I’m not an NC smoker… I haven’t had any in quite some time that really did anything for me (aside from NC Davis). This should be a fun experiment. :-)


Thanks to jonumberone (Dom) for granting my wish for such an exercise in the NC MAW.


Here are the cigars:


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Cigar #1:

Pre-draw is super chocolatey…

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1st/3rd:

Lighting it… I’m used to habanos… typically aged or mild. Therefore, I like to push a LOT of smoke out of my nose… gotta be careful during this tasting run.

The flavors here are pretty tasty, though I can’t quite discern them. Bitterness on the back of the tongue as well, but not bad. This cigar is fairly strong and, to my palate, the flavors are a bit muddled by that strength. Ash is a couple shades lighter than coal… hahaha… very dark. I’m trying to sip this and it is not making much difference.

The benefit to this blind run is that, considering I don’t smoke NCs, I have no idea of profiles or what’s out there. I couldn’t guess what any of these are if I had to.

I am getting some chocolate out of the first third. As an aside, the ash doesn’t like the cigar and continually succeeds in escaping it.

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2nd/3rd :

By ‘muddled’ I mean… imagine if you took rainbow sherbet, vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream and mixed them all up. You know you’re eating something cold, like I know I’m smoking a cigar. Every now and then some flavor pops in. That’s this cigar.

I feel like I’m having an incredibly hard time picking out flavors. In the interest of full disclosure, this is my second cigar of the day… perhaps that has something to do with it. I also seem to be getting that acidy/bittery aftertaste on the tongue characteristic of ever time I try to enjoy an NC. It tastes like my mouth is made of yuck. Don’t misunderstand, though… the smoke itself is good. The palate-coating ‘flavor’, however, not so much. On the sides of my tongue on the back it’s that same feeling as when you eat a lemon.

I gotta say, I’m kinda enjoying this. Especially now as I’m noticing the overall bitterness slipping away after the halfway point (aside from the back/sides of the tongue thing that’s still there and noticeable… especially when I’m not actively smoking it).
I’m going into this with a fully open mind… as I said, it’s been quite a while for me and NCs… if there’s a band on it, though, I may try to tie it in with things I’ve heard in passing about them as some of my friends I get together with weekly smoke NC’s pretty much exclusively.

At this point, the cigar seems to be mellowing out a bit, but there’s still spice to it… something meaty about it… definitely stronger than what I’m used to smoking. That ‘back of the tongue bitterness’ is still present and driving me nuts when I’m not actively smoking it.

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3rd/3rd:

Burn is perfect, construction is great and the draw is effortless. I do smoke by habit, though, in the sense that I keep trying to push large volumes of smoke out my nose. My nose burns.

The smoke itself, however, still tastes pretty good aside from the spice and bitter. Still, though, I’m not pinpointing anything specific… the chocolate vanished some time back. I don’t necessarily dislike it, though… it’s just hard to explain.

It’s now taking on a bit of a sawdust-y profile… reminds me of woodworking. I do love the size, though… this is comparable to what I typically go to in that regard.

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In closing, I’ve definitely smoked worse cigars. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it... wouldn't really seek them out. While at times the smoke itself was good, it’s hard to get past the lingering bitterness, muddled flavors, the not-so-pleasant aftertaste and its strength. From now on, I will make these testing cigars my first cigar of the day so I might have a fresher palate.

Rating out of 100: 65
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This is going to be fun. That tongue coating nastyness is the biggest reason I switched to Habanos, I find it is worst in Honduran leaf, then lesser in Dominican, and finally pretty rare in Nicaraguan smokes. Do you find it kind of metallic?
I mentioned it a while back in this thread:
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I did not get any 'metallic' out of it, per se, but it was acrid.
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Hehe...I like this thread. Looking forward to seeing the rest of these from Mr. BTT himself :-)
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Ohhhh... Dom's here. What did I smoke? :-)
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When are we going to find out what you smoked?
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Dan
You smoked a Viaje Platino Lancero

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Oh? Sweet... I've been hearing a lot about these Viaje things. Thanks for the opportunity to try one!
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Of the regular production Viaje line the Platino is my least favorite.
I enjoy them but like the Oro and 50/50 better.
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These threads are fun. Look forward to following it.

Thanks to Dan and Dom.....
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+1
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Turnabout is fun play! Thank you for doing this, Dom!

Dan and Clayton, I don't know what kind of NCs you're getting "tongue-coating nastiness" out of. :-) This has never been an issue for me.
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This was Dan's wish. He wanted it :-)
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This should be fun to watch!! :-)
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From another thread
The topic of tasters and supertasters comes up now and then on different boards. The short and long of it is that everyone has a different amount of tastebuds, and that some people with a much higher amount than the average, "supertasters" can pick up certain traces of bitterness or sourness that others simply can't taste. I don't know whether or not I qualify for this status or not, but I do know that I often pick up funky flavors that are unpleasant to me in cigars that a lot of people enjoy without mentioning it. Whether or not that is due to something objective like the supertaster thing, or something entirely subjective such as personal taste, is another story.
I was just happy to hear that I'm not the only one that finds that "tongue coating nastiness" as a hallmark of certain NCs. When I was a newb, I simply wrote it off as part of the cigar smoking experience and powered through it. Now that I know that a cigar doesn't have to taste like you're sucking on a quarter, I stick to my CCs and the handful of Premium NCs that don't have that aftertaste. If I get a cigar that maintains that taste for more than a minute, I pitch it and find something else. Interestingly, I have never tasted it in a CC. I'm not saying I haven't had my share of nasty flavors in a handful of much too young or improperly stored CCs, but I've never had anything with this particular cloying aftertaste from The Island.
/threadjack
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Here's another really interesting article on the ability to taste bitterness.

"PTC tasters may be more sensitive than non-tasters to compounds in tobacco and vegetables in the cabbage family."
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And how, exactly, does that not make you awesome for providing?

Sorry, Dom, it's too late. You're cool. :-) :-)
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Interesting info, Clayton- thanks. The NC brands you mention are ones that don't really get much mouth time from me.
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Thank you for that article. It claims that 75% of people CAN taste PTC, while 25% cannot on average. So to me that would mean the majority of people are tasters(?) That doesn't make sense nor does it go in line with all of the other peer reviewed information on tasting.
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