A real-life cigar experiment you SHOULD try at home! See for yourself why tasting cigars involves both your sense of smell and your taste buds. Create your own palate training kit using everyday items from your pantry, spice rack, mudroom, humidor, etc. Learn how to use those sense stimulators to identify and define a cigar’s flavor. 

Hear how professional smoke testers develop flavor notes for premium cigars. You can train yourself to taste cigars like an expert!  

Guest: Altadis Cigars’ National Education Manager and Smoke Tester, 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... 

How Cigar Flavor Stimulates Memory https://youtu.be/ZgY7PtTlMu4

Learning How to Taste Cigars at a Higher Level https://youtu.be/qTmd4tzi_x4

Cigar talk highlights:

00:00 Cold open

00:26 Develop your palate for a premium cigar—get a hold of the cigar manufacturer’s tasting notes to know what you’re smoking 

02:20 How to make a cigar flavor testing kit

03:30 How to humidify cedar spills for a palate testing kit—use a Boveda 69% RH in a Tupperware®

container 

03:34 What techniques professional smoke testers use to train their cigar palates?

04:28 Rob uses coffee to learn how to identify a cigar’s flavor profile

04:40 The 15-second cigar tasting technique:

- 3 count smell of aroma

- 3 count draw in

- 3 count hold in your mouth

- 3 count release of smoke

- 3 count smell aroma again

08:25 Be patient—you might not develop a cigar palate quickly

08:50 Nate uses Spanish cedar to learn how to identify a cigar’s flavor profile

13:18 What’s a really good cigar for a first-time smoker or a celebration, like a wedding or bachelor party?

Why use Boveda 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 here:

https://store.bovedainc.com/collections/boveda-for-tobacco

Learn more about refining your taste buds for cigars: 

Pick Your Cigar Palate Apart!

https://youtu.be/TOF-KS-O1QY 

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/

(upbeat music)

- Where in the heck do I start, Travis,

to get just an idea of like-

Like, this right now,

this Montecristo White I'm smoking,

it's starting to taste just smooth and creamy to me.

That's it.

That's all I got

for flavor profile.

I have no idea, anything else.

So I want to figure out how to trigger my brain

to say, is this in it, or is it not?

- Well, there's ways that, you can actually-

Go to your cabinet, at the house,

and grab some products,

but you got to kind of know

what the flavor profiles are in that cigar.

So, you can almost go to our website-

altadisusa.com, or go to jrcigars.com.

And most all manufacturers have a, like, a good idea

of what those are

on the boxes. We put little shelf-talkers on there,

and we've got flavor notes on there.

- [Rob] Right.

- So there's various ways, but-

Talking to your retailers

in the store. - [Rob] Right.

- A lot of times they'll have that information

available to them. - [Rob] Sure.

- Say, "What flavor notes might I get out of this?"

And genuine, like, coming from the factory.

- [Rob] Right. - What are those flavor notes?

Now, we have a panel of 13,

that do the flavor-testing and the quality control

within the company.

The smoke-testers.

- [Nate] Yep.

- Hard job but someone's got to do it.

- Yeah. Right. - Yeah. Right.

- But I've been fortunate enough

to be able to be part of that,

and when we do this,

we all kind of say,

"I get flavor notes of this, this, and this."

We compile those,

and the top three or four that we all get together,

are the ones that we'll actually put down on the sheets.

We don't want to, you know, lie and say it tastes like this,

and get that.

It's in your mind. It's going to be there

because you'll find it somehow.

- [Rob] Sure.

- [Nate] Right.

- But these are independent 13 people

that we get together and then we look at them afterwards.

- [Nate] Mm hmm.

- We don't smoke them together. We just smoke them separate,

fill out the sheets, and hand them in.

So, we kind of have an idea of what we think are in it,

but that doesn't mean that there's

other flavors that we didn't taste,

or that we didn't identify,

or that we couldn't put down,

that is in there,

because we've all got different palates.

- [Nate] Sure.

- But you can go up in your cupboard,

and find just a little jar or whatever.

Now, in yours,

you're going to have a little bit more of a-

You probably get more of a coffee,

maybe a little bit of coffee hint.

- [Rob] Not getting that, but okay.

- [Travis] But there has been coffee identified with that.

- [Rob] Sure.

- Now, just over your right shoulder,

you'll see there's some little jars.

- [Rob] Yeah, so, like, that's how what you said,

it's grabbing the stuff out of the cupboard.

And what we did is, we set up these three jars.

So, those of you who are not watching the video of this-

You can go to YouTube and watch the video.

But if you're not,

and you're just listening via podcast,

we have little glass jars.

You could use a mason jar,

you could use a Tupperware container, for all I care.

Travis set this up for retail,

so it's very nice wood and glass jars,

and it looks really nice.

But really all we did is we took leather,

wetted it a little bit, to get it to start activating,

put it in the jar, and sealed it.

Then we did coffee.

We have ground coffee and coffee beans,

because those are two different notes that you'll get,

but we want to get both of them on coffee.

And then we, literally, just took

the cedar sheet that came in the box.

So, if you have a local retailer near you,

we wet the cedar just a little bit with a paper towel.

Kind of, like,

wet the paper towel,

put the cedar strips in there,

you know, squeeze it with your hand,

and then break them up and throw them in the jar.

So that jar has, like, a little more humidity in it, but-

- Now when I do these at the office,

I actually keep cedar spills in just a little Tupperware.

- Uh-huh. - Mm-hmm.

- And I keep it in there with a Boveda pack.

because that way that'll keep that wood moist.

And when we need it,

we can grab some of it out of it,

put it in the jar,

and then we can do,

because we actually do need to train our palate.

Which is, like I mentioned,

there are flavor notes I can't pick up.

My palate's not associated with that.

I haven't eaten a lot of the foods,

or experienced those flavors to do that tie association.

- So, I actually have to train, like with chocolates.

- [Nate] Sure.

- So we keep chocolates in there,

and we can just break them up, and put them in a jar.

- [Rob] Mm hmm.

- But the idea is, you got to get a little jar

that somehow, it doesn't have to seal tight.

Doesn't have to be, like, hermetically sealed,

you know,

put it under Funk & Wagnalls porch since noon yesterday.

But you got to keep it in a container,

to where those aromas can be locked in.

- [Nate] Sure.

- So as soon as you take that lid off,

- [Rob] You smell it.

- It, it's right there.

And then put the lid right back on.

Because you want to trap the aromas,

- [Nate] Give me the coffee one.

- And not let them dissipate into the air,

and, kind of, lose some of that.

- [Rob] So what should I do?

So I got the, I got the cigar going now.

I'm feeling like I'm getting good flavors from it.

I don't know what I'm tasting.

Should I just grab the coffee one and smell it?

- Well, it's a great question. Because what, here's,

here's the technique that we use.

Now, you're going to take the, the, the cigar,

and make sure that it's at least warm.

Because if, you know, if you leave a cigar sit

for a little while, you may have to do

a couple of tiny tokes on it, just to make sure

that the heat is now starting again.

Then, do your long steady draw, right?

But you'll want to go ahead,

and make sure that the cigar's hot.

Take your glass jar, take the lid off,

smell it, draw in, 1, 2, 3.

Hold that smoke in there for two, three seconds.

Let it go for two, three seconds.

Soon as you're done with that, smell that,

take that lid off again, smell the coffee.

And now, you're just trying to,

this is what it smells like, here's the taste.

It should be in there somewhere.

When you let that smoke out, now is the time

you can start tasting it again.

Smell it, so you can associate,

and tie the two together, it's about,

- [Rob] Okay, let me break this down real quick.

It's smell the coffee first.

Long draw. Smell the coffee again. Exhale.

- Smell the coffee.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Three count draw in.

- [Rob] Yep.

- Three count and hold it in your mouth.

Three count, release of the smoke, then smell.

- [Rob] Okay. So that's it.

- Yep.

- Okay. So smell coffee, three count draw. Three count

blow out the smoke, then smell the coffee.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Travis] Three count hold.

- Three count hold.

(chuckles)

- [Nate] One more time to drive across the brain.

- [Rob] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Smell...

- [Rob] synapses, start working.

Come on electrons, start firing.

- Go Go Gadget.

- [Rob] Buster, yes.

- Yeah. Smell?

- Smell. 3, 3, 3.

- 3, 3, 3. So it's,

- There you go.

- Three count, draw.

- Yep.

- Three count, hold,

three count, exhale, smell. Got it.

Here goes nothing. Hopefully I don't screw it up.

- [Travis] You can't,

- [Nate] You can't.

- [Travis] It's cigars.

It's very simple.

(jazz music interlude)

Now, give it a second.

As you do that, you may not be able to say,

there's I- I associate it.

But as you go through your cigar,

and it doesn't have to be every time you puff on the cigar,

that'd be overdoing it.

But, maybe every fifth or sixth, or seventh draw,

that you want to do, 10.

Whatever that number might be.

Give yourself a little time. Smell it. Smoke. Taste it.

- [Nate] Yep.

- [Travis] Let that out. Then try, and smell it again.

Eventually, you're going to say, I get it now.

It's now making sense. Here's on my palate,

here's what it smells like, so now I can taste it.

Because aroma is very important.

How's it working for you?

- Oh yeah.

- [Rob] Your microphone is smoking right now,

it's hilarious.

- [Nate] I know, it's on fire. Ridiculous.

What people can't see is, this is my microphone,

and that's the second time it's happened.

So now, this is, like, permanently my microphone.

- [Rob] You got a huge divot like the moon

on that microphone.

- [Nate] Well, and let's be honest, every single one of us

- [Rob] Absolutely

- [Nate] I once got ash in the pocket

of my hooded sweatshirt

- [Rob] Aww!

- [Nate] Walking the dog.

And I'm like, well, that's never coming out.

- [Rob] Yeah. My favorite is-

- [Nate] That's part of the shirt.

- [Rob] My favorite is the polyester jacket.

- [Travis] Stay tuned. We're eventually doing one on

when to ash your cigar.

- [Nate] Oh my goodness.

- [Rob] Yeah. When to ash your cigar.

Hey, when do we ash?

- [Travis] Not in your pocket.

- [Rob] Yeah. Not in your pocket.

- [Travis] Unless it's an emergency.

- [Nate] Just adds some character.

(chuckles)

- [Rob] Yeah, exactly man, this is, this is, you know,

real TV right here, man.

- Back when I was a kid.

- So, I'm definitely not st-, the,

the electronic signal inside

Mm brain is still not connecting it.

But I'm going to give it some time.

- [Travis] I was going to say,

like we talked about at the beginning,

when you smoke your cigar, we're not in a rush.

- [Rob] No.

- It's not going to be, you may not get it right away.

- [Rob] Right.

- But, if you give yourself time and patience,

patience is the big one.

If you give that patience, it'll eventually come to you.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Trust me. It will.

- [Rob] So now, which one of these jars,

jars should Nate go for?

- [Travis] Yours? I believe I'd go with the wood,

like more of a cedar.

Because you, you'd mentioned you had the cedar,

and so we just happened to have that one.

And it was, folks planned, that I had him smoke that,

so we could, because I did notice

this has some cedar notes to it.

- [Nate] Yep.

- So you could take that,

and go through that same exercise,

while I do the leather.

- [Nate] Mm.

- You want your coffee?

You can do it again.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Well, you can really smell that cedar,

now that it's gotten the chance to get damp.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- [Nate] Like, it's really there.

- And if you do things like leathers, and herbs,

and even your cedar spills, before you,

as you're moistening them down,

don't forget about slapping it,

like they do in, in the food service.

If you see a bartender, and they have that mint,

before they make their drink,

they're going to put it in their hand.

They're going to slap it once or twice,

because they're trying to pop those oils.

- [Nate] Yes.

- They're squeezing that plant real quick,

to to pop those oils out.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Let those aromas come through.

Don't be afraid to do that with some of these,

because you can, as you moisten it down,

- Shake it up.

- [Travis] As you get it wet.

You just, just let some of those oils be released.

- [Nate] This I, I will say,

because this is a very familiar smell to me.

This comes through in this cigar, beautifully.

Like it's really nice, really pleasant.

Mm.

It's like cedar has kind of a sweetness to it,

on the finish like, on the end of the smell,

I think it just smells great.

- [Travis] Like your Spanish cedars do.

- [Nate] Yeah.

- And even some of your, like,

Dominican cedars, and stuff like that, they have,

- [Nate] Uh-huh. Yep.

- A little more of that sweet entity to them.

No, we did, I didn't mention to you,

but when you actually smell these,

remember, that number three, we can,

we can associate that number three

with everything we're doing with this exercise.

Three count, smell in. Three count, draw. Three count, hold.

- [Nate] Sure.

- Three count, release. Three count, smell.

Then take all those numbers together.

3, 3, 3, 3, 3.

Right?

- [Rob] Yeah.

- [Travis] Equals what?

- 12

- [Nate] 15. Three-

- [Rob] Oh, I heard,

- I, I was,

- [Rob] I heard four threes.

- I was patient.

- [Rob] Thank you.

- 3, 3, 3, 3, 3.

You get 15, so give yourself 15 seconds.

- [Nate] Uh-huh.

- I mean, if you want to keep it simple I'd, it's,

I have to do that for me.

- [Rob] That's fine.

- Get association, get ties.

But if you can just use that number three.

Three count, smell in. Three count, draw in.

Three count, hold. Three count, release.

Three count, smell again. Give yourself 15 seconds.

- [Nate] Yeah.

- Or longer.

- [Nate] I like that.

- To try and associate that, and like we mentioned,

in the How to Taste Cigars Better,

we do want to take that, after the smoke,

let that tongue roll in the roof of your mouth,

maybe in the front of your teeth,

because there's a lot of trapped flavors up there,

that sit in the oil right above the gum line.

And if you can get those tied in, as you're smelling it,

then you can, kind of, go, taste. Ooh. Okay.

And then, once you do the tongue, bring that air in,

that oxygen will actually open those flavors up.

So, don't be afraid when you smell, little, little,

(lip smacking)

you know, just, just that you need just that little bit.

You know, so,

- Much in the same way as when you hear someone

doing that slurping sound with a glass of wine.

- Yeah.

- Bringing air into that.

Just trying to do that without choking.

- What'd you just do?

I just took a sip of my wine.

- Yeah.

- Or coffee. Coffee tasting. They do those-

- They do that too, yeah, when they're cupping, yeah.

- Bourbons, rums, spirits.

I've never done it with beer,

nor would I think I'd ever do with beer.

- You can.

- You could, but I'm not a big beer drinker.

- [Nate] Sure.

- [Travis] And, and, and I'll just be honest with that.

I mean, I do do beers, but after growing up in the area

where they grow hops, and they go through the drying process

in the fall, oh my God.

- [Rob] You're over it.

- It is a stench that you will never forget.

- [Rob] It's potent?

- Yeah, you taste that hoppiness in in some beers,

and it's just, like, direct memory reflection.

- [Nate] Yep.

- You're like, oh God, I can't do it.

- [Nate] Not in a good way, yeah?

- Yeah. Nah.

I'm sure like with, with people that have to work in the,

Islay, or in some of the, the lower regions in Scotland,

they have to work with that peat,

they have to burn that peat during the process.

I'm sure they're like, yeah, I'm over it.

- [Nate] Yeah. A really good, nostalgic smell

becomes less nostalgic every time you smell it,

over and over and over and over again.

- I don't know, my brain must be broken,

because I'm not picking up the coffee,

but what I will say about this, because I started,

like this was my go-to cigar

when I first started smoking cigars,

because it's always consistent.

It always just has that creamy flavor to it.

- Yeah.

- It's really palatable.

I mean,

- [Travis] It's what I've been suggesting

for over 15 years to new premium cigar smokers.

- [Rob] Right.

- That want to be introduced to cigars.

That's one I can give to them.

But it's also there for those who like that mellow

type of body to it or the strength,

but they like that flavor,

because it's got, does have a lot of complex flavors to it.

- [Rob] Yes. Definitely.

- But it comes from across very creamy, but flavorful.

So it's good for the, the, the intro,

or it's good for the experienced adult smokers, combined.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So it's one that I could take with me anywhere.

Whether it be a, a wedding or you know, just,

you go to a wedding, you want to bring a box of cigars,

it's, at everybody can smoke.

Montecristo Whites have been a solid.

- [Nate] Yeah.

- Because anybody can smoke them.

- [Nate] Yep.

Yeah. I remember smoking that particular cigar

early on in my cigar-smoking days.

- Yeah.

- Really enjoying that.

- But I still like going back to it.

- Right.

- It's just something about balance.

- Yep.

- It's well-balanced.

- Well, you said that was your one of your first, right?

- Yeah. That's all I care about.

- We always go back to our nostalgia.

- I could care less about, like,

what notes I'm tasting out of a cigar.

Like, is there graham, like if I get graham cracker,

because I've said that about certain cigars,

and I love it, but I'm not like, you know,

and I think this is important for everyone to know.

We're not seeking out notes.

We're just trying to figure out, like, okay,

if you taste something, how can you pull that

into a an item that we all know, like-

- Right.

- Yeah. That, that you can kind of taste that in this cigar.

- Yeah.

- It's important for, like, retail,

and other people who are suggesting cigars.

It's just, I don't know, but I'm really bad at it.

- I think flavor notes are really good

if you're going to be smoking a specific cigar,

in a specific environment,

whether it be after dinner,

- [Nate] Uh-huh.

- Or a pairing of some kind.

Something that would compliment your evening,

to give you a overall experience, an overall memory,

of where you were at when you did this.

Otherwise, flavor notes are, kind of,