -- like the leather thing. i've had several "light bulb" moments over tastes like leather and wood -- things that one usually does not readily define as a "taste" (well, it's a bit easier if you're into bd/sm, but i digress!)

I really hate the ones that tase like dirt. LVH the Early Years and at least one other.

Aren't we forgeting the refined reactions of educated cigar lovers among us who define an adverse cigar flavor component in the most direct and understandible of ways.......

"This tastes like sh*t!!!!!"

Sometimes wood, leather, nuts, coffee.... and other pseudo flavor components just don't describe a cigars taste as good as plain old sh*t!!!

Of course sh*t itself comes in many varieties, mostly the bull variety on this board..... but perhaps you've observed other forms in your cigars.... (horsesh*t, dog rocket, goose, chicken). Heck I've even heard some pundits attribute some of the famed ISOM flavor profile to sh*t.

Sincerely sometimes full of it,
DB