Okay Mikey....
First, I need to make a few disclosures.
1) I have no filter and really DGAF if I pi$$ someone off.
2) I'm probably going to initially pi$$ you off with this. But enjoy the ride because at the end you'll learn a few things and realize I'm only about 98.2% the azzhole I sound like.
3) Many of the people who post here have actually traveled 100's to 1,000's of miles to meet up and smoke together. So, by virtue of the fact that you just joined you're an outsider.
4) These forums have been here 20-25 or more years. Some people posting here regularly were among the first to join. Things have changed in that time.
I'm sure you've heard the expression: Location, location, location. Think of this place as a location. Also, always know the crowd you're working before you work it.
The reason you got the response from me that you did is because your initial post sounded like something someone who had just stepped up from the Black & Mild bottom rung of the cigar world to maybe rung 2 or 3, but thought he was king of the hill. Then you continued digging a hole with your other responses. One example is anyone who smokes the chitty cigars doesn't have a sophisticated enough palette to smoke really high-quality expensive cigars. Also, I'm not sure what you define as expensive, but I seriously doubt you'd smoke that crap, yet pony up for what some of us regularly smoke.
As far as why are we here if we don't buy from here, there was a time when great cigars could be found here. But that is becoming all too rare. Many of the cigars you mentioned don't in anyway resemble cigars of the same brand 10, 20 years ago. Many of those brands who were once family owned have been sold to one of the conglomerates now driving the cigar world. In fact, do a little research on CigarBid and find out who its parent corporation is, then find out who owns that corporation. I'll give you a hint. The parentage of the cigar brands you mentioned will be somewhere in that mix.
Before, when family owned those cigars the blend and quality were consistent. Year after year the tobacco was bought from the same farmers and rolled in the same factories. Not anymore. Now the blend changes from year to year or even within a year based on available tobacco. They're not even always rolled in the same factories from batch to batch anymore. It's all about what's available when a batch needs to be made to bring inventory of a particular bland to minimum warehouse stocking level. Hopefully, now you understand the issues of quality and consistency.
As far as Rocky Patel's are concerned. Many people here will laugh at the mention of that brand. See paragraph above.
As far as ratings are concerned, its meaningless. In many instances the ratings you refer to don't reflect current construction. See paragraph above if you need clarification. Check out the magazines where these numbers are given. See if the ad buys corelates to the rating level. For example, the Alec Bradley Prensario was once the cigar of the year. Yet, AB's are notoriously one of the worse rolled cigars out there. In a 5 pack, one can expect 4 of them to either burn very uneven up to and including tunneling, to be plugged or most likely both. The Prensario was no exception.
So where do you go from here? That's up to you. There are actually quite a few guys who will gladly mentor you if you want. You'll find it's well worth it. Hell, I'll even toss out a morsel here and there. I dropped in 12-13 years ago and have learned more than I ever thought I could learn. To give you a sense of this community, I've traveled 1,000's of miles to meet up with guys here for fishing trips. I regularly talk with a handful of folks here on the phone, and text many almost daily. One guy who has posted in this thread has on multiple occasions timed his vacations and flown 6,000 miles or more round trip to meet with groups of members here to smoke and drink.
There is lots of great knowledge that can be had from the regulars here, but to avail yourself to this vast knowledge you need to become a member of the community. Otherwise, you're just another stranger passing through and will be regarded as such.
Take it for what it's worth.
Abrignac wrote:
I sure like this post. (yes, I know this is an older thread, but since it’s here…)
I greatly appreciate someone who gets down to business and tells it like it is without mincing words. I’m the same way when it comes to subjects I have substantial knowledge/experience with (cigars NOT being one of them). The world needs more of these kinds of people, not less.
What you said about many of the brands named here not being the same as they were in the past makes a lot of sense. When I first got into cigars 13-14 years ago, my experience was limited to recommendations from my local cigar dealers and lounges. I was trying to keep my cigar purchases to around $10 or less, and would smoke one or two a month on certain occasions. Two early favorites that I developed were the RP Vintage 1999 and the RyJ Reserva Real. I’d pair them with a good cup of coffee and have an afternoon smoke with a friend, and enjoyed them considerably. All of them were purchased from local retailers shortly before I would smoke them (I did not have a humidor and didn’t buy any cigars to store for later), and quality to me seemed pretty consistent. I don’t recall ever getting one with a bad draw, and the flavor was very consistent. Occasionally I would splurge and get something in the $20 range. I was particularly impressed with a couple of Cohibas that I picked up one time (though sadly I do not recall which one), and was under the impression they were one of the more premium brands. I couldn’t tell you what that impression was based on, beyond primarily the opinion of my local retailers. After a few years, friends started moving away, then I moved away, and I pretty much fell out of the habit of smoking cigars for several years.
More recently I picked it up again, but I couldn’t find either of my two former favorites consistently at the places local to me now, so I went searching online. Then a friend told me about this site. Imagine my surprise and excitement to find them available here, and CHEAP! Not to mention, a whole world of Cohibas and others that I thought were GOOD cigars.. I asked my friend “How are they able to sell these so cheap when local retailers are getting 5x the price for them still?” Well, as I eventually found out, they appear to be cheap for a reason. And quality control is definitely not what I experienced in years past. I do still like the flavor of the Vintage 1999 and the Reserva Real, but of the batches I’ve gotten, a number of them have been plugged or nearly so. Very disappointing. Likewise for the Cohiba connecticuts - I bought a ten pack, and several are too plugged to even attempt smoking them. Two in particular had large stems that I pulled out, which certainly helped the draw, but these were not winning cigars at all. I’d have been very disappointed had I paid retail price for them.
I bought a wide variety of cigars here over the last month. My experience so far has been that many of them are on the dry side, rather than over-humidified. I have three humidors set up now, one that I keep about a couple dozen or so in for day to day use. I spread them out so as to aid in their stabilizing efficiently so I don’t have to wait a month to smoke them. I opened up several of the newly arrived packs, and stuck two of each variety in this humidor to let them stabilize for a week or so before smoking. This humidor stays around 65-67%. A few cigars that I’ve tried over the last couple weeks have been quite good to my liking.. the Nica Libre 25th anniversary that I smoked this evening was quite good. Well constructed, excellent draw, consistent burn, very good flavor, overall I definitely enjoyed it. It started off a little spicy for my taste (thought for context, I do NOT like spicy anything), but it mellowed out about 1/4 the way in and was a good smoke until about the last third when I called it quits.
I know I have a whole world of cigars out there to try. I’ve tried about a dozen that were new to me in the last few weeks. A few I’ve enjoyed and would buy again, but several that I wouldn’t. I’ve got enough variety amongst all these now that I will have new ones to try for at least a couple months. I only smoke one a day, and not necessarily every day. It’s an evening relaxation ritual for me these days, after I wind down my work day.
I’ve gone a little bonkers here, buying up way more than I ever expected. But of course, that’s my personality type - when I get into something more seriously, I tend to go ALL IN. I have enough cigars now to last me for quite some time, and I’m looking forward to the journey as I try more and more of them to see what’s what. Perhaps as my palate grows in experience I will follow the path that it sounds like most of you have, but for the time being I’ve got plenty of new ones in front of me to try.
And yes, I write a lot. Remember what I said about going all in on things I enjoy? Don’t blame me, blame my summer school teacher between sophomore and junior year who recognized my obvious interest in writing and encouraged me to make the most of it. I set new standards for failing grades in my various English classes despite having good attendance, on my way to dropping out of high school on my 18th birthday. I couldn’t have cared less about school at the time, I knew that I wasn’t going to come close to graduating, so I saw no need to prolong the inevitable. I jumped all in to the working world and never looked back, but I have been annoying people on internet forums with my lengthy diatribes ever since. My strong opinions have gotten me banned from a few forums as well, but I get the impression there’s a different sort of crowd here than the softies that seem to inhabit most of the internet. Guess we’ll see how that goes!
