Are you a good judge of nicotine content?

[TheTraveler]

Is it just me? Am I the only one who gets surprised by the nicotine buzz from some cigars?

Something must be wrong with my ability to judge how much a cigar is affecting me. I can't tell when I'm getting a nicotine buzz until BLAM I'm pasty white, sweating and nauseous! I've read reviews that said "Cigar X is a little stronger than Cigar Y, and Cigar Z is somewhere in the middle". For me, either a cigar is mild or it kicks my a$$.

As a side note, not many cigars (so far, mind you) have given me that nicotine a$$ whipping - though admittedly I've not smoked any notorious nicotine bombs yet. I have smoked cigars that were labeled "Medium to Full" in their descriptions without any ill effect at all - I'm not just smoking mild cigars here.

I've been giving it some thought. I generally smoke all my cigars the same way: slow and thoughtful. After all, I only smoke one or two a week usually so I tend to focus when I'm smoking. I smoke a pipe much more often and, except for my first intro to pipes back in college, I've never, ever had a nicotine buzz from pipes. Also I'm careful not to inhale though an occasional partial inhale happens due to laughing, talking, etc, while smoking.

There's another possible factor at play here: I smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for almost 10 years before quitting them cold-turkey in January of 2002. Maybe all those years of nicotine skewed my judgement.

Anyway, what about you guys and gals? Are you super-sensitive and able to judge nicotine levels on a scale of 1 to 10? Are you totally insensitive like me and either don't get any buzz or get slammed? Or are you somewhere in between?

I am curious to see your responses. I'm a bit puzzled about this.

Thanks for reading this post!