Practical Guide to Cigar Notes and Flavors

If you have managed to acquire the ability to recognize various flavors and notes in a puff of smoke, you can be considered an experienced cigar connoisseur. As a long-time cigar enthusiast, you should be familiar with the terminology used by aficionados to describe cigar flavors. Given that cigars are made entirely of pure tobacco, you may wonder how people are able to distinguish such flavors.

The aromas in your cigar are intentionally created by cigar blenders, and each cigar undergoes a rigorous testing process before being brought to market. Therefore, after so much time has been spent creating the cigar, it is worth learning how to analyze the complex aromas contained in a stick of tobacco in order to fully understand the cigar-making process. 

Here is a brief guide on how to build and improve your palate for a better cigar tasting experience.

Developing Your Palate

At first, your cigar tasting abilities will be far below those of cigar specialists. Recognizing aromas, preparing your palate, and paying extreme attention to the smallest details takes considerable work. Therefore, it is extremely important to take the essential steps to improve your taste buds so you can better distinguish the different flavors. 

Although cigar tasting is a highly subjective experience, there are certain notes and aromas that the blenders intended you to taste, so it is worth studying them. It is recommended and necessary to keep a “cigar journal” to record the flavor and character of each cigar you smoke in order to develop your palate, because the more cigars you smoke, the more you will be able to recognize the similarities and differences among different cigars, allowing you to identify specific flavors and notes with greater precision and accuracy. 

Moreover, the olfactory test can be a very important exercise for developing your cigar palate. Many wine and cigar sommeliers use this technique to test their ability to recognize specific aromas until they feel confident in their ability to identify these smells within their chosen focus (wine or cigars). To do this, you can ask a friend to help you obtain products that resemble a cigar’s “notes,” such as dark chocolate, coffee, leather, nuts, and other similar products. Then, you can put on a blindfold and try to guess what they are, or you can try to identify these aromas in cigars, which will help improve your sense of smell.

Practicing Retro-Olfaction

It is very useful to use the retro-olfaction method to identify aromas in a cigar that you might not have noticed otherwise. Remember that the art of tasting is not just about tasting a product, but also about noting its aroma and flavor; in this case, retro-olfaction emphasizes aroma. A cigar’s aroma may even be more essential than its taste, according to a study indicating that your sense of smell could account for as much as 75% of your overall tasting ability.

For retro-olfaction, you need to draw the smoke into your mouth while holding your breath, then open your throat and expel the smoke through your nose once you are done. Many cigar experts have reported tasting noticeably different flavors using this method, as opposed to the traditional way of smoking through the mouth. This can allow you to taste additional flavors, which can further enrich your overall experience.

Relying on Your Taste Buds

As you may know, your taste buds are responsible for recognizing flavors and help you determine whether or not you enjoy a particular taste. Flavors are detected by our tongue in five different ways: bitter, sour, sweet, salty, and umami. If you notice flavors in your cigar that resemble meat, you can be sure that it is umami.

We can also detect a distinct salty flavor, which is extremely common in cigars because Cuban soil, for example, contains a higher amount of lithium, which is chemically comparable to sodium. Bitterness is another common flavor, which can be found in a variety of tastes such as coffee, citrus, and dark chocolate, among others. Other flavors, of course, can include sourness and sweetness, among others. 

Thanks to this combination of the five tastes, we can identify flavors that remind us of specific cuisines and elements, allowing us to evaluate the different flavors and aromas a cigar may have to offer. Here are some popular categories of flavors and notes you can compare a cigar to in order to guide your identification of its flavors:

• Nutty aromas such as almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, and pecans can be found in medium- to full-flavored cigars. If you take a look at the Montecristo 80 Aniversario cigar, you will see that it is offered as a complex bouquet of nutty and earthy notes.
• The earthy qualities of cigars can be recognized by those accustomed to them. Wood shavings, cedar, cut grass, and earth are just a few of the unique aromas and flavors that can be found. Depending on the manufacturer, the H. Upmann Royal Robusto cigar has cedar flavors, combined with notes of dark cocoa and pepper.
• Spice flavors and notes can be found in a variety of cigars. Black coffee, licorice, caramel, malt, and cardamom are among the flavors represented. For example, the Cohiba Esplendidos is described as having cocoa notes as well as pepper notes.” A medium- to full-flavored cigar, similar to many other Cohiba cigars in terms of flavor and strength.

Smoking While Maximizing Flavors

If you want to get a good sense of a cigar’s flavors and notes, you need to smoke slowly. Drawing on a cigar too quickly can cause it to heat up too fast, which ruins the flavors you want to enjoy. So take a moment to savor and appreciate the taste. Leave an interval of 60 seconds between long puffs to allow the cigar to burn more slowly and prevent the taste of burned tobacco from lingering in your mouth. 

Furthermore, by allowing the smoke to linger on your tongue, it creates a more noticeable aftertaste, enabling you to fully appreciate the flavors that have been introduced. When evaluating the flavors of a cigar, many connoisseurs take into account not only the main flavor, but also the harmonics and undertones of the tobacco; it is the taste that remains after you have finished smoking the cigar. Other flavors you may not have noticed before can become apparent after performing this test.

We hope that now that you have learned the basics of cigar tasting and how to recognize notes, you will be able to further improve your cigar tasting skills and, perhaps, one day pursue a career as a cigar sommelier.

Want to start trying cigars yourself? Discover our wide selection of cigars in our online shop, all available for you to try! Also check out our blog for additional articles on a variety of cigar-related topics.