Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I know they have always been crazy with their reviews (12 year old Madagascar vanilla, etc.), but I was reading their review in the 2009 calendar for the month of July is as follows:

Nub Habano 358
"It's fat and stubby but attractive and draws well. There's an initial cedar blast in the smoke that also shows coffee and a touch of pencil lead flavor"

Now, when was the last time you walked into your local B&M and asked them for a cigar that tastes like pencil lead? :hn How do you even know what pencil lead tastes like unless you ate pencils as a kid? :confused:

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Reminds me of the Fuego 777 I tried to smoke this weekend. The first taste I recognized was pencil lead.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

think i'll start a new wtt thread, i have plenty of pencils as trade :ss

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I know the taste of pencil lead, but I can't say I've ever tasted it in a cigar. :)

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

:hm

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Some cigars seem to put lead in my pencil!!!:r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I always taste pencil lead right after soggy cardboard. :r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Nor would I want to ...:ss

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Did they happen to mention whether it was fresh pencil lead or aged pencil lead?

If it was aged pencil lead, I may have to try one someday. Hard not to like fat stubby aged pencil lead smokes.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I've seen pencil lead mentioned in wine reviews too.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I've tasted pencil lead in many cigars. It's a sign of a dog rocket from my experience.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I hate to admit it, but pencil lead or pencil shavings are in my cigar vocabulary. I associate it with an unpleasant flat mineral flavor. Hard to explain but when you taste it, you know.

But, you should've known you'd find some crazies at the Asylum.:ss At least were proud of it!:usa

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Ok... I'll ask. Have you consumed pencil lead before?

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

If you sniff a pencil sharpener, you'll know the smell. For that matter, what does barnyard taste like? Or earth?

Most flavors for cigars are more associated with smells then tastes.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

OK. I gotcha.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Exactly. We actually taste with our nose as well as our mouths.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Pencil lead is a common descriptor for cigars and wine. Tire rubber is another one that always threw me. But I have picked up both in wine before and they taste like you would imagine pencil lead and tire rubber tasting. And no I haven't tried either one but I know the smell of both. So you can somewhat infer what they would taste like.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Did the reviewer mention if it was #2 or #3 pencil? In my experience, one is quite tasty... the other, not so much.









yes... I am joking :r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Exactly. I mean how appealling is the smell of a barnyard full of dirty animals, their excrement, and mud. And how appealing is the smell of dirt/earth?

It ain't in my book.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

For me, it's more about finding a word to describe the flavor as opposed to finding a flavor that can be described.

I have detected tire rubber in a few smokes. I usually like DPG/PJ smokes, but the La Riqueza's have a bit of burnt rubber flavor to my palate. In looking at reviews and descriptions, I notice many describe it as burnt Hickory wood.

I believe that my burn tire rubber = others burnt Hickory. Just goes to show you how important it is to have a wide open vocabulary when describing flavors.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

:r:r:r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

nothing like pencil lead...:)

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Early 80s pencil lead is far superior to the pencil lead from the 90s.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I have to disagree with you on that one.Depending on the country of origin and the specific region it was made, some of the 90's pencil lead is top notch.:D

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Isn't the Monte #2 in fact named after the #2 pencil?

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

If you smell a pencil sharpener I think the predominate smell is the wood shavings-probably cedar. Many people lick then end of a pencil when writing to darken the print...I think every kid in the world has put the lead end of a pencil in their mouth. It isn't a bad taste when connected to cigars-just an attempt to put a name on a taste.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

FWIW, pencil "lead" is a mixture of graphite and clay. Pencil shavings do have a slightly metallic smell to them.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

WTF are they smoking????!!!! oh right, pencil lead:ss seriously though I prefer # 1 lead taste in the morning for a lighter smoke. I usually go for a #5 or #6 taste after a big dinner. :ss

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

During the cigar boom, there were a lot of pencil lead cigars out there. :D

:r
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Graphite it is. And as already stated just above, many of us used to lick the pencil when we wrote (wow, I am how old?). This taste note applies and is used in many a Pomerol wine (right coast of Bordeaux) and is actually imparted by specific barrels used to age wine. Actually helps to id some wines blind although lately some Napa guys are using same barrels to same effect.

I have yet to come across a cigar that said "pencil lead/graphite" to me, but then I've seen page after page of reviews in Wine Spectator where a reviewer used one particular tasting note (say, blueberry stems or whatever) across a couple dozen wines being reviewed. I guess they just get fixated by some tasting flavor on some days and this spills out into reviews somehow.

Don't forget that some CA reviewers also review wine and if, by chance, they smoked tha cigar while also drinking a particular wine, then I could easily see them "taste" pencil lead, no big surprise there.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Yep, I've tasted pencil lead and I have never enjoyed a cigar that has that flavor. The Nub Habano was definitely one of those cigars and I also thought it was bitter. No bueno, no gracias.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I think the Zino Platinum Scepter series definitely has a pencilish taste on the exhale. I like those though, so I guess I can't even say it's a bad flavor to have. If it was anything more than subtle, though, I see how it could ruin the smoke.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

So do Cuban pencils have that particular twang to them?

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Thanks for sharing.:rolleyes::r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I've always been a little put off by the descriptions some people have about tobacco. I just taste good old tobacco; maybe creamy, peppery, or spicy. Certainly not buttery, fruity, or reminiscent of pencil led.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I have had many of these cigars, actually one of my favorites, love the nub brand, but don't remember them having any pencil hits or flavors to them.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

i love #8

you guys are hilariouss

:wo:wo:wo

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

You sir are clearly not a connesuir of pencil lead. A #1 is typically heavy and full strength. A #5 or #6 is lighter and more refined. Darn noobs! :D

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

:r :r :r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I like to keep my descriptions pretty simple. (salty, sweet, leather,cocoa, etc) but I have to admit, I've tasted and used the descriptive 'pencil lead' for cigars many times.

As others have mentioned, its sort of like the smell right after you sharpen a pencil, not necessarily the lead itself. It's not an unpleasant taste either, unless its really overpowering. I think the only cigar that I remember having a predominantly 'pencil lead' flavor was an RP edge from like 3 years ago. :td yucky.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I like a #2 dickson pencil to smoke every once and a while. :r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

Pencils don't use lead, they use graphite.

Just sayin'. :r

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I heard that #3 is really internet purchased 2nds of #2 and therefore, inferior.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I'm thinking of splitting up my last box of ultra rare #14 lonsdales from 1994 into fivers. You should see the plume on these bad boys! :dr

Anyone interested?

:D

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

So that's where all the lead from my pencil went

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I've tasted wet cardboard in wine before, and sometimes Alsatian or Loire French white wines have some pencil lead aromas to them, but I've never tasted that in cigars.

However, I'm better at tasting wines than cigars, AND Cigar Aficianado's older brother is Wine Aficianado so maybe they share the same thesaurus.

Re: Cigar Aficionado is absolutely crazy
 

I saw that in the CA calendar as well.

However, I far prefer the CI calendar:D