Won one of these for a buck. Once again I grossly overpaid. Very little smoke, harsh, horrible burn, and dyed wrapper. My fingers and lips are stained from this turd cigar. Tossed it after the first 3rd. I've seen these go for $3 - $4. What are people thinking?

David

The last AB's I bothered to smoke were the old Medalists, and I recall they were pretty tasty. Others I'd tried (like the Presidio's? I think they were) had non-combustible wrappers as I recall.

I bought a handful of Alec Bradley American Sun Grown during a promotion on the OR. It was heavy, but smooth with a slight raisiny sweetness on the finish. Amazingly delicious. So I bought a box. Not even close to the OR. Fucquers duped me! No more AB for me...

seems a lot of cigar makers are going that route...make a new line of OR's with well-blended premium tobaccos and see if they sell and develop a buzz...follow ups the next year or two later using the same label are nowhere near as good...

Stupid business decision. I won’t be going back. Had they maintained the quality of their product, they’d have a loyal customer.

yeah, those old Medalists were great.
Used to buy 5ers in that cardboard box years ago from the now defunct site todayscigar.

never cared for anything else from them though.

I smoked a lot of those Medalists. They where pretty good cigars.

David

The AB sun-grown doesn't do it for me either. I've learned to stay away from cigars that paint my fingers.

Unfortunately Al, that seems to be more and more common. Years ago I won the last of the OR Gurkha Black Dragons from some other site. They where fantastic. A few months later, a new batch started to show up, and they where nothing like the ORs. I've found this with many cigars. The Genesis Project is another that comes to mind. The ORs where fantastic. Current production, not so much.

David

The Coyol petite lancero is good.

.
A few years back CI had the AB Tempus Nicaraguan Quadrum (5.5x55 box press) in their twice-yearly "10-pack plus $20 CI Bucks card" sale (May and December each year for about 48 hours each time).

Those are really great after a couple years of age. I'm enjoying the heck out of them and will be for a long time to come, because I loaded up on them. I believe they were $1.50 each net (after the value of the CI Bucks card is deducted). Fantastic deal. Great even burn, perfect draw, good strength and fairly complex flavors.

Got a box of AB Sanctum Gordo 6x60 cheap about 6 months ago. Smoked one. Mostly flavorless airball, very disappointing. I hope it was just a bum one, I'll try another soon. However, the box, the only one I've ever seen with four legs/feet, is currently serving as an excellent monitor stand for my PC (I'm looking at it right now!).

The original Tempus Quadrum from many years ago was great too. I have a whole intact box of those aging since the OR, so it's been many years now (10 or more, I think). I should break out one and see how they are.
.

Good to hear Puddin.
But I refuse to patronize those basturds anymore...

Yes, it's very frustrating when quality and flavor take a nosedive after an OR, with subsequent runs being nowhere even close. Also frustrating when a cigar from a particular vendor seems very inferior to that "same" cigar sold by most or all other vendors.

This problem is quite fixable though, with a website that crowdsources multi-factor (draw, construction, burn, flavor) reports with numeric quality ratings for each factor (1-5 perhaps), all from trusted reviewers, with each report including acquisition date, smoking date and source vendor.

Then the information is presented in boiled-down chart form, revealing all the data-mined truths in their full glory, all at a single glance.

Wow, look, cigar X sucks from vendor A, but seems great from every other vendor. Cigar Y was good for the first year, then took a quality nosedive. Gee, now I know exactly what and where to buy to not get hosed!

It'd be an interesting project. Not at all difficult for a good web developer, either.
.

Yeah. It would be a great way to keep everyone honest

or the Russians could destroy good cigar sites

Bite your tongue comrade!
We have not completed transaction!!!

Surprised to see so much AB hate. I have been smoking a good many ABs lately. Have found the Prensado to be very good. Same for the Lineage and Tempus. On the other hand, have had bad experiences with the Maxx and the Black Market, which I know a lot of people love the Black Market. Maybe more humi time....

Also, I am kind of anxiously awaiting the Filthy Hooligan to come back. Happened to grab a couple in June as a checkout counter impulse buy. They were amazing smokes. They only come out around St. Patty's day.