Want to get better at identifying the flavors of a cigar? (And we're not talking flavor infused cigars.) You can learn how to build associations between your senses and what you’re tasting in premium tobacco. Join these cigar aficionados for a smoke as they reveal cigar flavors, how that flavor changes throughout a premium handmade cigar and how the tobacco leaves origins dictate what you taste.

Guest: Altadis Cigars’ National Education Manager, Travis Pappenheim

Boveda Box Hosts: Rob Gagner and Nate Beck

More with cigar smokers, Travis, Rob and Nate here:

What Are You Tasting in a Cigar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cErxW...

00:00 Cold open

00:34 What am I tasting in a cigar? Black coffee? Dark chocolate? Leather? Rose?

01:19 Wine tasting versus cigar tasting

01:44 Does smell trigger memories?

03:07 The connection between flavors and aromas in cigars

04:25 How can cigars be spicy?

06:46 What flavors are you picking up in a cigar? (The unique cigar rolled with tobacco from 5 different countries—Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Indonesia and Colombia.)

Why use Boveda in a cigar humidor?

Keeping cigars fresh by storing with them Boveda preserves the flavors you taste in tobacco.

The cigar packs are so easy to use. Just slip Boveda into a humidor and the packs do all the work. There's nothing to refill or manage. Boveda works automatically to protect cigars.

Shop Boveda for cigars here: https://store.bovedainc.com/collectio...

Learn more about refining your taste buds for cigars:

Pick Your Cigar Palate Apart!

https://youtu.be/TOF-KS-O1QY

Better Understand Your Cigar Tasting Palate

https://youtu.be/W-L976OtGlE

What Makes a Cigar Taste Good?

https://youtu.be/1RYXtKHUwgM?t=88

Website: https://www.bovedainc.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bovedausa/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bovedainc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bovedainc/

For me, it's so hard for me to get flavors,  because they're so nua-, like minor in a cigar.

It's not like wine. It's not like alcohol where  sometimes it just smacks you in the face. You're

like, whoa, that was, you know, peat or that  was Band-Aid on that Scotch. That was, holy cow,

that grass-fed beef had like a lot of like hay  flavor, like you know, barnyard. I don't get

that with cigars. How would you like to, though?  Huh? How would you like to say, this is how I can

associate- That's what I want to get better at  is like- Yeah. I just want to get better at like,

when I'm smoking this, what the heck am I  tasting? Because literally? I don't know

what it is in my brain, but it's as if there is no  neurons transmitting between those two synapses.

It's like, hey man what are you tasting? The other  one's like, I am not sending you this signal. You

are screwed. Hey, buddy send it over. No. No, that  fax is not coming over. You are not getting that

email. Screw you. And it's only going to get worse  with time, so- Dude! It's bad! Love that. So I'm

trying to figure out how to just even get half-  Train your brain how. Yeah, yeah, how do I build

the synapses and the electromagnetic current to  like start firing? And I don't know- You mentioned

with wine, right? Wines, they're a liquid and  the oils are within the liquid and the minerals

are easily displaced. So in wines, spirits  beers, there are flavor notes that can arise,

which flavor notes in scenarios like that, aren't  really direct for flavors. They're not like,

barnyard. It's not like you're going to go out and  grab some of the barnyard and go shove it in your

mouth, and go okay, oh, now I know what it tastes  like. It's just- It's memory, through smell. Yeah,

you smell the fresh cut grass, it's not like  you ate it, right? Or leather. Right. You're

just smelling it. Leather, actually when you  get it wet, and then, coming from the farms

back when I was a kid, we had to untack horses  in August after riding them all day. Yeah. Those

oils from the leather actually get into the  outside air and you can literally taste those.

I know what that leather tastes like. That's  a strong one for me. Yeah. But chocolates?

Dark chocolates. Milk chocolate, white, it didn't  matter, I don't need a lot of it. Because I

don't do a lot of sugar. And chocolate's one of  those that I just stay away from. Sure. Been a

diabetic for 46 years. Yeah. So I stay away from  certain things that I need to actually train my

palate on. Sure. And there are ways that if you  don't have an association with certain flavors,

if you've not been surrounded by leathers,  or- Right. You know, straw—certain barnyard.

Don't know what smokey is, because maybe you  live in the city, and you've never been to a

campfire outside, you know, the city limits,  which is different than barrel burns- Sure.

-around the corner. A little different scenario.  Yeah, it's a little bit different smell coming

from that one. Like they might not know what  toasty meant. Right. Right? They wouldn't have

that association with what toasty is. So it's  it's about saying, it's not that I don't know,

I need to associate them. And there's a way  we can do that. Well, and it's, aromas are so

interesting. They say that your sense of smell  brings back the, like the richest memories. So,

if you can tie an aroma to a place in a memory,  or a flavor, you really can lock that in and go,

oh that's that. And like I know I've tasted cigars  where I might call it floral, but to my brain it

smells like walking through a garden that has  some flowers and some herbs. And, like tomatoes

have a really characteristic smell when you touch  them with your fingers, like it really lingers.

And, like I wouldn't say it's like a great smell,  but it's a really characteristic summer smell. And

all of that combines into like, it feels like I'm  walking through a garden. Okay. I can't tell which

flavor I'm picking up right now, like sometimes  it might be, oh, shoot, it could be roses. Yeah.

That's a really you know characteristic, memorable  scent. But, that to me is a connection that I've

made in my brain, because it's a flavor I like  in cigars. And like your grasses, your hay,

your- things like, that I almost kind of call  them like a vegetal,- Yes! if that's a word?

Absolutely. Yeah, I think it is. Yup. -but that  vegetation grown- Of course. -kind of lumps into

its own. Yeah. And your chocolates can almost be  mixed in with your coffees. They kind of can tie

in together.Yep. People say spice a lot, I mean  I don't know how many times you guys have heard

people say, oh it's spicy. What spice? People  look at me and go- which one? Yeah, exactly.

Because there are so many of them. Because  you've got cinnamon, you've got vanilla that

all fall into the spice category. You've  got jalapeño, that's spicy. Black pepper.

Uh, you mentioned that before. Or you know,  there are a lot that fit in some of those

categories—like which end of that spectrum are  you on? White pepper, cayenne- Uh-huh. I mean,

but spice I think a lot of people associate  that word spice with the almost, the overdraw.

Drawing too fast creates that bitter, that  bitter "bitey-ness". It's like the heat drawn

kind of zest that can come from  tobacco. If you're drawing in too fast,

too much. You're hitting it too hard and that heat  just creates that spicy flavor. Right. Yeah. Like

right now I'm smoking the H. Upmann Heritage.  And I know I'm gonna have spicy notes because

the wrapper leaf that's on here, it's a Brazilian-  Sure. -from the Mata Fina region and this has been

triple fermented by by AJ, so I know it's going  to have that little bit of spice at the beginning.

But once I get, I got, you know, like maybe a  sixteenth of an inch in, not even a quarter of an

inch. It really toned that down, but I know that's  more of a black, like a cracked black pepper,

feeling out of it. Right now I know I'm getting  a lot of leather notes, because I know leather.

But, you may smoke it and go, I don't get  the leather. Sure. But how can we say,

how do we do this? How can we get it to go- I  get the association with what the flavor and

the aroma is supposed to be. Yeah. Especially  if you don't know leather. Yeah. I have an

interesting connection with, you mentioned the  smell of, essentially, really hot sweaty leather

coming off the back of a horse. I worked  in footwear for years and years and years,

and that—you don't notice it when you're in it all  the time—you kind of become nose blind to it, but

if you haven't been for a few days and you walk  back in and you open up a box of handmade shoes,

it smells amazing, like it's a smell that I'm  very, very fond of. And it's hard to pinpoint,

like, what does it smell like? Ah, it just smells  like leather, but it's a very comfortable smell.

I had a dad that really liked leather goods, so  that's the connection- Yeah. -I have with my dad,

so it's, a lot of those things come to the  forefront when you think of those aromas,

I think it's great. No, it's good. Now like in  your cigar, yours is going to have a little bit

more of, you'll get more of, some of those  woody notes, maybe a florally aroma. Yup.

Possibly even earthier tones. Yep. If I my  memory serves on the blend that we put with

that one. Yep. But I know that the the woodsy is  kind of the aroma-state and the floral-state or

the flavor notes, so, are you tasting them?  Are you sure you're tasting them correctly?

Um, cedar for sure. And I think cedar, at least  for me, I tend to tie cedar sometimes into floral,

because it has kind of a very aromatic, um almost  like smelling a fine cologne or a fine fragrance.

Right. Fragrance, like an aromatic cedar.  Yeah. -as opposed to like an American cedar,

which is odorless. Exactly. So, it's got, I think,  kind of a floral note to cedar, I mean, because it

is a plant. Uh-huh. This has lots of cedar and  then kind of in the back, you get sort of like a

dark sugar, like molasses or brown sugar, almost  kind of like a bourbon quality, without the,

like the burn or the spiciness, that you would  get when you sip a glass of bourbon. Okay.

It's really pleasant. The cedar, it's getting a  little more now, just on the last couple puffs,

when I retrohale back through my sinuses, I feel  a little bit of that tingle come in, whereas the

first third of this cigar was, or a quarter of  this cigar, was just creamy and mild. Uh-huh. I

get a little bit of that tingle, which tells me  it's got a little bit of spiciness to it, so maybe

a little bit of some type of like white pepper or  mild pepper. And you may dance around with flavors

on that, all around the board, because that's  one of the few cigars in the industry that's

actually using tobacco from five different- to  Five regions. Yeah. -and I mean in regions, it's

literally like you think of different countries  around the world, Indonesia to Colombia to- Yeah,

Indonesia, Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican  Republic and- Nicaragua. Nicaragua, yeah. [Music]