One of the words that often arises when describing a cigar is cedar.

Creamy cedar.

Dry cedar.

Sweet cedar.

Sometimes it arrives immediately. Sometimes halfway through the cigar.

But there is something strange about it, because there is no cedar in the cigar…

No wood has been mixed into the tobacco. No cedar flavour has been added.

And yet there it is.

We know that a cigar begins with tobacco, but tobacco is far from simple.

Its flavour is shaped by where it was grown, the soil beneath it, the amount of sunlight it received, its position on the plant, how it was fermented, how long it was aged and what it was eventually blended with.

Then we light it.

Heat releases a huge range of aromatic compounds, and the brain starts trying to make sense of them.

One becomes coffee.

Another becomes leather.

Another becomes pepper, cream, cocoa or cedar.

Not because those things are literally inside the cigar, but because they are the closest references we have for what we are tasting.

That is what makes cigar tasting so interesting.

Two people can smoke the same cigar and find different things.

One gets cedar.

The other gets nuts.

In some ways, that is the beauty of it.

There is no single correct experience.

There is only the cigar in front of you, and everything you bring to it.

Perhaps that is why two people can smoke the same cigar and experience something completely different.

We do not taste with the tongue alone.

We taste through memory.

The smell of wood can remind one person of an old house, another of a cigar box, another of somewhere they travelled years ago.

Cream might remind someone of coffee.

Leather of an old chair.

Cedar of a humidor opened for the first time.

Our experiences shape the references we carry with us.

And those references shape the way we experience everything that comes after.

Even a cigar.

Maybe that is what makes taste so personal.

We are not simply tasting the tobacco in front of us.

We are tasting it through everything that came before.

Cedar is one of the most common tasting notes in cigars, but it does not always come from actual wood.

Tobacco can naturally produce woody, cedar-like aromas through fermentation, ageing and combustion. At the same time, cigars are often stored in Spanish cedar boxes and humidors, which can also influence their aroma over time.

The wood traditionally used for premium cigar boxes and humidor interiors is Spanish cedar. Cedrela odorata.

Despite the name, it is not actually a true cedar at all, but a member of the mahogany family.

True cedars belong to the genus Cedrus and include trees such as the Cedar of Lebanon, Atlas cedar and Deodar cedar.

Until next time.

Yours truly,
The Cigar Love

Cigar Letters
^{No. 35}