A Slightly Altered Perception Of Flavor

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

workman

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
2,794
4,230
The Faroe Islands
I have smoked a few cigars lately. Cheroots and cigarillos also.

It's new territory, so I'm not familiar with the flavors, and I'm not very good at tasting any difference between different cigars.

But they have made some changes in the way I taste some pipe tobaccos. Right now I am smoking Irish Flake, and suddenly I taste a kind of very dry earthy or woody note that I hadn't payd attention to before. I would describe it as "cigar-like", but perhaps that only makes sense to my untrained palate regarding cigars.

It puzzles me that I also get these cigar notes from Royal Yacht. Even more than from Irish Flake. RY is supposed to be a virginia blend. But I'm not so sure about that. It has always been kind of the odd-out va-blend anyways.

 

npod

Lifer
Jun 11, 2017
2,947
1,073
This is a cool post. I find it fascinating how we can all go between cigars and pipes. The flavors and mouth feel and experience and taste and well everything in general is slightly different. But whenever I bounce back-and-forth I appreciate the other a little bit more.

 

odobenus

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 15, 2018
733
2,593
Vermont
You're both inspiring me to have a cigar -- first in ages. But what I crave, perversely, is a Backwoods mild n natural.

 

crazyhog

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 18, 2015
229
26
I found that when I smoked both cigars and pipes that the cigars would alter the taste of my pipe tobacco. Almost as though cigars were "ghosting" my palate. This would happen even after a couple of days went by since I had a cigar. Needless to say, I know longer smoke cigars.

 
Jan 28, 2018
14,288
163,564
67
Sarasota, FL
I went from cigars to pipes. Enjoy the pipe much, much more to the extent I rarely have a cigar. What I've found is for me to enjoy the cigar, it has to be strong and very good. I have a friend who I was hanging with a few weeks ago that gave me some kind of Cuban Bolivar Limitado that was fabulous. A few days later I smoked a Davidoff Nicaraguan at a cigar bar that I also enjoyed. The cost of the Bolivar was equivalent to a half pound of most pipe tobacco, the Davidoff more than a normal tin. I'm sticking to pipes.

 

workman

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
2,794
4,230
The Faroe Islands
I have always smoked cigarettes. I'm laying them off now. Cigarettes have some virginia tangyness, which might be the reason I like vas and va/pers the most, but with pipes it's all very different and all the flavors really become something of their own and not just a byproduct of devouring cigarettes by the dozen.

Cigars are in the same league as pipe tobaccos, but very different.

 
Mar 29, 2016
1,008
5,574
I'm a pipe and cigar smoker, I like them both equally. What I observed is that cigars, being less subtle than pipe tobacco especially Virginia, will actually train your taste buds to better pick the nuances. Burley, Kentucky and even Perique are now tasting as "cigar like" in some, not all mixtures. I get this a lot in J. F. Germain & Son - Royal Jersey Perique Mixture and J. F. Germain & Son - Germain's Brown Flake.

 

blues4goose

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 15, 2019
243
721
31
Bethlehem, PA
+1 on what Virginialover said.

I love all tobacco, and in a single day I usually count 2 or 3 cigars, 4 or 5 pipes, a cigarette or two, and a few sniffs of snuff before I hit the hay.

Though I'm not really sure if the cigars change how I perceive the flavors of pipe tobacco, as I'm really not willing to give up cigars for a week to only smoke pipes. I do, however, definitely believe that cigars have trained my palate to pick up on some seriously subtle flavors.

There's a time and a place for everything. I smoke whatever works best in my current situation, or just whatevers closest to my hand I guess.

Currently smoking a new Man o' War cigar immediately after Haunted Bookshop & Plum Pudding, and I've got some nightcap match drying and on-deck for as soon as I nub the cigar. I've always said that I have what I call a 'rubber palate', because my palate bounces back to neutral unusually quickly.

 

5star

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2017
727
2,021
PacNW USA
Interesting thread. - I started as a cigar smoker, but smoke pipes more often now. If I had to choose only one of them (shudder at the thought !) I’d choose the pipe.
I have found that pipe and cigar smoking has seemed to enhance my sense of smell and taste. My guess is that this is due to focusing and paying greater attention to these senses while I’m enjoying a cigar or pipe. Typically, I will smell something burning outside before anyone else in the family notices it. I also pick up distinctions between aromas that other family members cannot.

 

wolflarsen

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 29, 2018
863
2,498
I have experienced the exact same phenomenon described by the OP.

It was first brought to my attention during a presentation about "getting the most flavor from your pipe tobacco" given by the great Russ O. at the 2014 West Coast Pipe Show. Here is a link to the video of his talk. The issue is addressed in the first few minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKGbs_pf8OE

 

nunnster

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 17, 2019
141
63
I started off as a cig smoker, then for about 5 years I went absolutely crazy about cigars (I spent way to much money and time trying "must try" cigars) before I switched to a pipe 100 percent. I have found that if I smoke a cigar or a cigarette, that pipe tobacco tastes leaps and bounds better than both of them. This is especially true for cigarettes, as I can not even pick out any resemblance of tobacco in them, they just taste like chemicals and ash to me now. I also find this to be true with a cigar. What is also puzzling to me, is that with a cigar if I smoke a pipe in the same evening first, that I do not enjoy the flavor of the cigar, but If I smoke the other way around my pipe smoking experience is enhanced and I enjoy it more. Never really put much thought into it though, until just now. Seems kinda strange and I wonder why that is?

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,664
Forgive me for over-thinking this one a little. Cigars are generally expertly crafted to deliver a smoking experience that is to some degree engineered into the cigar. The wrap and filler are assembled in a certain way to deliver a specific smoking experience. In a sense, it is like going to a good restaurant and being guided by the chef, via the wait person, to a defined dining experience. Pipe smoking is like cooking a meal yourself with a recipe or without. You can add condiment tobaccos, dry it to your satisfaction, pack it to your satisfaction, exercise choice of pipe, etc. So no wonder, after being under the tutelage of a cigar maker you have some residual sense of what you are tasting. Makes perfect sense to me.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.