Cigar Ratings

[Boxerbuddy]

My rating system is myself, but I do notice when a cigar is rated highly, by any of the news organs having cigar expertise.

While there are are cigars in the $5-$10 price range that I thoroughly enjoy, my favorites cost more. They are:

Padron Anniversary 1926
Ashton VSG
Arturo Fuente Don Carlos and Anejo
Liga Privada T52

Seems you and I have similar tastes in cigars Alfredo, I haven't smoked the Fuente but the other 3 are awesome.

 

[badfinger]

I see a lot of hype around cigar ratings. "An astonishing 93 by Cigar Aficionado!" "Receives continuous ratings in the 90's"

My question is, does the rating system take price into account? If not why would anyone buy a 30 dollar stick that is rated 86 when you can buy a 2 dollar stick that is rated 92? I understand ratings are subjective but you can see what I mean I'm sure.

When we review cigars on our site, we absolutely take price into account. Not only that, but we are one of the only sites (the only one that I personally know of) that actually weighs each cigar reviewed, taking the raw tobacco value into consideration also. Recently we had an instance where we were reviewing a bunch of petite lancero's, and we had one that weighed 3 grams less per stick than any of the other brands, even though it was priced at $185/25. This made the value go way down in our opinion, as we not only review sticks that are sent to us but ones that we WANT to try and purchase ourselves. So, the box of cigars averaged at 8.85g per stick, which at 25 cigars puts you at a total of 221.25g. That puts us at $.82 per gram of tobacco.

The Opus X Petite Lancero we reviewed weighed 12.5g, and cost us $10 ($320/box of 32). Using the same calculation we find that we get 400 grams of superb quality tobacco per box, which breaks down to $.82/g.

So in the end, we found that even though we paid much more for the Opus X Petite Lanceros, we actually spend less per gram on the tobacco and get a far superior cigar. Not only does it taste much better, the extra weight also adds quite a bit of time to the burn and therefor adds extra enjoyment for the smoker.

 

[MichiganScott]

The CA rating system has always been suspect. I have been a member of that board for a long time, and we used to joke about their ratings. It seemed to me, and others on the board, that what ever got high ratings (CC's not included) also happened to be a particular cigar that was being advertised in the magazine at that time. Coincidence? maybe or maybe not. Do ratings equal money spent for advertising ? hmmm....
I've always smoked cigars based on the reviews of my fellow posters. And I've found that I've rarely been steered wrong.

Here's where a good relationship with your local tobacconist, is seriously important.
I give NO credence to cigar ratings. I do look at the flavor and aeromatic profiles listed but ratings are for the most part too subjective.

 

[Tim_Haggerty]

I'm not sure if they're still doing it, but I think the CA ratings are done 'blind' without identifiers such as bands, etc. As an example, early on, the La Unica brands -- which were essentially a very affordable bundle cigar -- got rate highly in a double corona, if memory serves me. Alas, they raised their prices PDQ, so a good cigar at its price point became a mediocre one priced higher. Having said that, go to a good cigar store and tell the owner what you've liked in the past; if they're interested in repeat business, they should be able to steer you to a good cigar -- for you! -- pretty quickly.