Holding smoke & tasting

LiquidChaos66

How long do you usually hold the smoke in your mouth? Ive found a few times that if i hold it a few seconds (longest ive held was 3 seconds... nasty nasty). There have been a few times where ive noticed other darker flavors after about 2 seconds. As for "tasting" the smoke do you blow out the smoke and then take in some air, sip of a drink or just close up your mouth and let it emerge itself? what are your tasting methods? I dont want to be missing out on flavors that could be enjoyed.

catfishbluezz

It's not a bong load, but yeah...i hold it in my mouth for a second or two. For tasting purposes, I always pair with crushed ice water. For enjoyment purposes, I pair with an Arnold Palmer, coffee, or latte. I ALWAYS retrohale as well and believe it to be an important tasting point. As far as tasting goes, here is how I explain it, although it can be more detailed really.

You have draw flavors, and these are present in the entire mouth and leave with exhale
Tip of tongue-this is the flavors that distinctly show up there
Mid tongue-this can be both the draw and post draw, but flavors sit here and mesh with the roof of the mouth
Back of tongue/mouth-this is where some of the acidic, metallic, heavy spice notes sit from cheaper smokes, or where a long finish develops from an excellent cigar
Roof of mouth-the palate, more of an all encompassing general flavor where everything meets up IMO
Nostrils-obviously, this is where you get flavors form the retrohale


Henke Kelner from Davidoff can explain this better, and I cannot wait to sit down with him and discuss tasting. All of these spots seems to be specific tasting zones that come up in different reviews form different people. Everyone experiences in different ways, but these zones seem to be where they describe. now there is also a scientific way of looking at the mouth and tasting, and you can look that up easy, I just find this specific to cigars.

Lastly, when a good cigar starts to present a note in one of these zones, and it develops for a few minutes, then I note that as a tasting note and where I got it. Many times, those flavors will move over the course of the cigar and leave and/or come back.

Bob Luken

Well, I guess I don't hold it more than a couple of seconds. My tasting seems to happen more after the smoke is gone. I then close my mouth and chew on the finish so to speak. What I mean is I close my lips and also the back of my throat and I drop my tongue down to bring air into my closed mouth from my nostrils and push it right back out a mouthful at a time through my nostrils. It really brings the flavors up into the nostrils where the majority of our tastes are detected. Plus my jaw might be moving a bit too. That's why I described it as chewing. I know this all may sound strange but that's how I taste the finish. It's kinda like retrohaling but without the smoke. I also retrohale some smoke at times, but not with a lot of smoke. I'll blow 95% of the smoke from my mouth and then ease the rest out through my nostrils. Then I do the chewing thing. Some guys can retrohale a lot of smoke but my nose doesn't go for that. All this is just my personal method and I don't think I've ever even put it into words before. I don't know how others will describe their method but if you watch the guys doing reviews on youtube you'll notice after they blow the smoke out, some of them are chewing or even smacking as they try to detect flavors.

LiquidChaos66

All good info to think about! I might be having my next smoke tonight... Worst case scenario tomorrow night for sure. ill pay attention to those zones mentioned and try the "chewing" thing. Lol I think I know exactly what you are talking about too. It sounds similar to what I do.

pilgrimtex

This is where pairing comes in. Yea I do all the above but what is great is to take a swig of a good brown colored spirit, Than take a good draw. Let the flavors mix and then use the nose. A good cigar and a good spirit just marry together. The spirit lingers through a few draws and then its time for another swig. Big cigars and enough of my Spanish Brandy to pair properly and the rest of the world can kiss my a$s if you know what I mean. Ahh life is sweet.

Russ55

Sometimes a second, sometimes 10 seconds. I taste it by retrohaling. Blowing a portion of the smoke out your nose. If you search for retrohale you will probably find some good threads that discuss it in detail.

kuzi16

LiquidChaos66:

How long do you usually hold the smoke in your mouth? Ive found a few times that if i hold it a few seconds (longest ive held was 3 seconds... nasty nasty).

what was nasty about it?

ive held for WAY longer than 3 seconds. those flavors dont need to be bad.
it may be the cigar that is the issue.
it may be you.

phobicsquirrel

pilgrimtex:

This is where pairing comes in. Yea I do all the above but what is great is to take a swig of a good brown colored spirit, Than take a good draw. Let the flavors mix and then use the nose. A good cigar and a good spirit just marry together. The spirit lingers through a few draws and then its time for another swig. Big cigars and enough of my Spanish Brandy to pair properly and the rest of the world can kiss my a$s if you know what I mean. Ahh life is sweet.

what is the brandy you speak of?

For me, I keep a little bit of smoke in my mouth and let is sit a few seconds then release it through my nose. I've tried larger amounts of smoke but it really burns. So I just do a little.

LiquidChaos66

kuzi16:

LiquidChaos66:

How long do you usually hold the smoke in your mouth? Ive found a few times that if i hold it a few seconds (longest ive held was 3 seconds... nasty nasty).

what was nasty about it?

ive held for WAY longer than 3 seconds. those flavors dont need to be bad.
it may be the cigar that is the issue.
it may be you.

Lol yeah it was a really bad burnt taste (kinda seems like an oxymoron to complain about burnt flavors lol) it was my first maduro too. So coming off mostly mild and flavored cigars it was a bit of a flavor shock in the first place. Lol in starting to get into the complexity of maduros now so it may have just been a taste I didn't recognize. For clarification though it was held 3 seconds after the pull, not counting pull time.

pilgrimtex

phobicsquirrel:

pilgrimtex:

This is where pairing comes in. Yea I do all the above but what is great is to take a swig of a good brown colored spirit, Than take a good draw. Let the flavors mix and then use the nose. A good cigar and a good spirit just marry together. The spirit lingers through a few draws and then its time for another swig. Big cigars and enough of my Spanish Brandy to pair properly and the rest of the world can kiss my a$s if you know what I mean. Ahh life is sweet.

what is the brandy you speak of?

For me, I keep a little bit of smoke in my mouth and let is sit a few seconds then release it through my nose. I've tried larger amounts of smoke but it really burns. So I just do a little.

I drink "Torres". Its not 1866 which is supposedly not available in the US. it is dark brown in color and if there is something in your stomach it won't burn. Its not bad. My liquor store is searching for the possibility of gettin 1866. The Torres likes a lot of different cigars. Or is it I like a lot of Torres. LOL

phobicsquirrel

thanks