Refining Your Palate

[allanb3369]

Originally Posted by DBall

Mark, this is the post I was looking for!

Very good post, Mark.

On another board, and in response to discussion based on a flavor wheel, I excerpted the following from a post I made:

When I start to "THINK" I can detect the difference between Dutch and Baker's chocolate, please take all my cigars away from me and put me in the funny farm - where I belong already.

I respect those who can pinpoint flavors that I have a hard time putting my finger on. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to get better at describing what you taste; however, I think you can get WAY carried away with this tasting/describing endeavor because what you taste one day may not be the same you taste another day.

What matters most is whether you enjoyed the cigar. In other words, did it suck or not? That may sound very "pedestrian" and not sophisticated, but I believe you can have an outstanding palate and truly appreciate a terrific cigar without being able to use 15 descriptive words to verbalize the flavor. And, of course, that appreciation comes with smoking different marcas and vitolas from different eras.

Sometimes less is more and being able to appreciatively differentiate the elegant from the banal can make you a very happy man.

Again, excellent post, Mark and great to hear more talk about the "nose exhaling" technique!!