Quiz · 7 questions
What is your flavor profile?
This flavor profile quiz reads your everyday tastes, from coffee and chocolate to pepper and drinks, and maps them to the cigar wrapper shade and body that tend to suit you. No brands. Just a direction.
Seven taste questions
See all seven questions
How do you take your coffee?
- Latte, lots of milk
- Medium roast, black
- Dark roast or a double espresso
- Tea, thanks
Pick a chocolate.
- Milk chocolate
- A 70% dark bar
- 90% or straight cacao nibs
- Not a chocolate person
How do you feel about black pepper?
- I skip it
- A little, on most things
- Lots. Cracked fresh.
- I keep three hot sauces in the fridge
Choose a dessert.
- Vanilla custard
- Pecan pie with caramel
- A fruit tart
- Skip dessert, bring the cheese board
Which smell pulls you in?
- Fresh-cut hay or warm cream
- Toasted bread
- An old leather jacket
- Damp forest floor after rain
What is in your glass?
- A crisp lager or a white wine
- An amber ale or a bourbon
- A stout or a peaty scotch
- Sparkling water
How hard should flavor hit?
- Gently. I like subtle.
- Clearly, but not shouting
- Loud. Fill the room.
Five profiles on a shade-by-body map
Your answers turn three dials: how dark and roasted you like things, how heavy, and how much spice. Darkness picks the profile. Spice can tip a middle score toward leather and pepper. Each profile then points to a wrapper range and a body range to try first.
| Profile | Wrapper shades to try | Body | Notes you may pick up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cream and cedar | Claro to colorado claro | Mild to medium | cream, cedar, hay, light nuts |
| Toast and nuts | Colorado claro to colorado | Medium | toasted bread, almond, light caramel |
| Leather and pepper | Colorado to colorado maduro | Medium to full | leather, black pepper, cedar, red spice |
| Cocoa and coffee | Colorado maduro to maduro | Medium to full | dark chocolate, espresso, molasses |
| Dark earth | Maduro to oscuro | Full | earth, espresso, charred oak, black pepper |
Why ask about coffee and chocolate?
Because you already know what you like there. Most people can't describe a cigar yet, but they can tell you whether they drink a latte or a double espresso. Roast, sweetness, bitterness and heat show up in cigars under the same names. Your kitchen is a decent map of your palate.
The scoring is ours, and it's simple. Each answer adds points to the dials. It's a starting point for your next few cigars, not a diagnosis.
Shade hints at taste, not at strength
Wrapper color nudges flavor. Dark wrappers tend to add a touch of sweetness, and light ones a hint of dryness. That's why the darker profiles here lean toward cocoa, coffee and molasses.
Strength is a different dial. It comes from the whole blend, and the filler is the bulk of the cigar. A pale wrapper can sit on a strong blend. A maduro can smoke gentle. Check strength and body on the strength and body scale rather than reading it off the color.
Putting names to what you taste
The notes in the table are words smokers use, not promises. You may taste cedar where someone else tastes pencil shavings. Both count. Pull up the flavor wheel while you smoke and tick off what you notice. After five or six cigars, your real profile shows up on its own. And to see each wrapper shade in color, open the wrapper color chart.
Flavor profile and wrapper questions
What cigar flavor profile suits a coffee drinker?
Dark roast drinkers usually land on cocoa and coffee: colorado maduro to maduro wrappers with medium to full body. Milky coffee points lighter, toward cream and cedar.
Does wrapper color decide how strong a cigar is?
No, wrapper color is not a strength scale. Strength comes from the whole blend, and a pale cigar can be strong while a dark one smokes mild.
Why are maduro cigars often called sweet?
Dark wrappers tend to add a touch of sweetness to the taste, while light wrappers add a hint of dryness. The filler blend can still pull the other way.
The wrapper taste facts, sourced
- Cigar: anatomy, shades, sizes and storage, Wikipedia