Stockholm Cigar Syndrome - content preview

This is a new one.... brought to you by the ever-experimenting minds at Tobacconist University.

We know how easily the mind and emotions can bias our senses, so it should come as no surprise that Everyone Is Biased and Taste Is Subjective.

I have always wondered what percentage of sales reps. actually believe all of the wonderful compliments and hyperbole they feed retail Tobacconists. Every cigar or pipe tobacco is 'smooth', 'complex', 'rich', 'sweet', and/or 'the best'. Sales reps. have mastered the art of verbal foreplay.... and sometimes it works. I have bought a quite a few dogs in my day, and I'm sure there are still a few to come. But now I'm not so sure that they are making it up.... maybe they actually believe the things they are telling us. Perhaps, it should not surprise us when sales representatives fall in love with their own products. After all, those products provide a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. It would seem natural that the 'positive aspects' of even bad products can effect our taste perceptions.

Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response in abducted people in which they show signs of loyalty and fond emotions to their hostage-taker. Stockholm Cigar Syndrome is when sales reps. fall in love with their own bad products. The same can happen to consumers and Tobacconists who enjoy a cigar or pipe when they smoke it with the maker, and realize later that it sucks. Similarly, Havana obsessed consumers are being held hostage by romance and mythology. I won't name names.... but this has happened to us all....

Ultimately, in a perfect world, I would contend that we should all keep our opinions to ourselves until we have smoked numerous (a box?) cigars. That way we will have sampled the product dozens of times under different circumstances: this should be enough experience to truly judge a product. Now, if only I could convince my customers that they should buy a box of every cigar they want to try..... that would be good for business...

Paella & Cigars

The only thing I love more than great cigars is great food. And my favorite dish to cook is unquestionably PAELLA. I get extremely emotional in the process... the ingredients, colors, aromas, layering of flavor!!! I really get caught up in it.... chorizo, garlic, shrimp, scallops, crab, saffron, the peppers, onions, oooohhhhh it is a sensory orgy, and it is different every time.

This beauty in the picture was from New Year's Eve and it served us well. (I avoided using mussels this time because I think the left-overs keep better in the fridge without them. - but I digress...) A great Paella effects/affects me in much the same way that a great cigar does: it makes me 'step back', slow down, and really focus on the profound flavors (taste+aroma). I get completely caught up in the moment and just focus on what I'm sensing... it is a lot like yoga and focusing on your deep breathing.... Becoming fully focused on the moment and savoring it completely!!!

And great Paellas require proper ingredient preparation, cooking, and layering. I like to caramelize my chorizo and chicken, grill and season my shrimp and scallops, and layer in garlic at different times. Each ingredient gets 'processed' and cooked differently, just like the different leaves in a cigar have been grown, dried, fermented, and aged differently. Then I like to put all of the ingredients together for a simmer so the distinct flavors will marry... not unlike the blending, rolling, and aging of a great cigar.

I'm not sure what the lesson or the point of this blog is... maybe the greatest things in life are all really simple and similar; or maybe great things are accomplished in the details... or maybe great things take a lot of time and hard work.... or maybe I just wanted an excuse to show you my Paella... Or, to quote a friend and chef, Tom Colicchio: "Cook Often, Eat Well".

Emotional Taste Perception: content preview

Our tastes (preferences) and sensory perceptions are dramatically effected by our mental and emotional state. And the opposite is also true; our mental and emotional state can be effected by stimulating our senses. As we learned in Taste College, our sense of smell is most closely linked to memory and emotion. But it doesn't end there...

Tobacconist Anecdotes:
1. A customer comes back from an event and tells his Tobacconist about 'best cigar in the world' he/she smoked right off a cigar roller's bench. - The facts tell us this cigar was too humid to smoke and had not gone through the proper "marrying" period.
2. A customer comes back from a vacation in the Caribbean and tells his Tobacconist about the 'best cigar in the world' or 'Cohiba' (in cellophane and plastic box of 15) he/she smoked... - The facts tell us this was a horrible fake.

People on vacation or experiencing extraordinarily fun events while they smoke a cigar will often enjoy the cigar exponentially more than they would have under 'normal' circumstances. Good Times make cigars better! And that is a fact. But the bias that our emotions put on our sensory perceptions must be acknowledged and compensated for.

Many Tobacconists can tell you how great a cigar tasted when the cigar maker gave it to them and they smoked one together... and then 'magically' it just wasn't the same when it arrived in their humidor. Well, the fact is that we are all human and can be biased, if only momentarily.

The Blind Taste Test Experiment: December 18, 2007
Today I sat two accomplished and extraordinary CRT down and blindfolded them (it was a sight to see-see surveillance picture). I took two cigars from the walk-in and cut the first inch off (to confuse the starting flavor). I then lit the cigars in the Tobacconists mouths and let them smoke for approximately 20 minutes. I verbally hinted to them that they could be any of 3 premium Connecticut Wrapped Dominican brands (which they knew we had in the humidor). After 15 minutes one was sure it was a PG Corona and another said it must be made by H. Kelner (maker of P.G., Avo, and Davidoff). The reality is that it was a short filler, flavorless cigar which shall go nameless.

The point is that people can be influenced. Our senses will manipulate information and stimulus until they generate a biased result. I promise you these are two passionate and experienced individuals who have served thousands of customers well; but we are only human. Occasionally our senses will lie to us and a Good Tobacconist must know their limits.

The Food Color, Wine & Yogurt Test
This year I read about two separate experiments where white wines and strawberry yogurts were tasted by professional and/or experienced testers. In both tests, one of the wines and yogurts had food coloring added to change the color to red (wine) and brown (chocolate-yogurt). In both cases, with overwhelming consistency, tasters waxed on poetically about how deep and rich the "red" wine and "chocolate" yogurts were; yet they were actually white wines and strawberry yogurt. In two separate experiments, tasters perceptions were influenced by expectations!!! Simple food coloring made strawberry yogurt taste like deep dark chocolate? Yes. Because the mind is far more malleable than we would like to think.

So, what is the point? Well, it is easy to think we know it all, but that is rarely the case.
1. Try to factor out emotional bias when evaluating Taste-oriented products.
2. Be patient with ourselves, customers, and Tobacconists; we are all fallible.
3. And remember, Taste is Subjective.... that is its nature.