Is my palate broken?

[chatboardhero]

retro-haling is definitely the only way to "taste" tobacco, in my humble opinion. however, don't go overboard. expel just slight amounts of smoke through the nose. too much will often overwhelm the olfactory sensation, and all you get is watery eyes, especially with more full-bodied cigars. that technique will also allow you to really decode the very subtle flavors of complex, milder smokes.

[wayner123]

If you really want to geek out about it look here and read some of the journals they reference: http://www.tastescience.com/abouttaste2.html

They also note this:

Finally, Small and her colleagues present strong evidence that the final common pathways of taste and smell go to the non-verbal right brain, which has implications for our ability to report thinking processes related to taste and smell; one of the reasons Titchener - and Wundt before him - only reported four tastes was probably that they had difficulty getting people to talk about taste and smell.

So some people might not be able to explain flavors.