In this months "Smoke" Magazine, in the blind cigar reviews, the reviewing judges gave the Lone Wolf Signature Select Toro (4.2) the SAME score as the following smokes... (out of 5, being the best)
Zino Platinum (4.2)
RyJ Reserve Maduro (4.2)
RyJ LE (Cuba) (4.2)
Bolivar Beli (Cuba) (4.2)
Camacho Corojo 11/18 (4.2)
Savinelli Nicaragua Reserve (4.2)
Plus many more!

AND, a higher score than... (to name a few)
Savinelli ELR (4.1)
The Griffin's Fuerte (4.0)
Punch Rare Corojo (4.0)
CAO L'Aniv. (Maduro Beli) (4.1)
H.Upman Super Coorona (Cuba) (4.0)

There is a vast difference in taste and construction quality here. I am amazed that they cannot tell the difference in the quality of the sticks. I have smoked the Lone Wolf Toro, and it is a yard stick at best (in my opinion). And not on the same level as a Bolivaar Beli, and a RyJ LE (Cuba)!!?!?!???

Everyone's tastes are different I suppose...

Good readin' Mag though!!!

PT 🙂

Everyone's tastes are different I suppose...

Chuckler this is soooooooo true! This point has hit home while receiving adoptees for the DRAS. I look at some of the 'gars coming in and I'm like OMG - these aren't dog rockets!!! at least not to me! I suppose when one is a newbie the tastes are quite different than from those that have been smoking 'gars for awhile. I have noticed that newbie tastes are all over the place - not fussy at all - but from what I've read the tastes start getting fussier as you experience different cigars and cross over into the darkside 🙂

Not necessarily "fussier." Maybe more discriminating...
Lots of folk enjoy a lesser cigar every now & then [check the posts]. I find darn few cigars that are rationally "worth" more than 5-10X the price of the best medium priced products. In fact, if they were that I bet you'd see a lot more folk smoking the super-premiums everyday!
I'm not saying tastes won't develop & one might find some of the "starter" cigars less tasty as time goes on. As someone posted re: Sam Clemons aka MT his appreciation of coarser cigars grew as he became more experienced. Hence, to each her/his own.
I used to buy a lot of Belinda Spanish Twist maddies. I would carefully age them & still enjoy smoking one. But now I have so many more paints available for my palate! Thank you C-Bid

Addendum:
Seesh, I forgot to mention the Lone Wolf experience.
I had 'em as closeouts from the first blend & they were pretty skanky. I haven't had another in a long time. Last I talked to a shop owner who told me the newest re-blend was available; no thanks...

Those reviews are probably done blind. If you've done reviews that way, you know it's easy to get fooled. A band does quite a lot to raise or lower your expectations. Even so, I still don't want to try a Lone Wolf!

when i first started smoking, i'd had about five cigars smoked to my name, and someone asked me what i liked. well, i said what i know: cohiba, fuente and the RyJ churchill with a gold label i had wasn't too bad. lol

okay, so that's what i'd tried, and that's what i liked. i also REALLY liked the emelio reyes bundle torps that i had (man, i still am searching for more of those babies!).

and i confess that i LOVE the red box takomas (thank you, rick!), which most folks consider to be an uber-dog rocket.

however, i can NOT see putting a takoma up against even a 5 vegas, much less against some that the lone bow wow beat out here. sure, we like what we like -- fuente is great; i also like my takomas -- but there's just no comparison in sooooo many "un biased" ways.

tim is right. that's why I love doing blind tests (although it has revealed my undeveloped palate at times...)

The original Lone Wolf Lobo Rojo toro, way back when the sticks first came out and Chuck Norris was actually associated with them, was a very good cigar. It had a super dark EMS wrapper, medium blend filler, and was a very tasty cigar. I mourned when I finished my last stick of that blend. When the boom crashed, the smokes were re-blended into the dog rockets that are now legendary because they're so bad.

I may be wrong but I believe the Lone Wolf has been re-blended. The problem with CB LW's is you don't know and they don't say if the LW's up for auction are the new or old blend. X

Well, I found two Lone Wolf Signature Select Toros at the bottom of my dailies humi, and they have got to be at least two years down. So they got age, and are just the right condition to smoke... NO EXCUSES!!!

So expect my take on this taste controversy posted on this board by Sunday. If what they say is true, I will start my review with a humble apology to the manufacturer.

PT 🙂

Usually when I am mowing the law or working in the yard and I just don't want to use a good stick I take a lone wolf to scrape the poop off of the bottom of my shoe. As for the judges maybe they had to much congnac before the blind test. Ha ha ha ha

Well the OLD Lone Wolf debate hahahahahah. The Wife and I went to a Flea market and sat up a booth this last Sat. The 1st time I have ever done this. I thought I would try to move some of the Dog Rocket items I had inorder to make room for New and Better Product. Well I grabed s couple boxes of LW Robusto's and a handle full of singles and threw into the sales container. While sitting at this most boring flea market I walked out side and put a match to one of the LW singles I had in my pocket to give away. To my surprise I had to look twice at the band to make sure I had infact stuck the LW's in my pocket. The Cigar had a slightly sweet taste and was pretty smooth and believe it or not pretty tastie..I was totally shocked.
I went back to our table and there was a couple of guys talking with the wife and each had a box of the LW's in thier hands and were telling the wife how lucky they were finding these Cigars at this price. I had a $25 tag on them which at first I thought was a little high if I wanted to move them out.. By the end of the day we had sold 5 boxes and I was whishing I had threw the others in that I had left at home..Until I had heard from my good friend and BOTL Chuckler about the new test rating on the LW's.. Wow the ones I have are about 2 years old now and for a junker are better than alot of others I have tried while doing some thing else like yard work.. LMAO I guess ya never Know.... TinMan

Heh..heh..heh........almost got the LW market cornered......now if the cat'll stay in the bag just a little bit longer..........heh..heh..heh