Cuisine - Cigar Palate Correlation?

[Wookie]

I'm interested if there is any correlation between ones favorite Marca profile and ones cuisine preferences. For both I would break it down to what I consider the five detectable flavor groups....savory, sweet, sour, salty and  Spicey. I have a sweet tooth, but also love all flavor groups. I cook spicey Chinese, savory French, sweet/sour braises, everything. I don't care for bland cuisine. I always have to fight not eating dessert. Is that why my predilection tends to floral/sweet Marcas such as RyJ, Ramon Allones, SLR, Trinidad, HU? Or on the savory side, Bolivar, Montecristo, Partagas? Cigars I care less for include HDM, Sancho Panza, ERDM, Fonseca. I characterize the last group as more bland than the others.  Maybe I'm bored to death with COVID quarantine and have nothing better to do than write this post.  Any thoughts? 

[kalibratecuba]

I remember reading something similar to your post. It was more about how certain foods can spoil enjoying a cigar's complete profile.

Since then, I'm more aware of my palate's state. Who enjoys a cigar after chewing minty gum or after drinking a herbal green drink?

Coffee. Bourbon. Rum. Chocolate.

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

[Chibearsv]

For me I'm going to say there isn't a correlation.  I don't go to the restaurant asking what they have that tastes like wet straw, white pepper, honey, coffee, and citrus very often.  ?

[Colt45]

2 hours ago, Wookie said:

I'm interested if there is any correlation between ones favorite Marca profile and ones cuisine preferences.

Not for me, really. I like all different types of food (though my daily diet is fairly mundane), and different types of cigars. Though, from time to time we've been asked to create / blend our "ultimate" cigar - I wonder if some of the responses might tie into your theory / question, or if they've typically referred only to cigar flavor preferences.

[StogieSteve23]

There isn't a big correlation for me.  I might have something with a more sweet, nutty, hay, cedar type profile in the morning paired with coffee and a baked good, while later in the day or after a larger meal I would go for something with more spice/earthiness.  Certainly doesn't always go this way but its a good thought haha. 

[The Real McCoy]

8 hours ago, Wookie said:

I'm interested if there is any correlation between ones favorite Marca profile and ones cuisine preferences. For both I would break it down to what I consider the five detectable flavor groups....savory, sweet, sour, salty and  Spicey. I have a sweet tooth, but also love all flavor groups. I cook spicey Chinese, savory French, sweet/sour braises, everything. I don't care for bland cuisine. I always have to fight not eating dessert. Is that why my predilection tends to floral/sweet Marcas such as RyJ, Ramon Allones, SLR, Trinidad, HU? Or on the savory side, Bolivar, Montecristo, Partagas? Cigars I care less for include HDM, Sancho Panza, ERDM, Fonseca. I characterize the last group as more bland than the others.  Maybe I'm bored to death with COVID quarantine and have nothing better to do than write this post.  Any thoughts? 

Wookie, I think you’re dead on. It seems some have misinterpreted your post as asking about specific pairings. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re talking about taste preferences for food that might be similar to a taste preference in cigars. I think that’s true of all things enjoyed on the palate. When the tongue is accustomed to sweet flavors, it may enjoy a sweeter profile in whisky, wine, chocolate, food, and maybe even cigars. People who enjoy spicy foods may also enjoy spicy, peppery tobacco. Then again, a lot of people have tastes that specifically enjoy variety and don’t have a preference. Also, as you said, even people who preferentially prefer sweets still have enjoyment of savory flavors and other flavor groups as well.

[El Presidente]

8 hours ago, Colt45 said:

Not for me, really. I like all different types of food (though my daily diet is fairly mundane), and different types of cigars. Though, from time to time we've been asked to create / blend our "ultimate" cigar - I wonder if some of the responses might tie into your theory / question, or if they've typically referred only to cigar flavor preferences.

Partly I agree with Colt in that I swing both ways. 

I am an unabashed foodie. Flavour is flavour and I can but not relate cigar flavours to food and drink flavours. 

Hamlet (Cuban trained) who is a superb roller and blender in his own right can't associate tobacco/cigar flavours to food or drink. To him it is all about strength, balance, weight on the palate, spiciness through the retrohale et al. Who is right and who is wrong? It has led to some brilliant 3am arguments 

Call it the way you see it, the way you appreciate it, the way you can relate to it. 

[La_Tigre]

I’ve heard it said this gentleman prefers Sancho Belicoso. 

[Wookie]

10 hours ago, The Real McCoy said:

Wookie, I think you’re dead on. It seems some have misinterpreted your post as asking about specific pairings. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re talking about taste preferences for food that might be similar to a taste preference in cigars. I think that’s true of all things enjoyed on the palate. When the tongue is accustomed to sweet flavors, it may enjoy a sweeter profile in whisky, wine, chocolate, food, and maybe even cigars. People who enjoy spicy foods may also enjoy spicy, peppery tobacco. Then again, a lot of people have tastes that specifically enjoy variety and don’t have a preference. Also, as you said, even people who preferentially prefer sweets still have enjoyment of savory flavors and other flavor groups as well.

You are correct regarding my intention. Thanks for clarifying! We only have five flavor receptors. I'm just not sure there's any correlations. Like El Presidente said, I love most foods. Just not bland ones generally, which may be why I shy away from HdM because they are usually bland. (I've had a few San Juans that made me go deep on them, but they too have been mostly bland for me)

[jazzboypro]

I can smell chocolate, cocoa, barn from an unlit cigar. I rarely pickup any food taste while smoking a cigar and honestly i don't see how it could taste like any food that's why i rarely read cigar reviews i find them to be entertaining at best. I can detect spicy or peppery (pretty much the same thing to me). To many things can change the perception of a cigar taste (the food you had, the drinks you had, the mood you're in etc)

[Wookie]

1 hour ago, jazzboypro said:

I can smell chocolate, cocoa, barn from an unlit cigar. I rarely pickup any food taste while smoking a cigar and honestly i don't see how it could taste like any food that's why i rarely read cigar reviews i find them to be entertaining at best. I can detect spicy or peppery (pretty much the same thing to me). To many things can change the perception of a cigar taste (the food you had, the drinks you had, the mood you're in etc)

yes this is what  I'm saying.  Your flavor receptors can detect sensation, not food flavors in a cigar, generally.   Cocoa? Yes...it is sweet.  Coffee? yes, it is savory/sour. We equate cigar flavors with food but there is no direct correlation.  It has more to do with the mental need to try to quantify a flavor in a cigar.  Wine tasting is the same thing. Think about the 1970s...before Robert Parker started spewing all his crap.  I have a volume of Bordeaux et ses Vins that was probably published in 1920....you don't hear all the frothy stuff back then....more focused on savory, sweet, dry, maybe vegetal, etc.

[Colt45]

24 minutes ago, Wookie said:

yes this is what  I'm saying.  Your flavor receptors can detect sensation, not food flavors in a cigar, generally.   Cocoa? Yes...it is sweet.  Coffee? yes, it is savory/sour. We equate cigar flavors with food but there is no direct correlation.  It has more to do with the mental need to try to quantify a flavor in a cigar.  Wine tasting is the same thing. Think about the 1970s...before Robert Parker started spewing all his crap.  I have a volume of Bordeaux et ses Vins that was probably published in 1920....you don't hear all the frothy stuff back then....more focused on savory, sweet, dry, maybe vegetal, etc.

I understood your initial question, so again, I don't favor particular cigars based on favorite types of food. But I pretty much disagree with the above. For myself, there's no question that I've tasted things in cigars that absolutely remind me of foods / other things I've smelled and / or tasted. So for example, I've described some Bolivars as tasting of saddle leather. I've never eaten or licked (to the best of my recollection) a saddle or reins, but I've been around horses and know what these things smell like, and those cigars tasted as the horse tack smelled.

The Hoyo DC and Churchill have an element of cream to me, really more like condensed milk. I've tasted it in these cigars, and that's what I've been reminded of, so that's a descriptor I've used.

It's been discussed before, and RA has alluded to it above that the Cubans (or probably any blenders anywhere) don't blend cigars as we sometimes describe them.

16 hours ago, El Presidente said:

I swing both ways.

What happens at WET, stays at WET....

[Wookie]

no disagreement with you. I'm not saying cigar flavors should be compared to food. Or leather. Or horse stables.  I think the most pungent flavors and aerial sensations we experience lend themselves to cigar comparisons because cigars are pungent creatures by their very nature. 

[Meklown]

I'm no expert on food comparisons nor describing cigar tastes, but my guess is that we taste "things" due to 2 different reasons.

1. What I learned in whisky tasting - certain molecules within foods give us the taste. During fermentation of the whisky, these exact molecules are produced. I am thinking that the process could be very similar for fermentation of cigars too. 

2. Taste and smells are also correlated to experiences. Like the horse saddle example above, that's something that I'm not familiar with - so I might instead describe that same flavor as horse sh*t because that's what I'm familiar with (walking past a smelly barn). 

[GVan]

Wookie - great question!  I come at it a slightly different way - but same thought process.  You asked about food; while it may be a stretch my favorite food (at least the one I spend the most $'s on) is likely wine.  When I have a great glass of wine I'm constantly trying to "taste" the flavors coming through the wine.  My wife and I often compare thoughts about a wine as we are drinking that particular experience.  A good bottle can often surprise you by tasting very different than the last good bottle of the exact same winery, plot/vinyard, grape and vintage.  We have some favorite wines because we like the fruit (taste), the viscosity (mouth feel), and even the color (wrapper) and the nose (smoke aroma) that come with it.  While I drink more different wines (then I have Cuban Cigars) there are always a few favorite vineyards and grapes that make up the majority of my collection that I tend to serve more often (over 750 bottles - some over 40 years old).

Sounds a lot like what we try and do with our favorite CC's -- doesn't it?