SmokyFontaine Posted June 18, 2020 Posted June 18, 2020 Once again, hoping to learn on the great community here to educate myself. As I grow the collection I have noticed that on occasion a cold draw of the cigar leaves a slightly bitter/sour taste on my lips. I suspect that's the cigar telling me it could use more rest/age. Usually I take that as my sign, shelf it and move on to another. Having said that, how often is that the first taste impression for you, and if you do get that taste, is rest your go-to move or do you execute by slow flame anyway and see no ill results? I've noted some have that taste, some don't, but the constant for those that do is they are all between 1-2yrs old (which is where the vast majority of my collection lives at the moment). Cigars that have shown it consistently for me so far are Connie A's, BBFs, and Monte 2's.
CaptainQuintero Posted June 18, 2020 Posted June 18, 2020 Are you getting it just on the cold draw or when it's lot too? You used to get ammonia in young cigars but not anymore. Badly fermented leaves can have a sour vegetal taste but again it's pretty rare to have multiple cigars having it. Over-humidified cigars can be sour. I find the mag 50 to have a sour tang to it which I'm not keen on, so personal tastes can come into it with certain blends
SmokyFontaine Posted June 18, 2020 Author Posted June 18, 2020 42 minutes ago, CaptainQuintero said: Are you getting it just on the cold draw or when it's lot too? You used to get ammonia in young cigars but not anymore. Badly fermented leaves can have a sour vegetal taste but again it's pretty rare to have multiple cigars having it. Over-humidified cigars can be sour. I find the mag 50 to have a sour tang to it which I'm not keen on, so personal tastes can come into it with certain blends Initial taste at cold, then usually it goes away once a little smoke runs through it. Interesting that ammonia isn't a thing in young cigars anymore. What would have changed? Considering 2/3 of those that are most prominent are pyramids, I wonder if the extra wrapper surface area in my mouth/contact my lips is the difference. Hmm. Interesting.
dicko Posted June 19, 2020 Posted June 19, 2020 Sounds like they could be a bit "wet". What are you running your humidor at? I find cigars kept up near 70 can taste a bit green sometimes.Another thing to try would be to dry-box for a couple of days before you smoke. This makes a big difference to the overall smoking experience for me.Lastly, you do have some young cigars there and they may just need some time to smooth out.Cheers Dicko Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk 1
Pigpen Posted June 19, 2020 Posted June 19, 2020 How young are the cigars ?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
SmokyFontaine Posted June 19, 2020 Author Posted June 19, 2020 rH is around 62-64. Dryboxing does help for sure. None of them are younger than 6mos, few are older than 2yrs. I'm sure they'll come around. Just wondering if others get this sometimes I suppose. I have more cigars than I can smoke, so many will end up with years on them eventually! Lack of willpower will pull me through yet another situation! Haha
CaptainQuintero Posted June 19, 2020 Posted June 19, 2020 16 hours ago, SmokyFontaine said: Initial taste at cold, then usually it goes away once a little smoke runs through it. Interesting that ammonia isn't a thing in young cigars anymore. What would have changed? Considering 2/3 of those that are most prominent are pyramids, I wonder if the extra wrapper surface area in my mouth/contact my lips is the difference. Hmm. Interesting. Just better fermenting and using older leaf. I think the new strains are part of it too. Going back decades some UK stores with keep cigars for years after their arrival before selling them as the ammonia was so strong. What are the cigars that have been doing it for you? Same box or across multiple? I seriously doubt it's ammonia these days, like dicko said it's probably a bit of a combination of moisture content and a few other bits. That it's only at cold probably points out to being something with storage or the age of the cigar. If dryboxing is helping then that possibly narrows it down even further into the age/storage zone.
SmokyFontaine Posted June 19, 2020 Author Posted June 19, 2020 3 hours ago, CaptainQuintero said: Just better fermenting and using older leaf. I think the new strains are part of it too. Going back decades some UK stores with keep cigars for years after their arrival before selling them as the ammonia was so strong. What are the cigars that have been doing it for you? Same box or across multiple? I seriously doubt it's ammonia these days, like dicko said it's probably a bit of a combination of moisture content and a few other bits. That it's only at cold probably points out to being something with storage or the age of the cigar. If dryboxing is helping then that possibly narrows it down even further into the age/storage zone. Cool, good feedback to have. BBF (FEB18) and Monte 2 (ABR18) are the ones that come to mind as the most common to exhibit that. I don't seem to see it in skinnies. Probably just a few flukey sticks is all. Wasn't sure if it was the cigar trying to tell me something.
CaptainQuintero Posted June 20, 2020 Posted June 20, 2020 Probably yeah, at least you've got a general area of where to investigate if it looks like it's becoming a common issue more and more. Hopefully it's just been a bit of a spike or a bad run, jump back if it's staying an issue and we can dig further in at try to get to the bottom of it 1
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now