Help this member out. Palate Training

[El Presidente]

I have no idea of palate training but if you have a suggestion, please let him know on this thread  

"Rob, can you give me some hints on palate training. I am often in awe of ken's descriptions but all I get is tobacco". 

[Çnote]

Start with varieties of apples and cheeses. Slow down. Take notes. Taste is often texture and sensation and at a certain point, the memory evoked when tasting similar things.

[CaptainQuintero]

I think it's generally that some people just seem to taste more.

  I really recommend getting a note book and start jotting down anything you taste, you not just get tangy or sweet but with time you night translate that tangy into leather and that sweet into syrup or honey.

  I think just like with spirits you do need to get past the initial 'I just taste burning' phase. Eg with whisky you just taste spirit and harsh back as a teenager, eventually when your taste buds get used to that fire (You kill them off) you start to pick up the subtleties behind it. I think the same applies to cigars.

And like Cnote said, very slow and long shallow draws; the cooler the smoke means the more flavour. Quicker and heavy means you overheat the cigar and end up with hot grubby burnt mud

[Fuzz]

Eat and drink a wide variety of food. Take time to taste and smell everything, and try to connect them to a memory or event. Smells and tastes are often tied to memories. The stronger the connection, the easier it is to recall.

[Bucky McSwensen]

Keep a journal.  Write down thoughts.  When I first started reading reviews describing "toasted tobacco flavor" I was thinking "nice discovery sherlock".  Now I get that it's a distinct flavor even though we are obviously burning leaves.

A lot of my descriptions refer to coffee, cinnamon, Graham cracker, and different spices I use in bbq rubs.  Basically the The more you write it down the more you will challenge yourself to come up with new flavors.

Retorhale adds a lot but is counter intuitive at first.  And as others have said, expansion your other food and drink choices so you have more descriptors to find.  You'll be tasting cooked carrots and crushed ants in no time

[THEMISCHMAN]

Flavor wheels can help to identify certain flavors.

[kalibratecuba]

Oh, I can suggest some palate training.

 

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[Phillys]

/Taste a lot of new stuff, go buy some spices (good ones), various new ingredients, new foods, new wine, everything basically, open your horizons and just taste. If you have the taste buds, after a while you will start to pick up different flavours in food, wine, spirits, coffee and cigars.

I started doing this when I was a kid with my grandmother in her restaurant. She would prepare stuff and ask me what I tasted, when I would not pick up a subtle flavour, she would have me taste the various ingredients she used on their own. That taught me to pick up subtle flavours, how to balance the flavours in a dish, determine, what I like and don't like. It also helps that I have good taste buds (or that I have a lot of them).   

 

[captain]

When I started I would read/watch a very descriptive review of the stick..than I would smoke it and try to taste those flavors. It helped but still took time...stick with it and you will get there

[Derboesekoenig]

2 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Eat and drink a wide variety of food. Take time to taste and smell everything, and try to connect them to a memory or event. Smells and tastes are often tied to memories. The stronger the connection, the easier it is to recall.

THIS.

Forget about anything but food for a few weeks. Close your eyes and taste everything you possibly can, including new foods. Cleanse your palette between everything. Your memories should guide you when smoking cigars. Some people claim all they taste is tobacco, but I believe you can train someone to at least pick out the main groups: nuts, fruits, spices, earth, vegetal, and floral. Beyond that comes talent and experience to pick out more specific flavors.

I am HUGE into coffee, and I've gotten to the point where I can taste/cup single origin and tell you if there are any defects, country of origin (usually), and basic flavors. That's about it. I'm much more confident in my coffee flavor descriptor abilities than cigar at this point. I think it's going to take a lot more time.

[Islandboy]

I totally agree with linking certain tastes and smells with memories. I don't even try...it just happens sometimes - I'll be enjoying a cigar and suddenly I'm transported back in time to someplace and something I was eating there. It's truly the coolest thing about cigars for me. 

[nKostyan]

It is known that the human body has lost one of the senses, exacerbates the remaining. This smoker should smoke blindfolded. If that doesn't work, need to plug his ears additionally. 

 

[BJRPorter]

Smoke slower. Retrohale. If you don’t already do both of these it will take concentration and focus to change your habits. Slowly you’ll sense differences in the flavor profiles.

[RDB]

Three things that help tasting generally, not just for cigars:

1) Prompt yourself about what you are tasting. Someone above listed some important categories of flavour, like fruit, nuts, wood etc. Don’t ask ‘what am I tasting?’ Ask yourself ‘Am I tasting nuts? What kind of nuts? How about fruit?’ Think through the range of possibilities, for example what kind of fruit, on the spectrum from white currants to prunes?

2) Verbalise and write down what you taste. This forces you be specific. Discuss with a friend, compare and debate. Forster said “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”

3) Compare experiences. This is quite tricky with cigars, whereas it’s easy to compare two glasses of wine side by side. But comparison is a fundamental aspect of taste. Is this more or less chocolatey than the last cigar you smoked? Where does it sit compared to other recent smokes in terms of its earthiness?

Some people do have particularly sensitive palates, but that’s not what makes a ‘great taster’. It’s the ability to analyse and explain what you are sensing, with reference to a broad base of experience. That’s a learned skill, not an inherent characteristic.

[Hollywood Ninja]

I keep a little moleskin journal - notes on what cigar, where I smoked and what I was doing. Basic tasting notes and then just a sentence or two thought of/on the day.

The tasting notes help refine my buds and the rest of it helps me remember moments in my days.

I don’t smoke that often, perhaps 3-4 times a week, so this is manageable for me.

[Fuzz]

4 hours ago, nKostyan said:

It is known that the human body has lost one of the senses, exacerbates the remaining. This smoker should smoke blindfolded. If that doesn't work, need to plug his ears additionally. 

 

I don't see people who lack any common sense becoming super tasters, having eagle eye vision, or being able to hear a mouse fart at a thousand paces.

[BarryVT]

11 hours ago, CaptainQuintero said:

I think it's generally that some people just seem to taste more

I totally agree with that, and I'm not one of those people. I'm blown away with how descriptive some people are with what they taste. 

[CaptainQuintero]

  I'd probably pick up on the retrohaling mentioned above too; if you don't get the hang of it or simply don't enjoy it then don't get stressed about it or feel you're missing out. I never do it and I've never felt like I can't pick up certain flavours or nuances

[David88]

I think sticking to one single cigar for a few weeks helps. Have some tasting notes/reviews open in front of you then enjoy. Having 5/6 of the same cigar in a row (not all on the same day obviously) will help to get a solid feel of what it’s about and then you can start to look for more refined or nuanced flavours once you have a better understanding or ability to describe  the broader flavours

[shippers]

Agree with the above about trying lots of different food and drink. Get as much variety as you can. The more you experience the more you have to draw on. If you can try getting involved in guided tasting for things other than cigars. I often go to whisky tastings led by much more experienced people than me. Those experiances have helped my palette develop. Although it is true that some people are just born with more taste buds than others you can still work on it.

[Hookmaker]

Hmm, my view is that just lay aside all you hear from others, because to you it may just be a load of BS. My 40+ years with wine has shown me one thing: everybody has different palates and a lot of people will NEVER be able to relate a true Pauillac to barnyard or a true CDP to overripe plum. As with wine there is a whole library of descriptive tastes to cigars, but you may never be able to relate. 

With experience (and this can only be acquired by sampling the actual product) you will however over time be able distinguish one cigar or marca from another. Whatever “taste” or flavor you label onto what you have on your palate is your choice.

if you really want to move forward systematically you should start with the simple taste labels i.e. sweet, sour, salt. Then expand by braking these elements into little groups, followed by adding known simple taste profiles such as chocolate, coffee bean, etc.

[OldEasy]

As a relatively new smoker (to semi-serious smoking at least), I have found a lot of the above helpful, but I think the most dramatic shift occurred when I made a conscious attempt to slow my smoking down and draw lighter. As someone who smoked the strongest cigarettes available for well over a decade I initially had a tendency to prefer cigars with very loose draws and smoke them so quickly that the primary flavor was often just harsh burnt tobacco. It has been interesting to discover that by and large I prefer sweet and mild cigars, and that I now smoke them considerably more slowly than most.

I also found the above advice about starting with very general prompts ‘Is the cigar sweet?’ ‘Is the cigar tangy or sour’ and then slowly looking for more specific characteristics to be very helpful to my descriptive abilities. ‘Yes, the cigar is tangy, does this tangyness resemble fruit? Or is it more leather-like?’. Only then do i look for more specific descriptors. I still often change my mind through the smoke (not just as a result of actual flavor changes in the cigar itself) as obviously the process is a subtle one, ie. I initially called the fruitiness citrus, but I think it’s actually more of an apple flavor, or at first I called the sweet spice cinnamon, but I think it’s actually closer to nutmeg.

I also find it helpful to remember that even harshness is different, ie. a Fuente Hemingway may burn my lips and have a very spicy flavor while a Nicaraguan Maduro May be buttery smooth on the palate and in flavor, but torch your nose on the retrohale. An Upmann May be spicy and full flavored but not particularly hard on the palate. A young Epicure may be neither spicy nor hot but may turn bitter towards the end. All of these may be described as harshness, but what is the actual sensation?