Newb question: short vs. long "finish" - subjective?

I think I understand 'finish' to refer to the flavors remaining on the palate after the expulsion of all the smoke from the mouth. Am I right? If so, are long and short finishes subjective judgements? Or are there examples of cigars with a long or short finish? CA often reviews with these terms - one recent example, "and a bit of raw sugar on the fairly long finish". Thanks for any help!

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wwhwang

First off, welcome to the CCOM forums. Second, yes. You're right that the finish is in reference to how long the flavors last after expulsion of smoke and/or retrohale. As far as being subjective, it can be. Most people consider a short finish being that the flavor tapers off within a few sec of expelling the smoke. I would probably consider a long finish to be 10 sec or longer, but some people may have a different opinon than I do about that.

webmost

Sure, there is always someone eager to chime in "YMMV" or "It's all a matter of taste" or "Subjective!" regardless of the topic under discussion. On the other hand, these statements add absolutely nothing of value to a discussion. I'd much rather hear someone's opinion than hear him say "it's just my opinion". Of course everything is subjective. The question is, do you value that fellow's opinion? Outliers excepted (I can even point you to a fellow here in the next office who does not like chocolate! I'd not use him as my food critic.) you can gather a pretty fair judgement whether you might like a stick by considering other people's experience.

Finish is important, because it affects how you enjoy the second half of the cigar. I like to have a reasonably clean tasting mouth when I attack the next puff. I even take it so far as to withhold judgement until next day, when i can tell how cigar morning mouth affects my coffee.

Kuzi will step in here soon. There's a learned opinion to listen to.

Welcome to the forum.

kuzi16

webmost:
Sure, there is always someone eager to chime in "YMMV" or "It's all a matter of taste" or "Subjective!" regardless of the topic under discussion. On the other hand, these statements add absolutely nothing of value to a discussion. I'd much rather hear someone's opinion than hear him say "it's just my opinion". Of course everything is subjective. The question is, do you value that fellow's opinion? Outliers excepted (I can even point you to a fellow here in the next office who does not like chocolate! I'd not use him as my food critic.) you can gather a pretty fair judgement whether you might like a stick by considering other people's experience.

Finish is important, because it affects how you enjoy the second half of the cigar. I like to have a reasonably clean tasting mouth when I attack the next puff. I even take it so far as to withhold judgement until next day, when i can tell how cigar morning mouth affects my coffee.

Kuzi will step in here soon. There's a learned opinion to listen to.

Welcome to the forum.

well... no pressure here.

finish IS subjective to a degree.
but to a degree it isnt.
Maybe "subjective" isnt the right word.
maybe "relative" is the right word.

if everyone says something is spicy, then there is a good chance its spicy. if some say something is spicy and others say it isnt, then it might be. if nobody calls it spicy, then it probably wont be.

also, what is meant by "long" when referring to a "long finish"
that is also subjective.

i do find that in general nicaraguan cigars seem to have longer finishes than some others.
strong cigars also.

catfishbluezz

Chemnitz:
I think I understand 'finish' to refer to the flavors remaining on the palate after the expulsion of all the smoke from the mouth. Am I right? If so, are long and short finishes subjective judgements? Or are there examples of cigars with a long or short finish? CA often reviews with these terms - one recent example, "and a bit of raw sugar on the fairly long finish". Thanks for any help!

If you set teh cigar down, walk inside to grab a drink, walk back out, sit down and can say to yourself, "damn i can still taste how good that cigar is." It probably has a long finish. They can be just as bad as well. Most Nicaraguan cigars ruin my palate for quite some time, enough that I won't smoke another cigar if I had to toss it. Really in the end, its how long the flavors last good or bad. Once you experience a nice long finish, you will understand. Then when you experience a cigar with a short one, where the flavors seem to disappear quickly post exhale, you will compare to the long finish experience and get it.

Best examples of a nice long finish are typically Cuban, some Nica and DR stuff as well.

Cigary

I think you're right here to a large extent. Most look at the finish as being "that certain quality" where the cigar tobacco continues to linger in the mouth and it's mostly about the quality of the tobacco..not how spicy or peppery it might be. There is a core value of taste of a cigar and it's that essence of the rolled tobacco/binder/wrapper that tends to linger much like a good wine or a good rib eye steak. Pepper and spices are additional attributes but aren't really something that we refer to as 'finish' so to have a cigar that stays on your palate longer than most cigars is what draws many of us to this hobby...like a Padron, or Partagas 150, Cohiba Espy...Montecristo #2 as a few cigars that have a long finish.

Chemnitz

Thanks for all the explanations - very helpful. In my experience I remember the bad long finishes, the cigars I had to terminate early, more than I can remember the good long finishes. It could be part of developing my palate, or maybe its because I haven't tried one of those cigars that has a good long finish. I also think it can be subjective because I can remember at least one time when about half way through I've thought about tossing a cigar and asked a mate who is smoking the same type of cigar, whether he has a bad flavor lingering and he says something like "no, tastes good to me".