Reviews Question.

A

andrewk

ChestBeater
Since I am pretty new to the whole cigar thing, I like to read up on reviews from anywhere I can (top25, CI, CA...)
All these sources leave me with the same question:

What is with their scales? Most places say they give a score out of 100, but I have NEVER seen a review lower than 80.

So whats the point of rating out of a 100 if you only use 1/5 of the range?
Does this mean they only review cigars good enough to score 80 and up?
Are all hand rolled cigars worthy of an 80?

I guess what it boils down to is that I am interested in figuring out what serves as a benchmark for a score of 0 and a score of 100.

Any thoughts/rants/opinions?
 
I would suggest that anything below an 80 is probably not going to sell very well, thus no one can find any to review. just my 2cents
 
I don't really like the cigar reviews in magazines and other popular publications. Usually they come off as pretentious and wordy to me.

I am also a newbie, and found www.stogiereview.com to be the best place to get nice unbiased reviews.

And really, you just have to smoke different cigars. Sometimes I really enjoy cigars that were not reviewed well and vice versa.
 
It's just like the Olympics.....ever see a gymnast get a 4, rather than a 9.6? ;)
 
There are a lot of 4's -6's on Top25. Publications would rather only point out the good things in their advertisers, as opposed to the bad. Web sites can be more objective. CA claims to test blind though.
 
Check out ECCJ I feel there ratings are perhaps closer - at least as close as a subjective thing like taste etc can be.

They also use the full range of the scale in case your looking to pick up that worst rated cigar.
 
It's a good point and so long as you understand the game in paid ad rags it's still a useful scale. Think log scale kind of thing and a bit of cynicism from this poster....

80-85 - Wet dog flavors but maybe they will advertise with us someday.
86-90 - Most of our advertisers are here and we cant upset any of them.
90-95 - Our big ads come from these folks so keep it pretty straight and make sure it's consistent with the $$$ spent.
95+ - Actual opinion comes in this range.
 
Da Klugs said:
It's a good point and so long as you understand the game in paid ad rags it's still a useful scale. Think log scale kind of thing and a bit of cynicism from this poster....

80-85 - Wet dog flavors but maybe they will advertise with us someday.
86-90 - Most of our advertisers are here and we cant upset any of them.
90-95 - Our big ads come from these folks so keep it pretty straight and make sure it's consistent with the $$$ spent.
95+ - Actual opinion comes in this range.
Click to expand...


This sounds pretty true to me - some of the CA reviews I have read just rip a cigar on every major point (flavor, construction, burn) and then proceed to give it a 83;..

Combining this with inherent differences in personal taste/preference makes me wonder why I bother reading reviews at all.... I would probably be better off just taking suggestions from BOTL here :D
 
That'd be the motive behind OUR review subforum, oi? Anyways, ye can always ask to see any cigar that catches yer fancy. And also, blokes down at yer local cigar store can help ye out by giving recommendations acording to yer personal prefferences, to the most bought,...
 
Major Captain Silly said:
I have to disagree with you on that. I have never smoked a gymnast.........ummm, wait.....nevermind.

MCS
Click to expand...


Once again, MCS -- mad props, good sir!

I have to agree with the idea that most of the cigars you're even going to get your hands on are at least an 80 on the "scale."

It's tough to distinguish all the variances in rating, but usually when something hits the 9.2 to 9.3 range it's pretty much guaranteed to be good, probably going to cost at least $10, and probably going to start an ALERT thread on CS when it goes on sale!

:tu:r
 
Kind of off topic, but still on:
It seems that catologs and on-line retailers invent their own rating system. Does anyone know if this is the case? For example a catolog might rate perdomo lot 23s at a 90, onyx reserve 94, and a Nestor reserve maduro at a 93. Hmmm. I wouldn't place them that high (specifically the Nestor).
 
lpsto99 said:
Kind of off topic, but still on:
It seems that catologs and on-line retailers invent their own rating system. Does anyone know if this is the case? For example a catolog might rate perdomo lot 23s at a 90, onyx reserve 94, and a Nestor reserve maduro at a 93. Hmmm. I wouldn't place them that high (specifically the Nestor).
Click to expand...

Thing is, ye got a different taste than any other cigar smoker; so ye'll never have them exactly as somebody else, adding the fact that some people might preffer X, while ye Y. This is a quite subjective passion.

Plus the fact that they try to sell, hence a great review.
 
I agree that I may have a different taste preference than someone else, however the same retailer gives a 93 rating to a RP vintage 1990 & 1992. I can agree with that, but I guess what I would like to see is something in print that says "this is where we got the rating from....". I dont care if they got it from somewhere else, or made it up them self, but they should let the consumer know what it is based on.
 
lpsto99 said:
I agree that I may have a different taste preference than someone else, however the same retailer gives a 93 rating to a RP vintage 1990 & 1992. I can agree with that, but I guess what I would like to see is something in print that says "this is where we got the rating from....". I dont care if they got it from somewhere else, or made it up them self, but they should let the consumer know what it is based on.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. People should be able to know where the information they have is from. Which is always a plus to online B&M's that have costumers' in-depth reviews.
 
Maybe it's like the SAT scoring, where you get 100pts. for just filling out your name.

If I rolled a cigar I think I could get lower than 80:ss
 
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