My Palate | Cigar Reviews by the Katman

I’m constantly being challenged for having a sophisticated palate.
I find myself totally amused by these critics.

Cigar forums love to trash me. They say it is not possible to taste all the flavors that I recognize from a cigar blend.
You want to know what that really means? It means that the person, who pish poshes my palate, has no palate. And never will. Because they show no interest in learning.

They can only taste 2-3 flavors, at best. Or maybe they can’t discern any flavors. And probably smoke as many 5 Vegas Golds as they smoke their Quorums.

Here is the deal. First, I’ve been smoking cigars for nearly 50 years. That’s longer than 95% or my critics have been alive. Normally, it is the youngsters that make fun of me. At my age, anyone under 50 is a youngster.

Second, what these boneheads don’t understand is that just like learning any artistic discipline; you start out a novice and later, with diligence, become a journeyman.
It takes time and focus. And intense concentration.

What better way to achieve those things than write a daily review, every single day of the year, going back over 7 years. I wrote cigar reviews on Open Salon.com but the blog was deleted because I didn’t maintain it. I wrote thousands of reviews on Open Salon but it was very constrictive on what I could do as far as photos. So I changed to the more flexible WordPress.com in 2012.

The other major factor, for being able to taste the most subtle nuances of a cigar blend, is it should be your first cigar of the day…With no encumbrances of it being your 3rd or 8th cigar of the day and how crispy your palate becomes.

When I smoke a cigar for pleasure, I don’t dissect it the way I do when I write about it.

I’m not saying experiencing what I taste is easy. It isn’t. But look at the years I’ve put in. I didn’t, all of a sudden, find myself tasting flavor components that no other cigar smoker could taste. It took a long time to analyze a blend and what it had to offer.

I get a ton of emails telling me, that by following my review, they’ve been able to determine those exact same flavors.
And then there is the other aspect…the bonehead who says “I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. I don’t care about the flavors.”

It’s those folks that, in their lack of taking cigar smoking seriously, that accuse me of being full of shit. And it isn’t just me. The best reviewers taste very similar elements.

Read Cigar Aficionado. Read the cigar ratings. I am flummoxed at some of the flavors they report. This makes me feel very humble about my own palate.

So like the piano professor, walking down the streets of NYC, said when asked how do you get to Carnegie Hall?
“Practice, Practice, Practice.”

For those really interested in expanding your palate, read me or any other reviewer with a good palate, and learn, learn, learn.

And that’s all I have to say about that.