What are some of your opinions on brand samplers you've had?

These are samplers that showcase different blends (not vitola's).

Here are my ratings on a few:

Favorites:
Black Label Trading Company (5 count)
Blackbird (6 count)
Graycliff Mega Sampler
Diamond Crown Family Toro Collection
1502 (5 count)
La Gloria Cubana Intro Sampler
Diesel Unholy 5-Star Sampler
Oliva 5-Star Sampler
Cavalier Geneve Brand Sampler
Tatuaje Skinny Monsters
Caldwell 5-Star Sampler
Surrogates Sampler (6 count)
Dapper Cigars (6 count)
Altadis Honduran Sampler
Aganorsa 5-Star Sampler
La Flor Dominicana Robusto Selection
HVC Sampler (5 count)
HVC Sampler Vol. 2 (5 count)

Pretty Good:
Nub 5-Star #2
J.C. Newman Nicaraguan Sesenta
Alec Bradley
Cigars Daily Total Package 8-Pack
Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary

Just OK:
Man O' War Anthology Sampler II (apparently this one gets better with age)
Pinar Del Rio Factory Tour Sampler
La Aurora Best Of Sampler
Gran Habano 5-Star Sampler No. 2


These are overall ratings on each sampler. There may have been really good single cigars in any of these.
I'll try to keep this updated as I burn through more.
🇨🇮

Burning Man

[bombed]

Lol

Well, some of those are unknown entities to me, and others have had several samplers of their lines. I like Graycliff, although not at anything close to MSRP (Double E, White, Purple, Green, in that order). Still haven't tried some of their newer lines. The only Diamond Crown I ever had that I liked were the Maximus and JC lines, and the Max #1 is still on my personal Top Ten list. Love that cigar. IIRC, the Centro Fino sungrown line is part of the DC family. That and the maduro Centro are both overlooked gems, IMO.

La Gloria and Diesel would depend on what's in them, but there are good lines in both. Just about anything made by Oliva that doesn't have "Flor de" in the title is reliable to me (love the Melanio, the V, and the V maddie--especially the 2008 original of that line). Don't know if you can still get them, but the El Cobre was a good, full smoke. The old "toilet seat" maduro is fantastic if you can ever find them (the box literally looks like a toilet seat). Loved the MB II, but that's long gone. Never understood the fuss over the MB III, but I'm pretty clearly in the minority there, as I am on Graycliff.

AB, Perdomo, LA, all depends on which blend. Tempus and Prensado? I'm there. Have not tried several of the new ones. Might be a good way to get in on that. If it's a Perdomo with a maduro wrapper, I'm also there. LA lines are hit or miss with me, but there are a few I like...Barrel Aged, some of the Preferidos, etc. Come to think of it, I may have a fiver of the Black Label. Will give them a try when I get my taste buds back.

Thanks for the info., sounds like you have some good smokes there. And #2, damn, dude, warn us next time. Yikes.

Don't look now, but Joe has an EPC sampler up.

Used to be able to get the Kristoff sampler of 8 cheap...........if you can get it for close to 20......that’s a good sampler.

Some good Tat samplers out there........not cheap though.
The other place has a cheaper Tat sampler, but has all the mediocre Tats in it....

I have an EPC sampler that I have burned a few out of. Need to finish it off. As of now it will be on the "Pretty good" list. 🇨🇮

I've only had one Kristoff and I suspect it may be their best. (At least for my flavor profile) It was the Pistoff Kristoff. Love it. I've been eyeballing the 8 count Kristoff sampler you mention. Waiting for a good deal on it. Last time I looked it was going for around $40.
Also know the cheaper Tat sampler you mention. Funny they call it their "Best Of" sampler lol. I got these Tat samplers in line waiting:
http://www.cigarbid.com/Forum/c/posts/660030/will-be-taking-the-Tat-tour-soon- 
🇨🇮

I've started in on the Cazadores. The "Frank" has been torched.

#8 I don't know why the folks at CA don't give Kristoff much love, and taste is always subjective, but the Criollo ligero has long been a favored cigar of mine (say maybe top 40-50), and the Corojo is the real gem in that line, IMO. If you can get hold of a Tatuaje little monsters, skinny monsters, or some variation thereof at a decent price, there are some fine sets to smoke. To step up a bit in price but for some good cigars, the Tatuaje cojonu 2012 series came in 3 wrappers. Sumatra is the best of the bunch, but all three are good.

Done. See post:
http://www.cigarbid.com/Forum/c/posts/660030/will-be-taking-the-Tat-tour-soon- 
🇨🇮

How was it?

Honestly it had draw and burn issues. I just kept at it with the poker and touch ups. It was good when it was burning and I could get smoke.

But, in my own short sighted noob'ness I fired it up on a morning that a massive thunderstorm had went through earlier. The humidity may have had a hand in that due to the small RG. I don't know though.

I'm waiting for a better morning to do the next one. I'll keep you posted. :-"

can't forget the ambient humidity when you smoke a cigar....luckily it is rarely an issue where I live...

Yep. I'm figuring that out. Frustrating though when it's wet and you're craving a smoke. 🤦

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Ambient humidity is a huge issue that is usually overlooked by most cigar guys.

You may at first think "how much of the air's humidity can really permeate through the wrapper during an hour smoke time?"

Then though, you realize, "wait, with every puff I'm drawing that moist air through the cigar's entire length!"

Yep, that's the problem. Better to wait for a dry day.

Maduro-wrapped cigars are the most affected, I've found (for example, Chief Cool Arrow, but also many others).

This sometimes leads to one guy saying, "such-and-such cigar is great!" and another guy replying, "are you crazy? It sucks!" One guy smoked it on a dry day, one on a humid or rainy day.
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Must suck to smoke cigars in Florida, Nicaragua, Cuba, Honduras, the Dominican, and anywhere else near the equator...

I have a good deal of experience with smoking cigars in Florida, in fact a total worst-case scenario.

I used to vacation (and really should again, it's been too long) in a direct-oceanfront house where the foundation was around 10 feet from the sand.

Result? Constant stiff ocean breeze 24x7 plus super-high humidity all the time (I mean, it's Florida, plus there's the ocean RIGHT THERE!), both of which wreak havoc on cigars while you're smoking them.

Solution? Found a cardboard box, opened the top flaps vertically, duct-taped three of them together in the vertical position, left the fouth flap bent downward. Result: a really tall box, open on the top, and with 3 sides full-height and one side half-height. I put an ashtray inside, and aimed the half-height side of the box away from the ocean, leaving the 3 tall sides to deflect and reduce the ocean breeze. I also kept the cigar in the ashtray whenever I wasn't actually puffing (no holding it in my hand in the direct breeze). Also, no maduros. Mostly Connecticuts, as they were least affected by the humidity.

If any of you lads are beachside in Florida sometime, try that. It's not hard to scrounge up a cardboard box, and if you have a weighty (e.g. big and ceramic) ashtray, it'll keep the box from blowing away. If not, add rocks or other weights at the corners inside the box, all around the ashtray.

An alternate solution I've used is to simply drive the convertible onto the beach, park it, drop the top but raise the windows. Excellent breeze-killer so (non-maduro) cigars smoke great, but you still have panoramic vision (the only window frame is the windshield, nothing else) and all the sounds and scents of the beach, plus you can get a tan at the same time! Downside - requires a convertible, which is a problem for most people, and a driving/parking-approved beach, of which there are not many.
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Were you and your parrot still able to comb the beach with your metal detector?

#11 Nice. Then again, if I'd known you got that, I'd be in borderline stalker territory.

#16 I noticed that. My wife and I have been to Key West three times. Been a few years since our last trip there, but the first time I lit a cigar out by the pool (back when you could do such a thing without getting pilloried and/or a fire hose), I kept trying to figure out where the hell all the flavor of my cigar had gone to. Up in the PNW, summer humidity is usually below 20%. When we get higher humidity, it's usually cold enough to warrant smoking somewhere indoors, preferably with heat on, so that dries out the air as well. Took me a couple days getting used to smoking in the humid weather. Noticed the same thing last time I was in Hawaii. Only had that problem at lower elevations in Costa Rica. Up in the hills or in the Guanacaste region, no problem.

Glad to know it's not just my imagination.