Cigar reviews by members

[SCgarman]

After reading a few of this weeks cigar reviews by our esteemed members I have a bit of a critique. At the very minimum please describe some of the flavor notes of the cigar you are smoking/smoked. I have read some reviews that list the score out of 100 and smoking time without any prelight flavor or aroma, any flavor notes throughout the duration of the cigar, or conclusion. This is hardly a "review", sorry. Certainly you can use the imagination to describe the flavors of the cigar. If you were a salesman and were making a sales pitch to sell me a box of cigars that you are smoking, tell me about the cigar! Cheers!

[Hammer Smokin']

it's the reason I don't post any cigar reviews. 

I can't explain flavours very well. 

 

[El Presidente]

Just do the best you can folks. Don't feel intimidated 

[NW_Oregon]

4 minutes ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

it's the reason I don't post any cigar reviews. 

I can't explain flavours very well. 

 

I've been struggling with this a lot lately

I used to take really detailed notes and could really pick out flavors in both pre-light and each third. the last 6 months though I've had some difficulty picking out distinct or identifiable flavors. I can taste whether a cigar is complex or not, and how strong the "flavors" are. but often times a partagas short will taste just like a Cohiba robusto, a Rafael Gonzalez, or an RYJ, and I'm finding that what I do taste isn't accurate at all to the classic flavor profiles of those cigars. no idea what's going on. my brain/imagination and my palete just aren't meshing up any more.

[Ken Gargett]

11 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Just do the best you can folks. Don't feel intimidated 

agree. no obligation on anyone to do any review in any specific form. do them as suit yourselves. others may appreciate them or not. up to them. a simple score may not be as helpful as a page of thoughts but it does provide an indication. i have no problem with reviews however detailed or not they are. 

 

4 minutes ago, NW_Oregon said:

I've been struggling with this a lot lately

I used to take really detailed notes and could really pick out flavors in both pre-light and each third. the last 6 months though I've had some difficulty picking out distinct or identifiable flavors. I can taste whether a cigar is complex or not, and how strong the "flavors" are. but often times a partagas short will taste just like a Cohiba robusto, a Rafael Gonzalez, or an RYJ, and I'm finding that what I do taste isn't accurate at all to the classic flavor profiles of those cigars. no idea what's going on. my brain/imagination and my palete just aren't meshing up any more.

touch of covid? i gather it plays hell with tasting and smelling. 

[Bijan]

Just now, Ken Gargett said:

touch of covid? i gather it plays hell with tasting and smelling. 

That or smoking too much, or more than before. This happened to me at the beginning of lockdowns/work from home, when I increased my smoking a lot.

[NW_Oregon]

7 minutes ago, Bijan said:

That or smoking too much, or more than before. This happened to me at the beginning of lockdowns/work from home, when I increased my smoking a lot.

might be the opposite, I've actually been smoking a lot less then my peak last year.

covid, maybe but I haven't noticed any other changes in taste or smell. so still a mystery to me.

[Corylax18]

7 minutes ago, NW_Oregon said:

but often times a partagas short will taste just like a Cohiba robusto, a Rafael Gonzalez, or an RYJ, and I'm finding that what I do taste isn't accurate at all to the classic flavor profiles of those cigars. no idea what's going on. my brain/imagination and my palete just aren't meshing up any more.

The majority of "Marca DNA" is marketing/lives in people's heads, look up every blind tasting ever. Try to focus on what you ARE tasting not what you "Should Be" tasting. I take the majority of member reviews with a huge grain of salt, regardless of detail level. "This is my 4th from the box and 5th RyJ overall, but the flavors where pure RyJ." Haha. OK.

Most people just dont have the pallet to describe cigars like many of the popular reviewers, many of the popular reviewers probably don't even have that level of pallet. Haha.  

I've learned to sus out flavors better the more I smoke, I didnt retrohale NC's/the first 3 or 4 years I smoked. I discovered Cubans, then the fact you could retrohale them without sneexing/crying and it was a whole new experience. Just keep smoking!!!

[Bijan]

3 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

The majority of "Marca DNA" is marketing/lives in people's heads, look up every blind tasting ever. Try to focus on what you ARE tasting not what you "Should Be" tasting. I take the majority of member reviews with a huge grain of salt, regardless of detail level. "This is my 4th from the box and 5th RyJ overall, but the flavors where pure RyJ." Haha. OK.

I agree about Marca DNA. But I disagree when it comes to vitolas. While flavours are inconsistent I don't think you'd mistake a Cohiba Robusto for a Partagas Short or any of the others he mentioned. For any vitola there are a list of typical flavours and you can get pretty much any of them but there's very little overlap between the typical flavours you get in a CoRo and in a Short.

That being said I also definitely agree that you should focus on what you are tasting and not what you should be tasting. So there could be some rare CoRo out there that tastes like a short or vice versa, but if all cigars starts to taste the same, then odds are it's something else.

[SCgarman]

Most of us who have a little experience under the belt smoking cigars can at least describe some flavor notes. Coffee, cocoa, salty, sweet, creamy, dry, nutty, woody are just a few of the basics. I was just a bit disappointed reading some reviews that only listed smoking time and overall score. I fully realize cigar reviews are totally subjective and details are left up to the reviewer. 

[La_Tigre]

Did Ken just agree with Pres?

Let’s call out more for today!

¡Patria y Vida Cuba!

[NW_Oregon]

3 hours ago, Bijan said:

That or smoking too much, or more than before. This happened to me at the beginning of lockdowns/work from home, when I increased my smoking a lot.

Ironically I just lit up a Connie A and it definitely very much H. Upmann; nuts, coffee,baking spices and sugar with a bit of leather in the background. Maybe I just haven't been smoking the right sticks for my palette lately 😅

 

2 hours ago, Bijan said:

So there could be some rare CoRo out there that tastes like a short or vice versa

It was a early 2018 CoRo so anything's possible, I have very few boxes of 2018 stuff that I would put in my favorites catagory, seem like over all an off year.

[Huckleberry]

2 hours ago, La_Tigre said:

Did Ken just agree with Pres?

Let’s call out more for today!

¡Patria y Vida Cuba!

I know right?  WTF? 

I sense a disturbance in the force way more immense than a few wanky palates among the esteemed members of our group   

[Scubasteve20]

I love this topic. I often describe cigar flavors in ways that make people scratch their heads but I don't care. If I know I taste it, I'll tell people about it. If I'm unsure or can't put my finger on the description, I'll be vague. If I know I'm having an "off" day I'll refrain from saying anything at all. I also find it easier to describe combinations of flavors rather than individual notes. If I'm researching, I'd rather have a half-assed, inexperienced, layman's term description of the flavor than nothing at all.

[El Presidente]

6 minutes ago, Scubasteve20 said:

I love this topic. I often describe cigar flavors in ways that make people scratch their heads but I don't care. If I know I taste it, I'll tell people about it. If I'm unsure or can't put my finger on the description, I'll be vague. If I know I'm having an "off" day I'll refrain from saying anything at all. I also find it easier to describe combinations of flavors rather than individual notes. If I'm researching, I'd rather have a half-assed, inexperienced, layman's term description of the flavor than nothing at all.

can't disagree 

Each palate is unique. Each individuals current state (physical/emotional) at the time of tasting is unique. Each cigar has an element of uniqueness. Each persons smoking technique is unique.

It's a miracle we can generally get the same "gist" on any cigar. 

[Edicion]

We do the occasional blind tasting and not surprising - we often get it wrong. 

However, we do also get it right, and I would say it's not because we are able to distinguish exact flavors (peanut / chocolate / grass etc) and match them to a typical brand or profile.

It's probably more that we've smoked so many of the same brand so many times, that we start to associate that flavor with that cigar or cigar brand. The actual flavor, honestly, we can call it whatever our palate tells it is based on our upbringing, good experiences, and other creative ways to describe things plus the occasional use of flavor wheels. 

To give you an example, we might call out the same cigar as being a Partagas E2, I call it peppery and earthy to know instantly what I'm smoking, and someone else might say woody and sweet and we both get it right. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we distinguish cigars based on taste, and not by flavor description only. It can play a part but there's more to it I believe. 

Not sure if it makes sense to anyone else! 

Conclusion : keep smoking more cigars. 

[NSXCIGAR]

22 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

The majority of "Marca DNA" is marketing/lives in people's heads, look up every blind tasting ever.

Tell me about it. Right now I'm smoking a fresh PSE2 that tastes just like a Connie A. A strong Connie A, but I would never guess E2 if blind (and the vitola wasn't unique.)

 

22 hours ago, Bijan said:

So there could be some rare CoRo out there that tastes like a short or vice versa

I don't know--I once was 99% sure a cigar I was blind tasting was a BPC. Turns out it was a Siglo II. At least according to Rob . I still can't believe it though. 

[Bijan]

39 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I don't know--I once was 99% sure a cigar I was blind tasting was a BPC. Turns out it was a Siglo II. At least according to Rob . I still can't believe it though. 

I don't know about the reliability of blind tasting individual cigars.

But I'd be surprised if you were given a box of BPC and a box of Siglo II without bands and in plain packaging and could smoke as many as you wanted out of each box, knowing that each box only contained either BPCs or Siglo IIs and then you got that wrong.

Also were these BPCs from a SLB? Because otherwise the box press should have given them away 😂

[dominattorney]

22 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

The majority of "Marca DNA" is marketing/lives in people's heads, look up every blind tasting ever. Try to focus on what you ARE tasting not what you "Should Be" tasting. I take the majority of member reviews with a huge grain of salt, regardless of detail level. "This is my 4th from the box and 5th RyJ overall, but the flavors where pure RyJ." Haha. OK.

Most people just dont have the pallet to describe cigars like many of the popular reviewers, many of the popular reviewers probably don't even have that level of pallet. Haha.  

I've learned to sus out flavors better the more I smoke, I didnt retrohale NC's/the first 3 or 4 years I smoked. I discovered Cubans, then the fact you could retrohale them without sneexing/crying and it was a whole new experience. Just keep smoking!!!

At the risk of getting laughed at and even admitting it myself I'll say I generally agree with you. However, a decent partagas series d no 4 has a distinc flavor profile to my palate. Nothing else does.  But I think I could pick a d4 out of a robust lineup blind more times than not. I know that's not the best claim on earth, but it's all I'm good for. 

[Shrimpchips]

14 hours ago, NYgarman said:

After reading a few of this weeks cigar reviews by our esteemed members I have a bit of a critique. At the very minimum please describe some of the flavor notes of the cigar you are smoking/smoked. I have read some reviews that list the score out of 100 and smoking time without any prelight flavor or aroma, any flavor notes throughout the duration of the cigar, or conclusion. This is hardly a "review", sorry. Certainly you can use the imagination to describe the flavors of the cigar. If you were a salesman and were making a sales pitch to sell me a box of cigars that you are smoking, tell me about the cigar! Cheers!

I’m guessing a number of these would be “reviews” posted for Review week competitions? Posts with minimal effort to actually review the cigar vs ability to review the cigar are two pretty different things. If members genuinely have nothing to add about a cigar besides pictures and a rating just for an entry in the weeks’ generous drawing, you’re probably getting a good indication of their level of depth and investment into the cigar appreciation aspect of the hobby.  I usually ignore those as useless data points since there’s no indication as to why the rating was deserved.  If there’s some attempt to qualify their rating, even if not particularly informative for a seasoned smoker or more refined/sensitive palate, I’m good with that.

[smbauerllc]

it's the reason I don't post any cigar reviews. 
I can't explain flavours very well. 
 

Same here

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Corylax18]

31 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

At the risk of getting laughed at and even admitting it myself I'll say I generally agree with you. However, a decent partagas series d no 4 has a distinc flavor profile to my pallet. Nothing else does.  But I think I could pick a d4 out of a robust lineup blind more times than not. I know that's not the best claim on earth, but it's all I'm good for. 

The "Decent" part is Key. I completely agree that a Montecristo blended and rolled properly, with properly fermented Tobacco should taste consistently different than the same level Cohiba, Bolivar, or Trinidad. But there is no consistency.

Different types/quality of leaf, different blenders with slightly different tastes at each factory, different rollers, QC departments, etc. You end up getting cigars all over the board from every Marca. 

[Kaptain Karl]

23 hours ago, NW_Oregon said:

I've been struggling with this a lot lately

I used to take really detailed notes and could really pick out flavors in both pre-light and each third. the last 6 months though I've had some difficulty picking out distinct or identifiable flavors. I can taste whether a cigar is complex or not, and how strong the "flavors" are. but often times a partagas short will taste just like a Cohiba robusto, a Rafael Gonzalez, or an RYJ, and I'm finding that what I do taste isn't accurate at all to the classic flavor profiles of those cigars. no idea what's going on. my brain/imagination and my palete just aren't meshing up any more.

Funny I’m in the same boat. My palate has been utter shit for the past few months. It could be allergies, or I need to cut way down for a bit, but I can barely pick out flavors now when before I was getting pretty decent at it. 

[Cairo]

50 minutes ago, Kaptain Karl said:

I need to cut way down for a bit,

Karl:   That happens to me from time to time.    I would definitely recommend taking a day or two off from smoking.    Then try restarting with just a petite corona a day until the palette gets back.

[SCgarman]

3 hours ago, Kaptain Karl said:

Funny I’m in the same boat. My palette has been utter shit for the past few months. It could be allergies, or I need to cut way down for a bit, but I can barely pick out flavors now when before I was getting pretty decent at it. 

If you smoke every day your senses become somewhat immune to flavors and aromas. Go a few days without any cigars, and you will be more able to appreciate flavor and aroma. Too much of anything can be a bad thing.