When searching SmallBatchCigar.com for your next favorite cigar, you’ll come across Tasting Notes from time to time. Since every Tobacconist and blog uses a different method of accounting for tasting notes, I wanted to give you the inside scoop on the process.

How We Record Tasting Notes

When you read the tasting notes for SmallBatchCigar.com, they are listed in order from the first sensation to the last. For example: if Pepper is the first tasting note for a specific cigar, that’s because it was the first flavor that I identified and wrote down. I even do this if using the blender’s notes for consistency. When Vlad sent me his notes for Somm’s Rioja, I used chronological order to describe his experience: Chocolate, Vanilla, Baking Spices, Graphite, Herbaciousness, Pepper, Oak, Nuts.

Personally, I ask myself if a cigar is peppery or not right out the gate so if it’s present in a cigar, I normally write it first. If pepper presents itself later on but was notably absent in the first puffs, I’ll list it after the flavors that I perceived. 

Some Tobacconists or bloggers may choose to list the tasting notes in order of intensity instead of the order they were sensed. An example would be a cigar that is predominantly Chocolatey being given that tasting note first even if it was mostly notable in the second and last thirds.

Strength and Tasting Notes

You may notice that while not every cigar has tasting notes yet, almost every cigar has a strength rating. We wrote quite a bit about the difference between body and strength in the past, and I encourage you to read that article if you want to know more. 

Strength affects how we perceive tasting notes quite a bit. If you’re accustomed to full-bodied cigars, you’ll be able to taste more from higher octane blends. If you aren’t used to stronger blends, the strength alone will overpower your senses and leave you spinning your wheels. 

Likewise, someone that’s established a baseline of mild-medium cigars will be able appreciate the nuances an subtleties of those cigars more so than someone that only enjoys stronger cigars. When viewing the tasting notes to make a purchasing decision, I encourage you to consider how the cigar’s strength might be a factor.

Why List the Strength but not Body?

There are certainly times when a cigar has a different body than strength. La Flor Dominicana is the first brand that comes to mind: many of their earlier brands before La Nox and La Volcada had a lighter body but were full strength. 

To reduce page clutter and save your eyeballs some reading, we decided to just publish strength ratings. We’ve found that misjudging the body of a cigar is one thing, but misjudging the strength of a cigar can lead to terrible consequences. For this reason, it makes more sense to just list the strength. 

If you have any other questions about our process or about cigars, please don’t hesitate to drop a comment below!