I love training my taste buds for spices. It gives new inspiration on how to season our dishes. What I more like about the spiciness of a cigar is that in combination with other flavors such as dark flavors such as light cedar or dark oak, it can make the taste buds associate with a barbecue dinner.
Training your sense of smell and taste for spices is something that may feel a bit unnecessary when we know most of them. But if we train them a little more, we will be able to enjoy the cigar better. They are simpler than most and can also provide inspiration to season the food a little differently.
The importance of both taste and smell
When we talk about spices in a cigar, you find the flavors both on the taste buds in the mouth and in the sense of smell during retrohalation. What usually differentiates the flavors between the mouth and the nose is the intensity. How far the spiciness comes through. Usually, you feel the flavor of the spices best with the combination of retrohaling and blowing out the smoke. What I noticed with spiciness is that the difference in taste is greatest compared to other tastes if we only use one of our taste senses. Although they help with other flavors, it is with spices that make the most difference. If we only do retrohaling, the feeling is a little or more tickling in the nose, the smoke blows out thru our mouth a little more spicy. But if we blow out both smoke through the nose and the mouth, we can distinguish different spices in a cigar much more easily.
Why it’s worth pointing out is precisely because it’s the spiciness that most needs both of our senses of smell and taste.
Which spices are the most common in a cigar?
Although most of the spices are good to practice on, there are some that stand out a little extra.
White pepper, black pepper, red pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and salt.
How to train your sense of taste and smell for spices in a cigar
I would like to say take a small pinch and put it on your tongue but unfortunately its not that easy. What happens is that the flavors stick easily on your tongue and take over the flavors of the remaining spices.
Set out your base spices to begin with. Do not take more than 3-5 spices so as not to overexert the sense of smell. What you will do is start by smelling each spice separately for around 20 seconds. After each spice let your nose rest for around 30 seconds to a minute at least. Do you feel a tickling or slightly itchy sensation in your nose? Note it, it’s a sensation that can help determine how intense the flavor of the spice is when retrohaling a cigar. When you’ve done lap with your spices, you take another. In this way, you help your memory to practice and remember the spices. When you are done smelling the spices, it is time to taste them. Have a glass of water next to you. Start with the weakest spice and work your way up to the strongest. That way, it doesn’t overwhelm the taste buds too much. If you have salt among them, start with the salt. Take some of the spice and put it on your tongue, let it swirl around the whole mouth for about a minute. What you will feel is that the taste of certain spices becomes more and more determined, the strength grows a little. After a few seconds, you take the same spice to your nose and smell it a little. That way, you get both senses to work and commit it to memory more effectively, while perhaps getting a different flavor nuance from the spice. I can’t stress it enough, rinse thoroughly between spices with water to soften the taste and prepare your taste buds for the next spice.
This sounds like it will take time, but it only takes a few minutes and you can easily do it while you are cooking. You do not need to set aside any special time.
