Changing preferences in cigars
What once used to be one of my favourite cigars no longer tastes good to me. And wrappers that I once disliked are now amongst my favourites. How preferences change over the years.
When I picked up my first premium cigar, in 2005, a Cohiba Siglo II, I fell in love with cigars. And overwhelmed with the variety of cigars I could find and try, I decided to write short reviews in a journal. I did this to look back at my journey, but also to avoid buying cigars I tried before and disliked. These journals proved to be handy recently and I had much fun reading through my notes, which contradict a lot of things I say about cigars now.
Cubans vs Non-Cubans
As I said, my first serious cigar was a Cohiba Siglo II, but in the same week I also smoked the Romeo y Julieta No.2, Montecristo No.4 and the H. Upmann Corona Major. Back in those days, both the Romeo y Julieta and the H. Upmann Corona Major came in silver tubes instead of the now standard white & red tubes for the Romeo y Julieta and yellow & brown tubes for the H. Upmann.
I particularly remember falling in love with the Corona Major, and that was my first box purchase ever from a now defunct Spanish website ran by a German aficionado. I cannot remember the name of the website anymore, but their prices were unbeatable at that time.
photo credit: Bond Roberts
But that is also the introduction to the first change in preference. My introduction was into Cuban cigars, like most cigar smokers outside the United States of America. Yet very soon I discovered beautiful cigars from Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. For a while, I smoked a lot of Vegas de Santiago cigars, which I ordered directly from the factory in Costa Rica. And nowadays? I hardly smoke Cuban cigars. recently I smoked a vintage Vegas de Santiago which I found in a drawer in my cigar fridge, and although it’s a decent cigar, I wasn’t as big of a fan as I used to be.
But that didn’t inspire me to write this piece. That was another experience. I used to be a huge fan of the Ashton VSG series, with a soft spot for the perfecto, the Enchantment. So recently, when I was visiting Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and I spotted this beauty in the humidor of Bertie Phnom Penh, I got really excited. I hadn’t smoked that cigar for years so I picked it up, lit up, and was quite disappointed with the earthy and leathery flavour profile of the cigar. It was so much better in my memories. And it’s not the cigar, it’s me. I enjoy different flavours now.
My old notes
This experience made me dig up my old cigar tasting journals and while reading my old notes, I was stuck somewhere between laughing and shaking my head. I wrote somewhere that maduro wrappers and I would never be friends, now I love a good maduro cigar. I also wrote that big ring gauges, the 60 rings, were much better than those pesky Lonsdale’s and Lanceros. Nowadays, and for the last decade or so, those thing ringed cigars are my favourites. I rather smoke a Corona (Largo/Gorda) over a cigar with a bigger ring. Anything over 54 is too thick for my personal taste.
But the most funny thing I read was a proclamation of love for Connecticut Shade. I now often refuse an offered cigar when I see or know it has a Connecticut Shade wrapper. Especially if the wrapper comes from the Connecticut River Valley itself or Ecuador. Those wrappers all taste like cardboard to me. I will make an exception for Honduran Connecticut Shade, which is a different animal, and will give Nicaraguan Connecticut Shade a try. But back in the day, it was my go-to wrapper for a while. Funny right?
What I look for nowadays?
I also remember a time where strong cigars were the next best thing and I smoked a lot of crazy strong cigars. But that phase, both in the industry and my preferences in a cigar, are gone. I no longer care about mild or strong, I no longer care about a brand, or even the origin of a cigar. What I look for is balance, is flavour, are nuances and depth. I want a cigar to entertain me, not in a Monica Lewinsky vs Bill Clinton way, but I need to be entertained, sometimes even be wowed. A cigar cannot be boring to me, it’s not what I want from a cigar at this moment in time. But what twenty years of smoking cigars have taught me, preferences change, and I wonder what my favourites be in a few years, what I am craving in a cigar then.
