Are you tasting what you think you are?

[srduggins]

Very interesting discussion. I don't detect much black pepper in cigars I smoke, even when people call them peppery. and I smoke a lot of Pepin sticks. However, I do get a range of other spices including, red pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom ...

Something that I have learned to detect is under-fermented tobacco. Kind of a green, syrupy taste. It can be interesting, but ultimately I think it reduces the cigars body and complexity (kind of like residual sugar in wine - although that adds body), and the memory of the flavor isn't as pleasant. Luckily I think this problem is rare in the cigar industry and I have only detected it in pre-production sticks and fake ccs.