Pleasure, friendship and sharing...
A unique approach to discovering the flavor of cigars ... Cigarscape
January 2020
Cigar flavor analysis, one of the indispensable themes of cigar magazines, cigar blogs or cigar forums. To analyze flavors and aromas, forms, flavor wheels, etc. There are many improved methods. In the Cigar Journal magazine that I am on the Tasting Panel and Cigar Sense, we are doing these flavor profile analyzes a lot for you to read. Of course, one of the main purposes of these profiles, which the seller shared with you while buying cigars and that you read in different places, is of course; To help you know which cigars are more enjoyable for you, depending on your taste. But something that I and others who make these tastes often say is that flavors and aromas can be relative to each person, which is quite the right point.
Recently, I noticed an account on Instagram that posted a visual analysis rather than a written one. The profile you may have come across is Cigarscape . With his drawings, which almost give the impression of a leaf, he creates the flavor profiles of the cigars he smokes and coding them with colors. Very interesting drawings come out. In order to satisfy my curiosity and your curiosity, I had a conversation with Cigarscape, a photography, film and visual artist who is also a university lecturer and lives in Poloyna.
In fact, Cigarscape, who started smoking cigars after he quit smoking and has been smoking cigars for about two years, now talks about cigars as one of his biggest hobbies. He adds that although he is interested, he is totally interested in the amateur side and not the market side. In addition, it is not without mentioning the ritual of smoking cigars and the atmosphere of friendship and conversation it creates. Consuming 15-20 cigars a month, Cigarscape mentions that he likes smoking cigars after long walks, in the company of conversation in the cigar halls. When he does the analysis, he regards it as meditation.
As I guessed, he doesn't have a particular vitola he likes. He's constantly smoking different vitolas, both for analysis and because he really likes variety. Still, when I ask a few choices, he explains that he makes choices based on his mood and current environment. "I prefer robusto at any time during the day or on cool evenings. I like Corona Gorda and Toro vitolas because they bring out the aroma and taste very well. One Lancero is not replaced by another vitola on summer evenings. If I want a really long and pleasant smoking. Of course then I prefer Churchill and Double Corona vitolas. Although I am not interested in generally high ring thicknesses, sometimes I can extract the flavor profiles very easily. Torpedo and Belicoso vitolas are good examples of them. Sometimes even a Corona is incredible, "he says. This answer really gives me an answer like neither a skewer nor a kebab. But finally, he adds that he has a special interest in the old Cuban and now custom roll style, closed-foot cigars.
So, how does he carry out illustrated analysis while smoking these cigars. Because, among other things, this is the one I am most curious about. He talks about a rule while conducting the analysis. It makes the drawings at the moment of the smoke and then does not make any other changes, except for color coding. Contrary to my guess, the leaf was really profiled according to the sensation of flavors and aromas, not leaves. His drawings describe an artistic work showing the proportions of flavors and flavors. When he first started smoking cigars, Cigarscape started to work by writing the profiles of the cigars he tasted on the back of the cigar bands. Over time, the back of the tape is not enough and he starts to draw a smoking cigar on paper for the first time and draw its profile according to the drawing. Whichever flavor or aroma is more pronounced, it allocates more space and color to it while drawing. In order not to leave any gaps in the drawing, he processes all the notes he can take into his fine, fine drawing. He develops his method called the Cigarscape Method in order to increase his own taste and the pleasure he gets from his cigars. He says that a normal analysis yields results between 3-6 flavors and aromas, while his method sometimes reaches up to 20.
When I ask about the profile differences between Cuban and New World cigars, he says he enjoys good Cuban cigars, but because of the very different blends used in New World cigars, they can produce very different profiles. However, he complains that a good price-performance cigar, more precisely a cigar that is worth your money, is getting harder and harder day by day.
Later, she starts showing these analyzes on Instagram to share with other cigar lovers. Although there was not much interest at first, this interest increases over time. Apart from the Instagram world, cigar companies are also starting to have illustrated analysis of their cigars on Cigarscape. Among them are our mutual friends, Darren Cioffi, owner of Principle Cigars, Jeremy Casdagli of Casdagli Cigars, and Maya Selva.
Finally, when I asked where these drawings were going, he said that he hoped there might be some hidden potential as it only attracts new, new people's attention, and that there is growing positive feedback from people with an interest in cigars. He mentioned that he was planning to open a Cigarscape website and blog in the first place, and the next step was his dream of creating a book for his images.
I find the drawings of Cigarscape very interesting from an artistic point of view. It is hard to say if it can really get that many different tastes and aroma, but if it does, it would be wrong to expect everyone to be able to perceive the same detailed aromas and create the same profile. Because, as I said at the beginning, creating a taste and aroma profile is a relative concept. It is even possible to make different profiles from the same cigar under different times and conditions. But there is a fact that the drawings are very pleasing to the eye, which is probably a little less relative.
I am also curious about your comments for these drawings and flavor profiles. If you want to share, you can comment below.
Enjoyable smoking ...