⌖THE MEMORY OF TASTE
October 19, 2026 6:13 PM · By Gizmo
During my recent conversation with Mitch on The Cigar Soldier podcast, I stated that I believe - among the lizard crew - that Bam, Senator and Chef have the strongest palates. After the conversation I started to ask myself why - and did a bit of a personal deep dive as to why I felt that my own palate could use some work, relatively.
What actually makes a strong palate? Among those three guys, their ability to quickly and consistently call out flavor notes as we smoke is pretty impressive. Sometimes they may be ridiculous, but for them the callouts are an honest reflection of something they've tasted in the past - and not just in cigars. In Chef's case he's often calling out food notes, referenced of course from his spending his entire professional life in a kitchen. Senator also calls out similar notes, but also references his wine and spirits flavor catalog. (He wants to be a sommelier when he retires). Bam is the outlier - an architect/builder by trade - who just has an incredible ability to accurately nail what he’s tasting. If you listen to the earlier episodes in the catalog, you can see him reaching for notes - often repetitive each week - which we would bust his balls about. Now? He took the ribbings in stride and turned his palate into one of the strongest in the room. I seriously can't believe how good he is at tasting cigars all these years later.
Then I got to thinking about Pagoda. Pagoda's a more straightforward taster - sweetness, bitterness, saltiness and the basic chocolates, coffee, tea (and of course 'glucose biscuit'). I then got to thinking about something he commonly says: "I have no memory."
He's serious. He doesn't remember much about conversations we have, episodes we record, cigars he smokes, what he's been up to, things we've scheduled and just general mundane life stuff. Listeners will know that he's forgotten and lost more cigar accessories than any of us have ever purchased!
I very much relate to his comment. My ADHD has kept my memory of the mundane limited. I don't remember old conversations, what people were wearing or basic stuff that I probably won't need to recall in the future for any serious reason. I also don't commit mundane flavor notes to memory. What I do commit are the highlights: a song that moved me, a meal that was out of this world, a conversation that was deeply impactful and a cigar that blew the back of my head right off. My callouts during our reviews are often tied to strong memories - a candy from when I was a child, a memorable breakfast cereal I haven't had in years or a specialized flavor of ice cream created by and for a local shop.
This all brings me to the question I posed to the guys on episode 256: Are people with "stronger" palates tasting more than the rest of us, or are they simply better at remembering and articulating what they've tasted?