Taking a deep inhale with a cigar under your nose is a classic and crucial part of the process. For those less familiar with the ins and outs of being a cigar aficionado, however, the process may seem unnecessary, or possibly even silly. This could not be further from the truth.
Regardless of your level of expertise with cigars, getting a good whiff is a part of the cigar-buying experience that cannot be overlooked. There are several very good reasons to sniff your cigars before and between smoking them, and they certainly make a noticeable difference in the experience.
Smell and Memory
Of all of our senses, the smell is known to be the one most closely tied to our memories. Whiffing a stranger’s perfume can send you shooting back to thoughts of someone you once knew who wore the same scent. Smelling a particular dish can often bring back memories of your childhood or other times you have spent in the kitchen.
In the same vein, the way a cigar smells can impact your emotions in many different ways. If you smoke a cigar at a birthday or wedding, a cigar with a similar scent will take you back to those times. A cigar that smells good to you will be one that impacts your emotions in the same way that a fresh cup of coffee might, or the feeling that you may have walking through a spice shop.
The goal in this case is to find a cigar that taps into something, be it nostalgia, joy, or anything else, without utterly overwhelming your senses. This is not to say that you will never enjoy a cigar that does not tug on a particular memory, but the different notes you can pick out in the aroma of a cigar may touch at different parts of your emotions and strongly influence the experience of smoking cigars.
Get a Full Profile
In addition to being very strongly connected to our memories, the human sense of smell is tied incredibly closely to our sense of taste. Much like the classic children's experiment of plugging one’s nose for several minutes only to find that one can no longer taste, taking a good whiff can give you a great preview of the cigar’s flavor.
This is not to say that the smell and taste are always a one-for-one match, but you can simply get a good hint of what is to come. For example, you can usually get a solid grasp of how mellow or sharp the flavor may be, or whether there are any chemical scents lying beneath the other various notes. As you become more experienced, you will definitely get better at pinpointing particular attributes that you enjoy or abhor.
When you do eventually smoke your cigar, a huge part of the experience will be the smell of the smoke and the cigar under your nose. This winds up ultimately impacting the way the smoke and foot of a cigar taste in your mouth. Even if the taste does not line up perfectly with the scent, you will be able to pick up a large part of the flavor profile simply by inhaling deeply.
What to Look For
Just walking into a cigar shop, you will most likely be overwhelmed with different scents from the many different cigars. Pleasant though the general aroma may be, this can certainly confuse your nose when trying to focus on a specific cigar that you are considering. Before sniffing cigars, also ensure that they are not wrapped in cellophane or plastic.
You may assume since there are so many scents around you that the cigar’s particular aroma will come through, but more likely you are just smelling the surroundings more than the particular cigar itself. Bear in mind that this can often mean you have to buy a cigar to sample the smell, but sometimes paying to pull the cellophane off of a bad cigar is just part of the process.
Once you have unwrapped the cigar, take a long sniff from the foot of the cigar, then run the length of the cigar below your nostrils, breathing deeply. This way you should be able to pick up the various aspects of smell from the different parts of the cigar, forming a more complete picture for you.
Your focus during this process should be to pick up as many flavor notes as you can notice. If a cigar immediately smells terrible to you, it is a near-sure sign that you will not enjoy the process of smoking it. Oftentimes this might be the smell of ammonia or other chemicals is a sure sign of a poor-quality cigar that you will want to steer clear of.
Even if you do not know the particular notes and attributes to look for when inhaling the smell of a cigar, the biggest takeaway is simple. If you smell a cigar and find that the scent is appealing to you, you are far more likely to enjoy smoking it than you would otherwise.
If you do find yourself getting more interested in cigars, William Henry has a gorgeous selection of unique and artisan-made cigar cutters. These stunning Damascus steel folding knives include a thru-hole in their titanium frame, accommodating cigars up to 52-guage size. Whether you are treating yourself or buying a gift for the cigar aficionado in your life, you will be hard-pressed to find a better product to cut your cigars.
