Earthy flavour?

[Omskakas]

I just read the topic about palate and it reminded me about this subject.

What is earthy flavour like? How do you describe it? Is it like sand, gravel, peat, dirt or what? Can you point me a cigar that has this earthy flavour?

Much appreciated.

[Colt45]

Personally, when I think earthy, I think of how a damp forest floor smells. The damp dirt itself, any kind of vegetation, damp pine, etc.

Of course, it can vary in intensity, and spectrum - sweetish, sour, etc.

[Jesuscookies]

Dookie J/K

For me it is a taste that I associate with a straight tobacco flavor. Monte 2's, and some of the Connie 1's have it as well.

[purosdave]

Earthy encompasses many sub-flavors, but to me overall earthiness is what colt is referring to.

[Omskakas]

Personally, when I think earthy, I think of how a damp forest floor smells. The damp dirt itself, any kind of vegetation, damp pine, etc.

Of course, it can vary in intensity, and spectrum - sweetish, sour, etc.

Hmmm... Smell of decaying plants or leaves? I have to develop my palate by sniffing things outdoors sometime.

[dicko]

Personally, when I think earthy, I think of how a damp forest floor smells. The damp dirt itself, any kind of vegetation, damp pine, etc.

Of course, it can vary in intensity, and spectrum - sweetish, sour, etc.

I agree, forest floor.

For me anyway, I get this flavour profile pronounced in bolivars.

[Stalebread]

Yep. Damp forest floor. Bolivar.

Probably I would pull out the "damp pine" as that, to me, has a distinct and different aroma from "earthy."

Or, if you're a gardener and you pick up a handfull of freshly turned soil. This is, to me, earthy.

"Peat," on the other hand, makes me think more of peat and less of earthy.

[khomeinist]

Like most vague terms, I think that there is a personal component to words like 'earthy.' For me, 'earthy' refers specifically to the soil characteristics that I might be able to pull out from a specific cigar. I personally place many 'forest' flavors (pine, oak, mushroom, etc) in other categories. This may be due to my years spent working in agriculture or it may be a function of my location in Central Illinois, USA, where the soil is highly-valued and the trees are scarce.

One thing I love about Cuban cigars (as opposed to many NC) is that many of the more earthy characteristics (as I defined above) tend to mellow out with time to balance with the sweet and aromatic qualities that make for a complex, highly-satisfying smoke. I find that many Honduran cigars, for example, never lose the 'earthy' core.

I think young Bolivar and Ramon Allones are the 'earthiest' cigars when smoked young. There are exceptions of course. The RA Corona Gigante is not particularly earthy while a young RASS can have some of these characteristics.

[rahko]

In my mind earthy means damp and dark soil, compost. To me these are characteristic of Partagas and VR. I also think the Bolivar earthiness is more dry and woody, forest floor kind of sums it up nicely, but it's a sparse pine forest with a rocky base

[thechenman]

A mouthful of dirt. Doesn't get any more earthy than that.