Are these reviews to be taken seriously?

[zeedubbya]

Can anyone here tell me if they possess the ability to discern this many flavors from a cigar?  I can understand someone getting maybe upward of 9-10 flavors, but a constant stream of such specific flavors.  I’m extremely skeptical.  

With all due respect to the good people at Halfwheel, I enjoy your reviews and articles, but this seems just....impossible.  If it IS possible, how does one train a palate to this level.  Maybe this would be a good FOHrensics topic—can a person with a refined palate actually blind identify such a vast array of food flavors/smells?  

https://www.google.com/amp/s/halfwheel.com/herrera-esteli-miami-edition/135477/amp

 

[nKostyan]

I can distinguish in some Cuban cigars a large number of different flavors and aromas when Smoking indoors and my attention is focused only at the cigar. But usually it is fleeting shades on the background of the main line of 2-3 flavors within the boundaries of each third. A description of all the shades and their interpretation makes the tasting more interesting, but it usually causes irritation of the other tasters...

 

 

[Booyaa]

Just read a bunch of reviews on here. It must be possible as so many can do it.

[Notsocleaver]

Grab a glass of water and a notepad. Every time you draw, note down the flavors, etc. You'll be surprised what you notice by just focusing on the cigar and writing down everything you notice.

[99call]

I think reviews always need to be filtered by the reader. For instance if having a cube of dark chocolate in your mouth was considered 100%. Then someone saying "this cigar is literally oozing chocolate" well it's most definitely literally not!. I would estimate a strong taste in a cigar would classify as about 6-8% of actually consuming this thing you're talking about.  When someone says "a touch off". I think youre getting as low as 1-2%.     

I think something to consider is the difference between actual discerned flavours, and people discribing evocations, little miniature snapshots, tiny little flavours that have unlocked a memory etc.

Ultimately the needle point of where we see a review as being useful is a sweet spot between the "I'm so macho the only flavour I can discern are steak, tobacco, and moonshine". And the other end of the spectrum, where so many flavours are described that it becomes farcical. 

I always try and read as many reviews as I can, and determine my own consensus of what I agree with and what I don't. This is obviously a great resource when comming to do a review.     I think the majority on FOH can spot a lazy review, and one that's BS hype.

 

[99call]

Just read the halfwheel review. What a load of absolute nonsense.  

[MD Puffer]

Yup.  Grandiloquent.

 

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.  My reviews are as follows:

#1  "Damn, that is an excellent cigar."

#2  "Hey, that's pretty good."

#3  "Yeah, it was alright."

#4  "Me no gusta Bro"

#5  "What, did this come out of Bill Clinton's humidor?!"

[JIK]

I like to think I have a pretty good palate, especially with food, I am always trying to   decipher what ingredients were used with pretty good success. With cigars I get less than a handful of different flavors 99 percent of the time. It’s almost always the same few flavors just in different ratios. Occasionally I’ll get something totally new but it will be for a puff or two and it’s gone. 

 

[JIK]

Btw that review was hilarious; kiwi, tomatoes soup, duck?!?!? Lol

[hunterbeav]

I like the quote: like a cheap store-bought ground black pepper.....

Sounds like a crime novel....lol

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[Jimmy_jack]

This guy can be intolerable with his descriptions 

 

 

 

[Fugu]

On 12/12/2018 at 8:02 AM, zeedubbya said:

Maybe this would be a good FOHrensics topic—can a person with a refined palate actually blind identify such a vast array of food flavors/smells?

Sure you can. But the thing is, a large proportion of what you find and describe is plain subjective when it comes to specific flavours and allusions to other sources of flavours. It is (often) more telling about you and your personal experience than about the particular cigar. If too detailed it is of limited value to a third person.

 

Many a time I find myself just skipping lengthy descriptions of what all a BOTL found in a particular stick, going directly to the conclusions (big fan of "conclusions" or "final thoughts"!) just checking whether it was a good, a bad or perhaps an exceptional cigar. Don't get me wrong, detailed reviews can be fun, in particular when they provide additional info around cigar, setting, history, anecdotes perhaps. But it doesn't keep my attention when it gets too poetic flavour-wise. Sometimes such seems merely an expression of the reviewer's inability to pinpoint and define for himself.

That's also, for what I value the "daily smokes": Pic of a cigar, brief description of whether it was an enjoyable or not so enjoyable stick. Listo!

[havanaclub]

Those reviews by halfwheel are ridiculous. I recall one of the guys, I think Charlie was getting charred gyro meat notes. His profile says his favourite food are gyros. ?


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[havanaclub]

This guy can be intolerable with his descriptions 
 
 
 

I hear ya. Now can someone explain to me, what is fruity leather?


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[Stump89]

Teriyaki sauce and Caramel corn and sugar cookies degraded in a glass of milk. Now that's pretty darn specific.

[fabes]

I’m inclined to agree with @Fugu on this. Waxing poetic can often be less helpful as can be the case with the HW reviews. I personally don’t think they are garbage, and I do think the author can potentially perceive those flavors, but usually the conclusion and bullet points at the end are what I look at. I don’t care much for the three paragraph narrative. 

It’s good to keep in mind that a persons diet and past experience plays into the perceived flavors of a cigar. As an example, persimmons are in season now, and I truly relish this time of year because I love persimmons. To me they have a juicy, creamy, sweetened spice flavor, with sometimes a dry aftertaste. I also get these flavors or sensations in some Partagas and Diplomaticos. If you’ve never had a persimmon, then you won’t relate to my correlation.

[99call]

1 hour ago, Fugu said:

That's also, for what I value the "daily smokes": Pic of a cigar, brief description

I agree with this. But critically this is a key difference between 'passing general comment' and a cigar review.   Someone posting a picture of a RASS and saying "Meh" is only of minimal use to a newb. And you can often tell that because people will comment "poor construction? Or too young?" I.e they want to know more.  

Ultimately both have their uses. I.e. the short daily smoke outlines, and as do the longer reviews.   But I would argue someone saying "was ok" is just as useless as someone saying "it tasted like the memory of my Grandmother's ashes, sprinkled on a glazed donut".

It's just my personal opinion. But I find the overly and under descriptive equally annoying.

[Derboesekoenig]

As with anything else that deals with flavors and one's palette, it will be extremely variable. All based on someone's personal experiences throughout their life. And also, our taste buds are continuously changing. I got into "third wave coffee" around 2014 and have since trained myself in everything there is to know there. It was extremely difficult learning all the nuances of the different coffee flavor profiles found throughout the world. I'm still learning, but can now pick out various regions and countries and differentiate many.

It takes a lot of practice. I am also a huge foodie, and that has helped immensely as I have immersed myself in as many different foods and flavors as I can. If you eat the same thing every day and don't venture out of your comfort zone, you probably won't have a very discernibly diverse palette. This has affected every facet of my life as well. I absolutely love anything that has a flavor--food, wine, coffee, liquor, etc.--as it challenges me and it can be a lot of fun blind-tasting certain things to see if you can figure out what it is and where it comes from. 

In short, it is like anything else in life. It takes a lot of time through practice to get good at. There was a very informative documentary of Netflix, not sure if it's still available, but it showed you into the lives of several sommeliers that were attempting to earn the coveted Master Sommelier. To put this into perspective, I believe there are only 250 or 300 Master Sommeliers in the entire world. It takes years of practice to accumulate the knowledge and understanding to reach this level. It's mind-blowing to me how good some of these people are. They can blind taste wine and narrow down not only to the country and region, but the year and even the farm. Crazy

Practice practice practice! Try everything you can with food, drink, and cigar. Your palette will develop through time.

[JoeyBones777]

As far as palettes go there are those who are "super tasters" with very sensitive palettes and I imagine can learn to discern flavor nuances to an extreme that most cannot. However, I personally don't see the utility of the above review as written even if that is EXACTLY what he tasted...no one else will have that same experience with that cigar.

[mbflash80]

next time I need to lose a few LBs instead of a diet I will just buy a box of the herrera esteli miami...its a virtual appetite suppressant according to that review... 

[Wilzc]

Seems like some humans have evolved rather well. I can’t even differentiate freshly ground pepper from cheap store bought ones....




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[Derboesekoenig]

2 minutes ago, Wilzc said:

Seems like some humans have evolved rather well. I can’t even differentiate freshly ground pepper from cheap store bought ones....




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Get a peppercorn mill and try both. They're fairly cheap. And also how to differentiate between freshly ground black pepper and white peppercorns 

You'll get there

[rcarlson]

10 hours ago, MD Puffer said:

Yup.  Grandiloquent.

 

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.  My reviews are as follows:

#1  "Damn, that is an excellent cigar."

#2  "Hey, that's pretty good."

#3  "Yeah, it was alright."

#4  "Me no gusta Bro"

#5  "What, did this come out of Bill Clinton's humidor?!"

I choose you as my cigar sommelier.  

[BuzzArd]

I checked out after I read the word myriad, or rather the phrase “a myriad of”.  

Drives me crazy...  

 

Seriously, I can get occasional hints of familiar flavors like cocoa or fresh baked rolls or gingerbread and such, but what I’m most able to appreciate is the complexity of the flavor rather than a specific (or several specific) flavors.  Sweetnes is easy for me.  Leathery as well (of which I am not fond...) and peppery flavors.   Often what it boils down to for me personally is smoke I like vs. smoke I do not like. 

[Derboesekoenig]

7 hours ago, fabes said:

I’m inclined to agree with @Fugu on this. Waxing poetic can often be less helpful as can be the case with the HW reviews. I personally don’t think they are garbage, and I do think the author can potentially perceive those flavors, but usually the conclusion and bullet points at the end are what I look at. I don’t care much for the three paragraph narrative. 

For the aforementioned reviews, this is exactly what I do. I skip the content, and read the conclusion and see what point rating the cigar received. Also taken with a grain of salt....I usually like to do this after I've smoked the cigar myself to see how similar, or conversely, how different each experience was perceived.