Training taste buds.

[lenguamor]

It helps to be someone who really likes to cook...or at least eat.

If you enjoy food and can train yourself to distinguish flavors, applying that to cigars is a logical, easy step.

Other factors include whether you are/were a cigarette smoker or a dipper. That can dull your palate and it can take months, if not years, after quitting to regain the ability to discern nuance.

I like noting flavor complexity in both food and cigars. I like sharing what I experience in reviews and in conversation, although there are those who couldn't care less. I do it for me. If it is important enough to you, then I'm confident that you'll find a way to develop your perception.

[wayner123]

Originally Posted by lenguamor

It helps to be someone who really likes to cook...or at least eat.

If you enjoy food and can train yourself to distinguish flavors, applying that to cigars is a logical, easy step.

This is probably the best thing you can do hands down to increase your ability to convey what flavors you are experiencing. You first must have the mental connections to those flavors so engrained that you can recall them from the file cabinet of your brain whenever needed.

As far as retrohaling, it's not all it's cracked up to be for everyone. Sometimes it can make things worse.

Here are 3 of my previous posts to get you started:

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showpo...67&postcount=8 - this shows the experiment results I did over at the old board on taste. It was interesting.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showpo...9&postcount=22 - this shows it may simply be you cannot explain flavors because the non verbal right side could be the main factor.

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...ighlight=snork - A new way of getting the same results without the sinus irritation of retrohaling.

Lastly, you say that you couldn't pick out coffee till you read it from another post and that you drink coffee all the time. But that can be a problem also. Just because someone does something a lot doesn't mean it's that engrained. How often have you sipped on coffee and really took the time to make sure your senses remembered it? I mean really savored every bit of it, with the purpose of cataloging that taste for future recollection?