A lot of folks rely on CA ratings for cigars they're unfamiliar with. I usually pay attention to last smoke date on CA ratings....would not the quality, and ratings,vary from year to year with specific smokes? If a cigar was rated 89 in 1998, couldn't the '01 version be garbage...and how exactly do you know what vintage you're smoking? These are questions to ponder carefully on your journey...

You can do like bigtony and busdaddy, they keep a diary in their purses.

Mr. Mean: Don't you mean beaded purses. LOL JonR

Maybe beaded lizard purses? Sometmes a cigar rated good one year,will be bad the next and visa versa. It depends on many factors,such as how good the tobacco crop was,how well it was cured,how well it was rolled,stored etc. X

so true X, I've had cigars out of the same box that can rate from ok to excellent. Handmade and of a few select leaves, it's a crapshoot to make each always taste the same.

This is just one of the many reasons I never pay any attention to ratings. It could very well be outdated, and I'm always suspicious about the relation between high ratings and big bucks spent on ads in the same magazine! Even if it's all legit, I'd first listen to people I know personally (including what you guys have to say), or I just conduct my own research!

A person would have to be pretty naive to imagine that there is no relationship between the ratings a publication gives a cigar and the advertising $$$ spent by that cigar's maker in the publication ... BUT, even IF there were no relationship, ratings would still be a very vague barameter at best ... who out there agrees 100% with the thumbs-up or thumbs-down ratings given to movies, with the reviews given to restaurants by the press or what the neighbors like on TV or what their political views are ... there's a crude old expression which says that "opinions are like ***holes; everybody has one" ... I smoked an absolutely wonderful cigar last night that I got in trade with another person on this board who found them too strong for his taste ... ask each of us for an opinion on that cigar, you'll get contradictory answers ... best advise is to forget ratings, try a variety of cigars, remember what you like (!), then buy those cigars in quantity ...

Reviews are subjective to personal preference, surrounding conditions, money, yada yada yada. I usually peruse the reviews for the pretty pictures of cigars. this way, I see something I haven't seen, maybe I'll remember and try it out myself.

Reviews are ok as a general barometer of how a cigar looks or what kind of construction it has but for the most part are so subjective as to be worthless. Maybe its my mouth but I have never tasted hints of leather or a touch of chocolate in any cigar. The closest I've come is peppery in a cigar that has a bit of a kick. I like as an everyday cigar some that you guys rip routinely but thats just my taste opposed to yours. I once did taste a hint of cigar in my coffee but it was just that I had put the stub in my cup.

Been there, done that. And I agree with you. Tastes and flavors are subjective to the induvidual. At the same time, I have had cigars that make me say WOW! Yet couldn't break down the nuances to save my life.

MrsS, who on occasion joins me in smoking a cigar, recently purchased what she believed to be a flavored cigar. That evening after dinner, she asked if I'd unwrap and light her "chocolate flavored cigar" ... I was immediately able to pick up every flavor nuance of this particular stick ... turned out she'd bought a candle made to LOOK like a cigar ... it's an interesting conversation piece, but the worst tasting "cigar" I've ever stuck in my mouth (although I have had some very close seconds) ....

Steve, were the close seconds seconds?

hmmmm .... maybe ... I know I'd said something about #2, but perhaps they WERE seconds ...

Treb -- good point.

Did you catch variation on the onyx mini belicoso. It went from a 94 down somewhere around an 86 in about a year. What's that all about? Personally, I couldn't tell the difference between a 94 from a 93/92/91. But it's apparent that there are 2 differing onyx mb out there -- would the real one please stand up!

Mr. Mean -- that would be a j-o-u-r-n-a-l we keep in our purses.

uh, i mean in our computers.