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aberdeen--silence is an answer and the answer is no.
i hope never to read again woodsy, mocha aftertaste, a hint of brassy undertones, a taste of orange marmalade, the effervescence of seltzer, or any other dumb ass remark, except on the political board. tell us what you like and why and we'll all share our ideas, sans hor****.

This is a horse I've flogged nearly to death in various recent posts, but I, quite frankly, don't give a flying (deleted) about ratings and am a little unclear as to why anyone would. I guess it's a bit like movie reviews where if you know how the reviewers taste compares to your own, you can draw some broad, general inferences, but ...

Like beauty being in the eye of the beholder, cigar ratings are in the taste of the individual herfer ...

As an example, I cannot for the life of me, understand how anyone can bear to smoke even half of an Excalibir 1066, yet many of you would rate them highly ... whose opinion of a 1066 should someone who's never tried one accept? Which is more likely to mirror his own reaction?

About a year ago, I bought a box of cigars (whose name I will omit) that I opened right away and lit up ... UGH!! I put them in the humidor and tried one again a few weeks later ... still UGH!! After repeating this process several times with the same reaction each time, I forgot about them until Saturday evening when my neighbors came over and I gave him one, remembering he'd liked that cigar when I gave him one a while back. He absolutely RAVED about it, making me believe that all those months of aging in the 'dor must've worked wonders. SO, I lit one yesterday afternoon ... Ugh! Those months of aging did improve my rating on that particular cigar from UGH!! to Ugh!, at the same time that it improved on the neighbor's scale from, "say, this is pretty good" to "wow, this is fantastic" ...

So, if you've never tried one of those (deleted)s and are considering bidding for some today, whose rating do you base your decision on? I see, for example, that despite all the jabber about the Lone Wolf brand, that it sells here on a pretty much daily basis for more money than a number of other brands ...

I smoked my first cigar more than 40 years ago, but am still experiementing with brands ... sure I have some old favorites, but try new ones all the time ... only I know how a cigar tastes to me and MY ratings are the only ones I go by ... If we had a ratings board, it'd be a great source of humor and a lot of pokin' fun at one another, but it'd not be a source of any valid information to a newbie smoker or to an experienced smoker wondering about a brand he'd never tried ...

Although I would like to see more detailed rating from our board members, I have to agree that we would be shooting ourselves in the foot in the long run.

I would prefer to let people find the rating some place else. I mean look at the problems we already have getting a decent deal on Montecristo, Macanudo, Fuente and other WELL KNOWN and highly rated smokes!

There are many brands on auction here that many of us cigar veterans recognize as GREAT smokes, but since they are not widely known to the majority of bidders (many cigar boomers), we can get them at great prices! (often times BELOW wholesale.) I would hate to see that come to an end.

Rick, I hear ya about the "silly" rating buzz words thing. First time a read a modern cigar review many years ago I couldn't stop laughing!

Putting those kinds of flavor tags on wine is bad enough, but at least in that case the comparisons are somewhat warranted since wine is a food, but a cigar? For me there are only three flavors to a cigar, great, good or bad. Try as I might I have yet to taste stuff like mint, earth, caramel and hints of sweet fruit! Sweet fruit ???? Echos of "The Emperors New Clothes" if you ask me!

I like cigars that the raters say taste of leather.

In between cigars I sometimes put a belt or wallet in my mouth.

The hunt for the perfect gar is the fun of chase. Me no likes a guide list,takes the fun out of it.
This part is for LLT,The only diddly that matters to me is BO. HE..HE. X

So very true LLT,So very true,Now if I could only remember what goes where. LMAO. X

Hey Aberdeen, those DC robustos you sent me are still REAL REAL GOOD. Thanks, and that's my review.

Looks like your up against a wall here. If you want to rate or rave about a cigar just make a post called "Dark Sharks, A bite from the deep blue" or such. Tell your story and people will follow suit and you can search the archives to find "reviews".
My problem with organized reviews is a selfish one. I wanted to try a certain brand but it was too expensive. A thread appeared here that said the brand was not good. The item dropped 50% in the next auction and it is still down. I fear a good review of the brands I like will make their price go up.
My logic is flawed, but oh well. proof: Those darn eggs are selling for a higher price than CI has them for. And I have only seen bad reviews for them.

well okay, this doesn't mean that much too me to lose sleep over,and continue to promote, and if this idea is no longer popular then so be it. I am not going to enjoy my dinner any less because of it.

dinner ... well, if you were to check a rating for food before eating your dinner and dinner happened to include a salad with cucumbers on it, my review would perhaps cause you to enjoy dinner less, because I think cucumbers are the most vile food on earth ... you, on the other hand might like them, but might never try them because I'd rated them as dog rockets ... what about my sister in law whose opinion of lamb is every bit as low as mine is of cucumbers ... if your dinner were to consist of lamb chops and a salad with cucumbers, reading reviews the two of us had written might change your plans for dinner, but THEY SHOULDN'T !! My opinion is exactly that ... mine. Yours, as they say in car ads when making reference to anticipated mpg, may vary. I submit to you it is absolutely the same with cigars ... to know how YOU feel about a certain cigar, you have to try it and data such as "full-bodied" appear in the descriptions for the cigars immediately above the bid space to give you general guidance in guessing whether you'd like that cigar ... also, note that you'll not get true, open opinions from too many here for the very simple reason that they don't want you to be bidding against them for the cigars they like best if they can help it ... nor, I imagine, would you feel much different the other way around.

all of which makes CA and their reviews, BS.

with or without an cigar opionion board if you think the only thing that matters is how you personally feel about a cigar, then you really are wasting your time here, as everybody has an opinion about cigars and most of them share that opinion with others here, and yes there have been times based on the rave reviews here that I have bought a cigar because of it. Remember La Luna? And I have also avoided buying certain cigars because many people didn't like it, maybe my loss, but I have so many outstanding cigars now that I don't need to take risks when so many don't like it. I also know how I can disagree with some people, some people here love Puros Indios for example, Rookie I recall doesn't like them at all, but they are one of my favorites. There are also many people who come here specifically asking for advice on cigars, do you tell them, "we can't tell you anything as it is purely a personal experience with your likes or dislikes". It is very intimidating for new smokers and getting advice is very helpful.

I remember the first time I went into a walk-in humidor and saw the wide range of choices among cigars ... I remember well, being quite intimidated and wondering how I'd ever find out which ones I would like ...

The guy who ran the place seemed old and wise (but he'd probably strike me as a kid now ... lol), so I asked him which of these was a good cigar ... I wish I could remember the exact wording he answered me with, but the meaning of what he said is still quite clear in this ol' gray head ... "no two people have the same taste, so no neither I nor anyone else can predict what you'll like ... you've got to try a lot of different ones, then be sure to remember which ones you like"

Of course it is true, that after you know how your taste compares with that of someone else, their opinions can be meaningful guides and in that sense, the sharing of opinion here is worthwhile ... There are a number of others here whose tastes are similar to mine and whose opinions, whether publicly or privately shared, influence some of my choices, but even so, I don't always agree, even those two or three whose taste is MOST similar to my own.

For me, this forum is not about comparing taste or even strictly about cigars ... it's a virtual conversation that is being held among a bunch of guys (and an occasional gal) who have in common, the enjoyment of a good cigar at the same time we carry on a conversation about LIFE ... As with any group, there are times any two or three or ?? of us might agree or disagree about anything under the sun, and that's all good, whether the conversation is about favorite brands, dog rockets, books, music, humor, single malt scotch, politics, sports, sex, nipple rings on young women who may or may not be real or any and all of the other topics of life ... sometimes, the stating of opinion has hurt the feelings of others, made them angry or even discontinue participating in the conversation, although so far, despite the sometimes heated words and strongly held opinions, none of us has punched any other in the nose ...

Aberdeen, the "kiss my a$$" in the above post was directed at CA and their ratings, not at you. The whole purpose of this cigar forum is to talk about cigars, the one's we like and dislike, to share some useful information, and to f#@k with each other in a friendly, humorous way. It is not about an arbitrarily numbered rating system, IMO. (Remember CA lowered its rating on the Onyx Reserve mini-belicoso from 94 to 86 a couple issues later)

I have tried cigars based on other's suggestions, too, with predictably mixed results. FWIW, if you think you might like cigars that I like, then try La Gloria Cubana Wavell maduro, Cupido Criollo Campana, Perdomo La Tradicion, JR Ultimate Principale X, CAO Gold Label Corona, Bolivar Fuerte Delmonico maduro, Excalibur IV natural, Bolivar Fuerte Cuban Corona maduro, Acid #1, Acid Kong Kamaroon, Acid Extraordinary Larry, Montecristo #2 and #4 (Cuba), Puros Indios double corona maduro. These are some of my personal favorites in no particular order that almost never let me down. I have a lot of cigars in my humidor that are not on this list, including some Cubans and a ton of stuff I wish I wouldn't have paid a dollar a stick for.

The cigars that don't get much c-bidding respect that I thought were pretty good gars for the money (sometimes) are Santa Damiana H2k Rothschild, Don Juan Matador maduro, Indian Tabac Camaroon Hawk, and Colorado by Don Lino lonsdale. This is a list that I would expect more disagreement with, along with the popularly despised Acids of course. The 5 Vegas is a popular choice that I have quite a few of in torpedo and churchill and find pleasant enough but uninspiring.

That's more secrets than I ever expected to share on this board, but you caught me in a weak moment. Feel free to disagree. I am glad this post is buried at the bottom of a dying thread. Happy bidding. Did you read that crap on HP?

X, a public thanks for pointing out the error above. Lets see if anyone else catches it.

There was an old comedian named Brother Dave Gardner who once said "If you're against it, you're for it."
Think about it. And rejoice, dear hearts.