I’m always trying to understand why I like certain things. And one process I learned over forty years ago, when I took a wine appreciation class in college, was to draw out a quadrant graph, then place the different wines I had tasted in the quadrants. It was a great way of exploring new wines while avoiding the noise. So, I decided to apply that to cigars. Here’s my graph below.
Identity and Structure
These are the two most important things I consider when evaluating a cigar. First, a cigar should tell me, “This is who I am,” and it does this by establishing a structural core with its flavor profile. It can transition, but I like cigars that evolve rather than abruptly transform. And once it establishes its identity, that identity should be unique. For instance, you know when you’re smoking a Padron ’64. It has a unique identity.
Intentionality
And brings me to intentionality. The great Edward Tufte, who is considered the father of modern user interface design and author of the seminal work, “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,” once said (paraphrasing because I read the Wired article over 30 years ago), “It’s difficult to quantify a good design, but you inherently know when you see a bad one.”
That, to me, describes intentionality perfectly. It’s an ethereal trait that is extremely difficult to define quantitatively, but you just know when it’s missing. Intention is important to me because it interplays directly with a cigar’s identity. Granted, it usually takes some lay-down time to see what the intent behind the blend is, but without it, I feel a cigar doesn’t have an identity. It really doesn’t matter what the intention is. For me, I just need to feel that there was an intention behind the blend.
Refinement
One might equate this to “balance,” but to me, it’s about a cigar without any sharp edges; nothing that dominates the blend so much that it’s the only thing I taste, or has acute transitions that change the nature of the cigar as it progresses. Transitions should be smooth, not abrupt. And they shouldn’t be like a run-on sentence or the annoying kid in grade school who would speak a mile a minute and blurt out a novel in one breath.
I prefer a linear progression that evolves rather than transforms. That leans back into identity and structure. Cigars that say, “I’m this” at the start, but then end with, “But I’m really that,” aren’t my bag at all.
What I DON’T Like
I don’t like weak, flabby cigars with no backbone, or those that stray into the grassy or vegetal realm too far. I’ve tried to like candelas, but all the ones I’ve tried somehow seem unfinished to me.
Mind you, weak doesn’t mean I don’t like milder cigars. While I’m not a big fan of Connies in general, if a Connie has structure, refinement, and intention, I love it, which is why I listed it in my Bright-Refined/Structure quadrant, along with the Zino Platinum Crown. Both of them are barely mild+ to medium at best, but they’re not weak nor flabby. And the Zino Platinum Crown is an incredibly refined smoke. I probably only have it a couple of times in a year, but I always love smoking one of those.
Unco B's Stogie Diary 