Confessions of a Newbie

Firstly, let me state that I am sorry for soiling the great halls of this asylum with such drivel.....I may have been drinking.....ok several pints of homebrew deep into this night and smoking a cigar. There, you happy, you drug it out of me.

Secondly, let me state for the record that I had thought, wrongly, that there had not been much difference in the cigars I had smoked, and that all had about the same flavor. Subtle nuances separated the various smokes, but nothing major that could really help me tell what was full flavored and what was uber-mild. That has changed. I have seen the light....errr....the error of my ways perhaps...

Diablo Picantes Pimiento......by name alone should be a fiery little devil that gives off tons of spice and leaves a peppery scent wafting through the air. LIES I tell you. There is relatively NO FLAVOR in this stick. I have a box I bought about a month ago and this is only the second stick I have smoked from the box. I liked the first one and I tasted pepper in the first. Is this stick a dud? Did I imagine the spiciness of the first stick? Does my inebriation play that big of a roll in what I can taste?

I'm lost. I don't know what to think about this stick. So far, the only plus to this one is that it's been good practice at blowing smoke rings. At least I'm tipsy and contented with that.

OK, so last third has picked up the spice and let me know there is at least some there.

Does drinking really impact the flavor profile that heavily?

[bigloo]

Not sure if drinking impacts the flavor of a cigar but I am pretty sure it impacts something else You my friend sound like you are having quite a night.

[NCRadioMan]

In my experience, Diablo's have been very inconsistent.

[Kreth]

I was gifted one of these at a herf and really enjoyed it. I think the reason they were discontinued is the spice didn't live up to the name, but it was a decent smoke.

[TheBeard]

I had one and quite enjoyed it. It was spicy and flavorful--a fun little stick--and I woulnd' mind having some more.

What you eat or drink with a cigar can definitely affect the flavors of the cigar. There was one cigar in particular, a Cuvee Blanc, that did not impress me until it was paired with Yuengling beer. Any light drink with vegetal notes would have done (given that it's called Cuvee Blanc, I imagine that it would be paired well with champagne), and the pairing brought out some very nice cedar and earthy notes to the cigar.

After reading this.....I vaguely remember posting it....I found it here because I went to post up about the beer I was having with that diablo on saturday, but I did that the same night also....The beer I recall being good, the diablo not so much......will try another soon to confirm my suspicions about inebriation.....or maybe they are hit and miss as suggested above.....Thanks for the feedback though.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by TheBeard

What you eat or drink with a cigar can definitely affect the flavors of the cigar.

Quite. I don't think the inebriation makes a difference, but the inebriant certainly can.

[gnukfu]

Don't worry you won't miss those brain cells....there should be plenty more left.....

Originally Posted by gnukfu

Don't worry you won't miss those brain cells....there should be plenty more left.....

Man, I thought I killed them all off in college with a different type of recreational smoking

Ok, so in the spirit of this little diablo y borracho experiment I had a few beers of a different variety this time. If you recall the last time it was home-brewed double stout and a tasty little IPA. This time they were lighter beers with very little residual malt sweetness and almost non-existent hop flavor. The same result though. All in all a bland cigar that in no way lived up to the picantes label. As a control of sorts, I had a friend who had also been drinking and whom had no preconceptions of the stick light one up with me. He couldn't taste any spiciness either. So, the only thing left to do is try again while completely sober to see if the spice comes back around.

The Beard, shoot me a PM and I'll send a few of these for you to try, maybe I'm missing something.

[TheBeard]

Originally Posted by SchizoFilly

The Beard, shoot me a PM and I'll send a few of these for you to try, maybe I'm missing something.

Uh oh. I ain't fallin' for that one It could, yes, be possible that the ones you have are milder than average for whatever reason. I just happened to get 2 more in the mail today, so I'll smoke 'em up in the next few weeks and let you know if these stack up to the one I had a little while back.

If anyone else has an interest in trying these, let me know.