How to describe a cigar's Flavour

FLAVOUR = AROMA > TASTE
Our taste is actually limited to five different elements – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and "umami" (ie old cheese, mushrooms, seaweed). So in reality, when we say taste, what we are mostly saying is what we smell.

Apparently, we can pick up around 10,000 different aromas. Wine, there is still much work being done on this, has hundreds of compounds (some say thousands) and these work individually and in combination. It is simply inevitable that some of these compounds will resemble other characters/flavours/aromas etc.

Hence, it makes sense that the same should happen with cigars/tobacco. When transformed into cigars, the combination of compounds therein gives off different flavours. Don’t forget that there is a human component in the production of both, including fermentation, which will alter the original flavour. Otherwise, wine would taste like grapes and cigars like tobacco leaves and nothing more.

Making it all the more difficult is that there is no doubt that aromas are inextricably linked with one’s individual experiences and emotions, not unlike music. So if I was chugging on a Reyes while enjoying... a good All Blacks win say (great self-censure)... then chances are I will have a higher opinion of it than I should.


DESCRIBING AROMA/TASTE
All these things aside, a great learning tool for describing taste is a Taste Wheel. Its great use is in helping to identify the flavours you are enjoying. The concept is that you start in the centre with a simple general flavour, and move outwards towards the more specific flavours.

It also allows us to determine if a cigar is smoking as one would expect and perhaps most importantly, it simply allows each of us to identify the cigars we prefer.

Click here for a Flavour Wheel (to print if you want)

For more info on cigar flavours, including chemical compounds etc, go to this link where most of the above was stolen from.