Most guys who smoke good cigars don’t buy them here. There really aren’t that many quality smokes sold here. Most of what is sold is marketed by Cigars International which is the parent company of CigarBid.

Those cigars are mostly crappy second and third quality smokes with a recognizable band attached. Many of these “same” cigars will be of a different blend next year. Why, because CI owns the label they can band any craptastic cigar with said label.

Do yourself a favor and research the independent manufacturers such as Arturo Fuente, Don Pepin Garcia and others. There cigars tend to be top quality and are consistent from year to year.

Abrignac wrote:

And, just for the sake of the Math ( for Frankie)….
This thread has not been viewed “a few thousand times”.

Noobs not so good wif numbas…

KingoftheCove wrote:

Caldwell 10 pack sampler going for 42$ on freefall right now.
Pepins are running about what I mentioned they’d go for. I keep all of those cigars strong and like both very well. I’ll buy them here or wherever they’re on sale. That’s a good deal on the Caldwell in my opinion

Jakethesnake86 wrote:

IMO, EPC has some decent stuff here and there, but I'll take any Pepin/My Father 98.2% of the time

Sunoverbeach wrote:

Well then there is hope for the 1.8%

See....i can do numbers 😉

Tiver wrote:

Thanks. I get the idea.

Let's remember this is a big site along with CI and they sell a lot of cigars. So what's that tell you ? It tells me that a lot of folks aren't smoking "good" cigars. They are smoking OK cigars. Fair enough. I am going to run this thread through its motions with the cigars I have purchased here (possibly some others) and see if a novice can gain some insight about cigar flavor and character from those purchased and from added insight from aficionados who care to add.

Edit: What you have said doesn't come as a surprise to me. When a cigar gets top ratings in a particular year, that same stick might suffer in another year, yet rest on the laurels of a good year. Unless a stick comes with a "vintage", it's just playing off a rating from a good year. Such is marketing and promotion. Of course it may also follow up with successive good years.

And remember.....As a noob I still don't really know what is the difference.

Tiver wrote:

Ratings???

Are you referring to sources such as Cigar Aficionado? They sell advertising and are well know for highly rating some complete turds. The AB Prensado comes to mind.

The brands i mentioned don’t suffer from off years. They are and have been consistent from day one. Also, as Frank said you can add Padron to that list. You can smoke an AF Hemingway Classic each year from a different lot number and I guarantee it will taste the same and burn the same year after year. Same for a Padron and a DPG.

Those brands control everything about production beginning from the time seed is planted until the field is plowed to be reseeded the following season. The also age their own tobacco, roll their own tobacco and age their cigars before they are released to market.

Abrignac wrote:

Just going by the "views" on the main Cigar Discussion page. 3386 counts as a "few" thousand. I didn't even have to take my shoes off to count that one.

Tiver wrote:

Thanks Tony. As I come form essentially zero experience, I fully expect my observations to evolve. I am sure there are much, much better offerings to come. This last smoke was a bit of a ground breaker for me, but I have no illusions that it was grand.

I would love to have someone say, "try this cigar, it does things similar the one you smoked only it does them much better"

Tiver wrote: