Is my palate broken?

[TheCigarNut]

Nah - your doing perfect! I have been smoking for about 7 to 8 years and I think I have just recently gotten to the point where I can start to 'pick out flavors' so to speak. I know it sounds stupid, but I started doing my own type of taste tests and comparisons to try to shock my tastebuds into recognizing different aspects.

Try to smoke 2 cigars in one day, start with a mild or medium body and then later have a medium to full and see if you can tell the difference in body and the flavors produced ( bad example but lets say hay/grass/sweet/etc for the mild and cedar/leather/earth/etc on the medium/full ). Another thing to try might be to smoke 'similar' cigars IE both Conn. Broadleaf Maduro wrappers or both Dominican filler and see if you can locate the similarities and differences with each. Hoenstly though, best piece of advice - as others have said - just keep with it - some pick it up quickly while others become better over time.

Also as others have said, try to expand your palate - I agree with you on things like the leather quality and yes, I have actually taken a piece of leather ( the dangling part on some leather jackets ) and chewed on it ( tastes like it smells kinda ) and can remember as a kid my older cousin putting mud in my mouth and I relate that to the 'earth' flavor some places describe. Now granted, those are bad examples but as all things with cigars, it is subjective to you.

[wayner123]

If you really want to geek out about it look here and read some of the journals they reference: http://www.tastescience.com/abouttaste2.html

They also note this:

Finally, Small and her colleagues present strong evidence that the final common pathways of taste and smell go to the non-verbal right brain, which has implications for our ability to report thinking processes related to taste and smell; one of the reasons Titchener - and Wundt before him - only reported four tastes was probably that they had difficulty getting people to talk about taste and smell.

So some people might not be able to explain flavors.

[chatboardhero]

that is an interesting site! particularly the bit about how smells can evoke strong memories of places.