To me, Flavor and Body are the same thing. Just like in wine/beer etc. - Body is how much flavor there is, strength is alcohol content.
No with wine Body is the consistency of the liquid, it again has nothing to do with flavor. This I know 100% for sure. Body with wine has to do with how "thick" the liquid is, how it feels in your mouth. A light watery feeling(not tasting) wine is light in body, a thicker wine that coats your mouth is full body. A light Riesling can be full of flavor and extremely complex and yet still light in body.
You are correct in that strength has to do with alcohol content though and not with the body.
Thats cool. I now live in the heart of Virginia Wine country and my wife and I had our honeymoon in Napa. Not that that makes me an expert but we do a lot of tastings and festivals because, well, they're cheap to drink at and no one complains about cigars lol.
Now as much of a beer snob as I am Body in beer is as mysterious to me as body with cigars now appears to be, everyone tends to use the term to describe abv BUT when you look at what brewers say about their beer it looks to be more like the body of wine, stouts almost always rate as Full Body even though the abv is typically not as high as some others.
Then there is whiskey or whisky which I also love but I have absolutely no idea what body means there, lol.
And I'll throw my two cents out there as well. From someone who's very much NOT an Afficionado in the CA sense, but I am confdent in what I like and don't like.
I have to say that I tend to think more along the lines of thinking that the website that Kuzi provided do. Flavor, Body and Strength to me are all very different aspects of a cigar. Typically a full bodied powerhouse as has been mentioned has lots of all 3, which is why the lines get blurred I think.
Flavor - I think most are in agreement here. To me its taste only and a way to measure how much taste you get with each puff. The Padilla 1932 is a good example of a cigar where for me it was a flavor bomb but the general profile was medium strength medium body. Just giving one example, maybe its not the best. the fuente cameroon cuban corona is another example here of a medium falvored cigar that is very light in the body and strength categories.
Body - Kuzi said it best, the heavy, chewy, maybe moist, smoke feel in your mouth to me is body. Diesel UHC, I don't taste alot of pepper here like most do, so to me its a medium flavored smoke that is incredibly full bodied and medium/full strength depending on how fresh it is. Again, maybe not the best example but the one I think of, and an absolute favorite of mine especially with 6 mo+ on them. wow, they get smooth.
and finally i've always thought Strength = Nicotine. To me the biggest reason why you need to separate out strength and body is becuase of aging. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure aging makes the nicotine fade as well as the stronger peppery flavors. So if one we're patient enough, you could have a 5 year old Padron 1926 maduro, that is still full bodied (heavy and rich smoke), and probably faded to a medium/full flavored, but the nicotine has faded away to the mild range with the age.
Again, no evidence to prove that my thoughts are correct, and i've certainly never talked an a blender, but its the way I see the 3 major cigar descriptors and have always thought of them.
I literally know almost nothing about this, but I always thought body could refer to flavor or the smoke depending on what you are talking about. kinda like having "full bodied flavor" meaning lots of robust flavor/ complexity OR Body as in Kuzi's definition- where it is its own entity.
Comments
You are correct in that strength has to do with alcohol content though and not with the body.
Now as much of a beer snob as I am Body in beer is as mysterious to me as body with cigars now appears to be, everyone tends to use the term to describe abv BUT when you look at what brewers say about their beer it looks to be more like the body of wine, stouts almost always rate as Full Body even though the abv is typically not as high as some others.
Then there is whiskey or whisky which I also love but I have absolutely no idea what body means there, lol.
I have to say that I tend to think more along the lines of thinking that the website that Kuzi provided do. Flavor, Body and Strength to me are all very different aspects of a cigar. Typically a full bodied powerhouse as has been mentioned has lots of all 3, which is why the lines get blurred I think.
Flavor - I think most are in agreement here. To me its taste only and a way to measure how much taste you get with each puff. The Padilla 1932 is a good example of a cigar where for me it was a flavor bomb but the general profile was medium strength medium body. Just giving one example, maybe its not the best. the fuente cameroon cuban corona is another example here of a medium falvored cigar that is very light in the body and strength categories.
Body - Kuzi said it best, the heavy, chewy, maybe moist, smoke feel in your mouth to me is body. Diesel UHC, I don't taste alot of pepper here like most do, so to me its a medium flavored smoke that is incredibly full bodied and medium/full strength depending on how fresh it is. Again, maybe not the best example but the one I think of, and an absolute favorite of mine especially with 6 mo+ on them. wow, they get smooth.
and finally i've always thought Strength = Nicotine. To me the biggest reason why you need to separate out strength and body is becuase of aging. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure aging makes the nicotine fade as well as the stronger peppery flavors. So if one we're patient enough, you could have a 5 year old Padron 1926 maduro, that is still full bodied (heavy and rich smoke), and probably faded to a medium/full flavored, but the nicotine has faded away to the mild range with the age.
Again, no evidence to prove that my thoughts are correct, and i've certainly never talked an a blender, but its the way I see the 3 major cigar descriptors and have always thought of them.