Expanding and Refining the Palate

Fellow Bums,

As we roam around this fabulous hobby of ours, the term “palate”, is unavoidable. As we know, every single review thread mentions it at least a half-dozen times!

Another place you see palate a lot, is in The New Cigar Bum Forum. Namely, the ubiquitous, “how do I refine/develop mine?”

The best of all ways is as easy as what you’re doing right now! Writing Reviews. Without question, composing a cigar review is the fast track to discovering, identifying, comparing, defining, APPRECIATING a fine cigar. Quite literally, the romance of enjoying a fine cigar. The difference is pretty accurately compared to it, when you consider that sure, a one-nighter isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but on the other hand, knowing her name and what wine she likes certainly make it more interesting, satisfying and fulfilling. The relationship we share with a cigar, while obviously shorter, makes for one hell of a metaphor.

At no other times are my energies and impressions focused more sharply on a cigar, than when I’m writing them down. Fortunately, it’s a lot of fun, too. Part of that benefit is where the reader comes in. You have a platform where in you have the complete attention of what could be the ideal audience; a fellow enthusiast. The reader is then enabled to sift through his own experience base and recall similarly described flavors, smoke nuance, draw resistance, smoke delivery and texture, on and on, and on…

Let’s not forget about the visuals, either. What’s more fun than looking at a nice, toothy, oily, living, breathing maduro that’s run about a third of its race?

While certainly true for all of us, doing reviews is of particular benefit to “The Newb”. For anyone less than two years into the sport, this is the absolute Holy Grail of explosive palate refinement. There is just no faster, as effective way to do it. It’s a near-vertical learning curve.

Anyway, thanks for reading through this and giving it a little thought. Also, I’d really be interested to know what your thoughts are on the topic and especially anything you feel you learn from it. What's helped the most in refining your palate? What role has reviewing them played?

Cheers!

Great post Don as usual. I fear my palate has been fried beyond recovery due to a long cigarette addiction, so I have never attempted a review as I don't want to make up BS about a cigar. I do enjoy reading reviews from time to time, but it seems my flavor profile identification abilities are limited to I like a cigar or I don't.

Thanks again for taking the time to share you cigar wisdom, knowledge, encouragement and experience.

Well said, Don!

I'm also a big proponent of identifying some sticks that fit a certain profile, based on reviews - for example, leather, cocoa, pepper, etc. Then try those out and see what YOU think of them - would you describe them as leathery? Peppery? Maybe you get more spice or earth from it. That way, you can take another's opinion, and compare to your own experiences. This can help with identifying what you're experiencing, and how to describe it.

One of my favorite things is to have a stick that's new to me, and just jot down my impressions. Then I have another some time later while referencing others reviews online, to see how they compare to what I wrote. That's helped me have no "ah ha!" moments of experiencing a taste, but not being able to describe it....then I can totally taste it with some kind of reference!

Yeah, at first I thought it might be kind of cheating, to see what flavors were "supposed" to be there.

Now I've realized that my ability to identify tastes is a lot worse than I thought, so I can probably use the help :D