I'm a nose smoker like Tom, and I enjoy Nicaraguans, DOminicans and Hondurans for just the opposite reason. The spice. I love it.
Now, back to the steak disscussion...
I find filets tender, but far less flavorful than a Del Monico (same cut as Prime Rib, they call it different things in different places).
It's the fullness of flavor that grabs me.
With cc's, they remind me of nursing home food. No Salt, no spices, no flavors.
There's something there, but there's an empty spot where the body should be.
When I say "body", I mean that flavor that fills your mouth.
I have yet to find a cc with any body. If there is any at all, it's bitterness, and I hate bitter.
So to answer 1a, b, and c, I have found specific sweetness in cc's that I haven't found anywhere else that is exactly the same. I can only get it in the nose.
But the body is always either completely vacant, bitter, or tastes like wet ashtray.
Add to that inferior construction, half-assed crafstmanship, and plugged smokes, and I just don't buy many because I find them a far inferior value, and I like so many other cigars so much more.
That said, I have smoked four or five cc's that were fabulous.
Even those lacked the "body" that I so much enjoy. I do think I'll find that body in Cuaba. I've only ever had one, and I loved it. It was a little divinos.
I have a big one here that I'm looking forward to trying, and I'm hoping it delivers what I like.
Todd, I think your steak analogy was an excellent representation of "the difference". I wouldn't walk across the street for a New York Strip. Just don't like the cut. No "body". A ribeye or del monico, and I'm a happy guy.
I think that I'm unable to enjoy the milder floral candy sweetness of cc's because I've destroyed my senses with a can or two of snuff a day for the last 30 years.
But every now and again, I still get a hankering for that cotton candy nose sweetness that some new cc's deliver. I can enjoy about half the cigar till it tastes like ashtray and I chuck them.
I've always thought that if I could just get some fresh cc's, take care of them the way I take care of my other fresh nc's, I'd find the body, figuring it's lost with age.
I've tried that and it isn't true. It just isn't there to the extent or flavor I enjoy.
CC's hang on to that tannin bitterness for years. It's just there. And I don't like it.
I don't even eat sour candy. It's just a flavor I don't care for, and no matter how many times I try, I can't get used to it.
I'm hoping I don't find those same qualities in Cuaba, because it's the last cc brand that I haven't explored thoroughly. It's on the drawing board though.
All that said...
It real easy for me to see why so many guys like cc's.
To me, they're like drinking Coors Lite with a coffee stirrer straw, with a cigarette butt and sour gummi worm floating in the can.
