Five Steps to Blind Tasting a Cigar. Hypnosis for Weight Control - Why Diets Don't Provide a Long-Term Solution.
For cigar aficionados at the dawn of the 21st century, it's difficult to find anything but greatness in the increasing availability of quality, handmade cigars throughout the world. Where once there was a small, Cuban-centric industry controlled by an elusive elite, there is now a blossoming global trade that is supporting the addition of fresh new players eager to highlight not only the high art of handmade cigars, but also the technology that is making them more affordable than ever. However,
the websites, magazines and general media that are helping to rate cigars and keep quality in check are inadvertently producing a downside: how can cigar hobbyists objectively find the cigars that suit their tastes when price, ratings and brand-reputation weigh in to taint their opinion before the first draw is even taken? The solution lies in mastering the art of the blind tasting.By following the five easy steps outlined here, cigar hobbyists, store owners and even professional tasters can be sure that they are influenced only by the inherent quality of the cigar they are smoking at any given moment.
1. Preparation
Naturally, a blind tasting relies on the taster not knowing which cigar he or she is sampling. Give a friend or family member a sampling of five to ten of the cigars you are eager to sample. Have them replace the labels on the cigar with a piece of paper marked only with a number. Have your accomplice match the number to the name of the cigar and keep the list out of your site until the tasting is finished.
For each cigar, prepare an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper divided into four sections. At the top of the sheet, place the number of the cigar you are sampling. Place headings at each of the four sections labeled Aesthetics, Construction, Flavor and Strength and General Comments, respectively. These will be the four elements you score the cigar on.
2. Aesthetics
As is the case when enjoying food or wine, the aesthetic of the item you are sampling is half of the appeal and half of the fun. For cigars, this largely pertains to the wrapper and the overall facade. Look for veins in the wrapper leaf. Is the wrapper smooth, dry and brittle, dark, light, silky, gritty, oily or coarse? Make observations on whatever comes to your mind. Remember: the idea is to capture your initial impression. At heart, did you like the look and feel of the cigar? Was it attractive to you? Or was it beat-up, brittle and worn-out? Rate your impression of the aesthetics on a scale of one to ten, pretending that you were judging an Olympic event. Don't be shy about withholding or offering decimal points for minor details.
3. Construction
As you prepare to light the cigar, roll it between your fingers. Does it have soft spots? What is the weight like? Does it feel dense or light? Take in the aroma before you light it. Is it pleasing? As you light the cigar, pay particular attention to the draw. Does the smoke pull through on its own? Does the cigar appear to burn evenly with little effort? Take a look at the ash. Note the color and the texture. Use adjectives like flaky, solid and messy. Take notes on all of these characteristics both before and after you light the cigar. Rate your ultimate impression on a scale of one to ten.
4. Flavor and Strength
One of the easiest observations for a blind taster to make is whether the cigar is full-bodied or mild. Look for undertones that seem musty, sweet, harsh, floral, robust, green or salty. Write them down along with if they were pleasing or not. As the cigar is smoked, does the flavor increase or decrease? Did it steer towards more complex flavors or end in bitterness? As with wine, the after-taste is key: the sensation that remains in your mouth after each puff is an important reflection of quality. Spend a few moments thinking about how the after-taste makes you feel. Are you eager to take another puff to get rid of it, or is it something that you want to linger? Take notes on the overall aroma of the cigar as you smoke it. Use adjectives like grassy, harsh, woodsy, overpowering, unpleasant and floral. Rate your observations on a scale of one to ten.
5. General Comments
This element is important for context. Some cigars are repulsive early in the day but absolute perfection in the evening after a meal. If the cigar you are sampling seems like it has potential but doesn't create synergy with the mood you are in at that moment, have your accomplice set another one aside for tasting at a different time. Cigars can reflect on seasons, times of day and moods just like anything else. Use this category to make notes on what mood would fit the cigar and whether it's something you would like to enjoy often or rarely. Feel free to use this area to make overall observations such as, "All in all it was boring," or, "This cigar changed my life and it will yours too." Rate this category on a scale of one to ten.
Tynan Szvetecz is an editor for http://www.whatsknottolove.com, an online cigar boutique that is helping bring the feel of your local cigar shop to the internet. It features a unique cigar collection as well as cigar tips, cigar culture advice and cigar accessories.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
One of the difficulties with dieting is the well known yo-yo effect. You get all enthusiastic, go wholeheartedly into the new diet, lose some pounds; then after a few weeks, or a few months, the enthusiasm starts to slip, you've done really well, and you want to give yourself a treat or a day off, then that day happens once a week, twice a week, three times a week and the treat happens once a week, once a day, three times a day...
The pounds slip back on, the clothes slowly tighten up again, and you look in the mirror one morning and think I was doing so well...
...or no matter what you do, how closely you stick to the diet, nothing much happens.
Others lose pounds, you lose ounces, or even gain them. Life is so unfair......or you spend the whole 'diet-time' thinking about food, thinking about what you can and can't eat, counting calories, or points, or sins. Until you get fed-up with the whole thing and give it up... ...for a while...
...and then it all starts all over again.
The trouble, I hasten to add, is not with what the diets suggest you eat. The vast majority of them provide good healthy rules for eating that will provide you with a nutritious and balanced intake of food. And lots of people do lose weight using these tried, tested and very successful methods.
But the weight doesn't stay off.
The reason is the reasons for weight accumulation are not being addressed.
One of the assumptions made is that weight is purely the product of what you put into your mouth and how much energy you expend. Lots of energy expenditure i.e. active life, low calorie intake equals weight loss. Sedentary lifestyle, high calorie intake equals weight gain. That's simple maths and it's perfectly true. You eat fewer calories than you expend and your body has to get those extra calories from somewhere. It gets them from the fat it has carefully stored away under your skin, for just such an emergency.
So why do you have so much difficulty eating less than you expend?
This is the territory that isn't normally explored.
If it was explored you would find associations with food and being good buried in the subconscious. When you were good as a young child, sweets, candy, cakes, ice cream, chocolate, biscuits, cookies, were the reward for that goodness. When you pleased your parents, this is frequently the treat that was given. But very soon that got twisted and you assumed that if you didn't get it, you had been bad. And so eating this sort of food gave your subconscious mind the message 'I am a good and/or loveable person'. The only reason your subconscious would need to be re-assured about that is if it didn't believe it already. But when you stop giving yourself these 'treats', then at a subconscious level, you feel you must have been bad and you are driven to eat something forbidden just to reassure yourself that you really are good.
Now, when hypnosis is used in weight control, the focus is not purely on changing your eating habits. The focus is on changing you deep down inside. Or more accurately, correcting a view of you (someone who is not loveable) that is mistaken, and bringing back to the front the more correct view of you which is that you are as special and as loveable as everyone else.
Unquestionably diet needs to change. But by reminding you of the truth about you, we release a power, or an energy, that starts to work with you rather than against you. When you work purely to a diet plan, without addressing underlying subconscious issues (and I've only touched on one here - there are many more) there are two of you. One wanting to be slim, and one needing the re-assurance of treats. And the one needing the re-assurance of treats will work to sabotage the diet plan - because their needs have been ignored.
And so while the hypnotherapist works on improving how you feel about yourself, they also install post-hypnotic suggestions that will make it much easier for you to not only have no desire to eat the foods full of calories, but also assist you in achieving a pleasure in eating foods that are good for you that outweighs any pleasure you ever obtained from eating sugary sweet sickly foods.
When you already feel good about yourself, you have no need to demonstrate that by eating foods that are bad for you. Wholesome, attractive, tasty, well-prepared food is what you deserve - always.
Michael J. Hadfield MBSCH is a registered clinical hypnotherapist.
You can experience his unique style on a range of hypnosis CD's and tapes at http://www.hypnosisiseasy.com. Here you can also obtain treatment for a variety of problems and explore his approach to health, healing, and hypnosis.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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