What "strength" means, and why it is not flavour
Strength is a physical effect. Flavour is what you taste. They travel separately.
Strength is the physiological hit — the nicotine, and what it does to your head and stomach. It is not intensity of flavour, and the two are so often confused that "full-bodied" has become a marketing word for both.
What it actually is
Nicotine content varies with the leaf's position on the plant: higher leaves get more sun, more oil and more nicotine. A blend with a high proportion of ligero — the top priming — hits harder regardless of how much it tastes of anything.
This is why a mild-tasting cigar can floor you and a hugely flavourful one can leave you fine. The two properties come from different decisions in the blend.
How it presents
A warm flush, a slight pressure behind the eyes, then — if you have pushed it — nausea and a cold sweat. The order matters: by the time you notice, you have already smoked the cigar that got you there.
Food is the reliable defence. A cigar smoked on an empty stomach delivers a substantially stronger experience than the same cigar after dinner, and the difference is bigger than most blend differences.
Do this: note whether you had eaten. Half the "this cigar is too strong" verdicts in any journal are verdicts about an empty stomach, and knowing that saves you from writing off blends you would otherwise enjoy.
Judging it before it judges you
Manufacturers' strength ratings are marketing and rarely comparable across brands. The reliable indicators are the wrapper's priming (darker, oilier leaves usually sit higher), the smell of the unlit foot, and the first inch: a cigar that is already assertive when cool will not get milder.
Pace matters as much as blend. Smoking quickly raises both temperature and delivered nicotine, and most "too strong" cigars were smoked too fast.
Tolerance is real and it moves
Your tolerance rises with regular smoking and falls again after a break, which is why the same cigar can be comfortable in November and rough in March. If a familiar blend suddenly feels strong, look at how long it has been since the last one before you blame the box.
Strength sits in the record, next to the score
The sommelier reads the band and fills in the cigar details, including strength as the maker states it, so your entry carries that alongside your own score out of ten and your note. Over a year, the pattern of what you actually rate highly is your own — not the manufacturer’s scale.
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