Hey all,

       Guess I should start off by saying that my wife and I are huge fans and that I have not found a show that I enjoy more than DogWatch. With that out of the way, I got a question that has been bugging that crap out of me and after listening to virtually every show I haven't heard it talked about on the show so here it goes.

      My wife and I have recently taken up the hobby of cigars and after listening to the show and other cigar reviews we both give each other a puzzled look when the flavor notes that are stated start coming up. Flavors like cedar, oak fire place(Liz), earthy, pepper, etc.... My question is, how do you go about knowing what these things taste like? Do you walk around chewing on a piece of cedar, dirt or ashes from the fire place. Is it something to the affect of relating a smell to a specific taste or visa versa? We both are looking to further better our experience of smoking wonderful sticks. Any words of wisdom and guidance you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Wes Molaski(FragmagnetEOD)

Here is Liz's response:

Hi Frag and Mrs. Frag!
 
I think this is a great question and I know that Bob and Dale will use it on the show.  Here's my answer to your question.  When I associate tobacco to a "flavor,"  I am referring not only to the actual taste of things, but also to aromas that I  am familiar with and  even to past experiences.  I really  like cigars that have a coffee, dark chocolate or cocoa taste and I associate those flavors with something that I have actually tasted before.  (By the way, to me, spice or pepper flavors refer to the degree of how much they make my mouth sting -spicy:  a little; peppery:  a lot).  Hay, grass and barnyard flavors really are tied to smells that I have experienced and now equate to a cigar taste.  When I describe something as tasting like a fireplace, what I am describing is what I smelled in front of a roaring oak or pine log fire and when I say something tastes "woodsy,"  it is reminding me of camping trips with Bob and the smell of  dried forest tree limbs on the campfire. In those cases, I am using the experience to describe the smell.  
 
Smell and taste are just so inter-related that its hard to separate the two and certain experiences just seem to invoke a specific smell or taste so I find that I use all three -smell, taste and past experiences-  to describe cigar flavors.   It doesn't really matter to me if what I associate to describe a cigar  flavor is not the same as Bob or Dale because we can only use our own senses and experiences to describe something.  I find that it is important to have my own flavor associations so that I can remember what I liked or didn't like about smoking a cigar.  Describing flavor is very personal because we are each unique individuals with vastly different experiences and we just have to do our best to describe what a cigar tastes like.  I don't have a real discerning palate like Dale.  It seems like he can break down a cigar's flavors like a watch repairer breaking down a watch.   Bob's palate is more like mine with an emphasis on general description flavors such as sweet, bitter, and salty.  Sometimes it's fun for Bob and I to smoke the same cigar and compare flavors.  It's interesting because I am never sure if what I am tasting is the same as what Bob is tasting and we are just calling it different names; if he is getting a flavor that my taste buds are just too dull to get; or if I am just so much more discerning than he is.  Sometimes we taste the same flavors and sometimes we don't, but we've learned each other's palate enough that we have a good idea of the type of cigars that the other will like (who am I kidding - Bob likes all cigars). 
 
Another note on being able to put your own name to a cigar flavor - it will help you find new cigars that you might like.  I tried using my descriptors to let a retailer know the type of cigar that I liked, but I ran into the same problem that I have with Bob.  We use different words to describe the same flavor.  Now I keep a little notebook and tape the cigar label and include my description and whether I liked it or not.  When I go into a retailer, I can give him or her the names of cigars that I like and the retailer can find a cigar in that same flavor profile.  Just recently I have started looking up the wrapper, binder and filler of the cigars that I smoke to see if there are certain types of tobacco that I like better than others.  This will add another dimension to my quest for new cigars that I will like. 
 
Just remember there are no wrong answers when you are describing what flavors you are tasting in a cigar even if someone else uses different words to describe it.   I think it can be frustrating to hear someone describe a flavor and not have any idea what he or she means by it.  The only real way to tell is to smoke the same cigar and see what YOU call the flavors.  I am looking forward to hearing Bob and Dale's discussion on this. 
 
Thanks again for writing Wes.   

 
Liz
DogWatch Cigar Radio
www.cigarmedia.tv 
 

Large Philadelphia Cigar FactoryTobaccos from countries around the globe, including Cuba, the Philippines and Sumatra were shipped to U.S. shores and then dispersed throughout the country to as many as 250,000 cigar makers in places like Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.  These entrepreneurs combined imported tobacco with the varieties from Connecticut, Wisconsin, Florida and as far west as Washington to produce regional brands across the U.S.  These were only a few of the cigar tobacco producing locations in the U.S. and by the mid to late 1800’s, tobacco had become one of the largest domestic cash crops of the day. 

During the 1800’s cigars were manufactured in almost every state of the union by mostly small regional factories employing 1 to 6 people.  Rippa Brothers Family Cigar ShopQuite often cigars were manufactured in the back of a house and sold out the front.  But America’s fascination with the devil weed did not begin there and has roots deep in its origins as a people and a country.

Commercial tobacco production can be traced back as far as 1614 during the earliest colonization of what would become the United States.  The new colony at Jamestown, in what is now Virginia, was a death camp of starving colonists with little hope of survival.  Chartered by King James I in 1606, the Virginia Company led by Captain John Smith sought the discovery of gold and a water route to the Orient.  Ill-suited for the rigors and hardships of early colonial life, the gentlemen pioneers were crushed by the realities of their task.    The Indians were not on good terms with them; the London Company was tired of sending supplies to the colony; and their ranks of artisans, gentlemen and craftsman were decimated by disease and famine.  As a settlement they faced the very real possibility of fading from history with hardly a whisper. 

By 1609 there remained only 60 of the original 214 settlers.  Captain Smith was barely holding the company together with his disciplined structure and occasional trade support with the Powhatan Indian tribe. John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas, had learned to smoke tobacco while in London and decided to take a shot at cultivating tobacco in Jamestown.  But Rolfe decided against using the Nicotiana Rustica of the local Indians, instead choosing the coveted Nicotiana Tabacum strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America--though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard. 

In 1614, in what has been called by at least one historian, the most momentous event of the 17th century, the first shipment of Virginia tobacco was sold in London. Two years later, in June 1616, Rolfe and other leaders of the colony arrived in London to discuss the newly successful crop.  Despite King James’  disapproval of the colony's dependence on a crop he despised, he realized that the very survival of his namesake colony could be at stake. And, of course, King James could not ignore the enormous import duties that Rolfes' Virginia tobacco, "Orinoco," brought to the royal treasury.  Londoners and others around the world liked its taste and began demanding it. Since all sales had to be made through London, the English treasury grew with every transaction. 

Tobacco became such a popular crop that a law had to be passed to force some food cultivation in the suddenly affluent colony.  By 1619 Jamestown had exported 10 tons of tobacco to Europe and was on its way to becoming a successful colony.  Over the next twenty years, Jamestown would export 750 tons of tobacco. Tobacco was the American colonies' chief export. The Jamestown colonists had not found gold, or a route to the South Seas, or the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, but they had found tobacco. Tobacco and the cash it created lifted the settlement from wretched failure to giddying success. Tobacco had created the need for labor at any price (even institutionalized slavery), and, since it wore out the soil every 4-7 years, the mad rush for land began all through the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay The entire area soon became known as "Tobacco Coast."  Tobacco production continued to be a major industry and its influence spread all the way north to Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to say where exactly the cigar industry began in the U.S. but there are several geographic locations that are significant in its history.  Most surprising among the manufacturing meccas of the 1800’s was Manhattan, which at one time boasted slightly less than 2000 cigar factories of which nearly 4% employed 100 or more people.  Havana Cigar Shop Key WestBy contrast, around that same time in 1886, Florida had a mere 134 cigar factories.  During the 1800’s tobacco production had spread as far north as Wisconsin which produced over 19 million pounds of mostly binder tobaccos at its height. Tobacco had become the primary cash crop for farmers from Pennsylvania to Florida.  In 1880, tobacco taxes were reported to be one third of the national take with cigars providing 40% of those receipts.

Florida Cigar RollingThe manufacture of cigars was a hands-on labor intensive endeavor and the U.S. boasted the largest, most diverse and accessible population of rollers in the world.  Entrepreneurs from Europe and the States provided capital to fuel the flow of tobacco from the Philippines, Asia, South America and, of course, Cuba to fuel the production of the finest cigars in the world.  Cigar consumption in the U.S. was at its height in 1899 with an average consumption of 5 lbs. per person, making the U.S. the second heaviest (the Netherlands was top dog in this category) consumer on the globe.

Two reasons for the decline of the cigar industry beginning around this time are the proliferation of the machine roller and the rise of cigarettes.  Driven by the availability of better tobacco, packaging and marketing, the now cheaper-to-produce cigarettes rapidly destroyed the market for premium cigars.  Machine made cigars also became more popular during this time, but even though more affordable cigars were now accessible to the masses, the cigar industry could not overcome the creation of millions of cigarette smokers who returned from first World War I and later World War II after having been rationed a regular supply of cigarettes by the various armies.  Hand rolling using the "Spanish" methodA single rolling machine could replace 6-10 trained cigar rollers and although we may not consider the product to be of equal quality, the reduction in price was crucial to the success of machine rolled cigars and cigarettes as the world fell in to what we now call The Great Depression. 

The cigar industry never fully recovered from that transition and although today we enjoy some of the finest hand rolled cigars ever produced, our annual consumption of around 2 billion cigars at the turn of this century pales when compared to the approximately 8.5 billion cigars produced in 1912 in the U.S. alone.  The next time you find yourself in a discussion of cigar history or the wonders of the Cuban cigar, don’t forget the role played by U.S. growers and manufacturers before Cuba was crowned the queen of the cigar world.

Sidebar:

Thanks to Tony Hyman for much of the information and inspiration for this article.
Tony Hyman at the National Cigar History Museum (cigarhistory.info) has spent a lifetime chronicling cigar history through the collection of memorabilia such as cigar boxes, labels and more importantly, documentation including journals and tax records. According to Mr. Hyman, “the domestic cigar industry is almost 250 years old, and is much larger than previously recorded, involving a quarter million cigar factories, hundreds of label printers, a thousand box factories, hundreds of thousands of salesmen and millions of wholesalers and retailers.”  This is not exactly the view that most cigar consumers have of the past.  Mr. Hyman further states with great conviction and plenty of proof “that cigars had more to do with the development of modern advertising and packaging than any other industry, creating more than 2 million brands of cigars in the process.”  Visit Mr. Hyman’s self-supported web site (cigarhistory.info) to learn much more about the history of cigars.

School Fundraiser Is Saturday
 
West Hartford—
St. Thomas the Apostle School will hold a beer and wine tasting fundraiser Oct. 15 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the school, 105 Bloomfield Ave.

School alum Dana Lauren, a jazz musician, will perform at the event. A cigar roller will also be available, and there will be a silent live auction.

All proceeds will benefit the school, which is trying to replace its roof. Tickets are $45 per person.
______________________________________________________________

I cannot help but wonder how this event fits in with the local anti-smoking efforts and of course the local MADD or AA chapter?  It is apparent that banning smoking and railing against drinking (we all agree that drinking and driving is a VERY dangerous combination) is a national pastime unless, it is an expedient means of raising funds.  Whether the funds be taxes or local charity contributions it is fine so long as the funds are for a good cause, say a new roof for the local school.  But if the question is the freedom of adults to enjoy a good cigar, then all hell breaks loose about the damage it does to innocent bystanders.  And of course we continue to pass ever more stringent anti-smoking regulations to protect our children.  But its OK to use cigars and liquor to raise funds for a new school roof.  What message are we sending to our children?  Will they not be enticed to try tobacco or alcohol after being made aware of the contribution those industries and vices made to fixing the leaking roof in their school?  Have the attendees at this event been properly educated on the potential health effects of drinking and smoking?  Obviously not.

The Toltecs created two castes of tobacco smokers. Those in the Court of Montezuma consumed tobacco in a pipe with additional resins and much ceremony after meals while the lower caste was left with smoking the rolled and tied leaves called a “si’kar.”
Pipe smokers may be the more ritualistic consumers of tobacco today.  Using a pipe properly involves the ritual of tamping each layer of tobacco into the bowl, lighting, tamping and then lighting again.  Cigarette smokers are at the other extreme involving very little ritual unless you include the recent necessity to travel outside to sparsemoking pens to enjoy their “modern tobacco.”
But what of cigar smokers?  We too have our rituals.  For example, a new cigar must be gently removed from the cellophane followed by a ritualistic sniffing of the foot of the cigar and perhaps a pre-light taste of the cigar as well.  We then produce our favourite method of entry into the cigar.  The smooth violence of the punch or the quick guillotining of a Palio.  Whatever your pleasure, this moment of violating the cigars physical integrity is primordial and necessary to reap maximum enjoyment form the cigar.  Once cut there may be a sniff of the opened head but undoubtedly the next step is to light the cigar.  Many tomes exist detailing the finer details of how to light a cigar and the one thing they all have in common is that they each describe a ritual.  The toasting of the cigar foot to the first draw of smoke is a ritual steeped in legend and history.   Tools and symbolism are critical to any ritual and cigars are no different.  Every cigar smoker has their favorite cutter or punch and preferred method.  What all have in common is the need to produce a flame and set to fire the foot of the cigar.  Fire represents life and death as it simultaneously destroys the fuel (tobacco) and thus brings to life the cigar.

For this basic task the butane lighter has become king.  Whether with one soft flame or a triple jet, the butane lighter is the tool of choice for most cigar smokers.  Some still use the occasional match or, in a desperate case, the venerable Zippo gas lighter.
A tool so essential to our enjoyment of cigars should be reliable, maintainable and easily acquired.

The modern butane lighter fits all of these requirements.  It was not always so.
The boon of cigar imports between 1826 and 1830 in England created a demand for easily carried and reliable access to devices or materials for lighting cigars.  English chemist John Walker is credited with creating the first usable match called a Lucifer but it was not until 1855 that SwedishJohan Edvard Lundstrom separated the red and white phosphorous
to patent the first safety match.
Although lighters had existed since 1816, it was not until about 1908 that they became small enough and safe enough to carry in one’s pocket.  During the 30’s the use of lighters exploded across the landscape as competition drove down prices for the flint-ignited, naptha-fueled lighters of the day.  Then sometime in the 1930’s or 40’s, someone, and history is not sure who, developed the flint-fired butane lighter.  Piezoelectric followed quickly in the 1950’s leading to today’s wide selection of butane powered lighters for all manner of smoking.



Reference links:

1. http://www.tobacco.org/History/Tobacco_History.html - A Tobacco Timeline
   1. 1826: ENGLAND is importing 26 pounds of cigars a year. The cigar becomes so popular that within four years, England will be importing 250,000 pounds of cigars a year.
   2. 1827: ENGLAND: First friction match invented. Chemist John Walker uses phosphorus (discovered in 1666) atop a wooden stick, calls his invention "Congreves," after the rocket maker. Later they became known as "lucifers," then "matches." See the history here: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmatch.htm
2. http://www.bugstores.com/shop/view_doc.php?view_doc=5