We have a survey form that you need to fill out to give us some information on the cigar. The form includes the name of the distributor and manufacturer. What we're most interested in are the places where the cigar is sold. We don't like to rate cigars in Cigar Aficionado that don't have wide distribution.
Also, we need to know which retailers carry the cigar so we can buy them at retail. We don't rate cigars in Cigar Aficionado that are sent in by manufacturers or distributors, unless the cigar is sold out or otherwise not able to be bought at retail at some particular time.
To get a copy of the form, contact our tasting coordinator, Greg Mottola, at 212-684-4224.
Posts: 2242 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: April 23, 2002
Can you tell us anything about the tasting process? Who are in the tasting panel? They do blind-tasting, but I don't know, how a rating-number comes. What the aspects, the criterias are? Are there any expectations during the testing (closed place, drinking etc.)
If you do a search of our threads, you can find a few answers on this subject, but just to give you an overview, it goes something like this:
We rate cigars blind, which means the tasters do not know the identity, price, country of origin or anything else about the cigar. The band is removed by the tasting coordiator (who is not a member of the tasting panel) and replaced with a numbered band. These are passed out to the panel, which consists of longstanding members of the CA editorial staff. They smoke the cigars, rating them for appearance, smoking characteristics, and most of all flavor.
The cigars are smoked individually in the tasters' offices. (I'm smoking cigar No. 63 right now. It's pretty good, but not great. I'm a few inches into it, so we'll see if it improves.)
Hope this helps. Thank you for the interest from Hungary!
Posts: 2242 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: April 23, 2002
I have only one more question: you give an overall rate, or you rate the appearance, taste individually and then you add the numbers and that is the final rate?
We award up to: 15 points for appearance 25 for smoking characteristics 25 for taste 35 for overall impression, of which flavor is the most important consideration
A perfect cigar would score 100 points.
As you can see, appearance is rated, but is less important than the other qualities of the cigar, so an ugly but tasty cigar does better than an attractive but poor tasting smoke.
Posts: 2242 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: April 23, 2002
Mr. Savona, I figured out a new question: You (the editors or the coordinator) get one piece of each cigar you test, or the factories are sending a full box, and everybody tests a piece from the box sometime?
I'm glad you asked about factories/companies sending cigars. We always try to buy the cigars we rate at retail to ensure that the cigars we smoke are as close to possible to the cigars you buy in stores. We spend quite a bit of money on cigars each year. When a cigar is very hard to get and we cannot find it at retail shops, then we ask the manufacturer/distributor to send some. We also take cigars from manufacturers if a cigar isn't on the market yet, and we're doing a preview tasting.
Posts: 2242 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: April 23, 2002
Originally posted by David Savona: I'm glad you asked about factories/companies sending cigars. We always try to buy the cigars we rate at retail to ensure that the cigars we smoke are as close to possible to the cigars you buy in stores. We spend quite a bit of money on cigars each year. When a cigar is very hard to get and we cannot find it at retail shops, then we ask the manufacturer/distributor to send some. We also take cigars from manufacturers if a cigar isn't on the market yet, and we're doing a preview tasting.
This brings a little question of your previous answer that you don`t want to rate things that don`t have a wide distribution, or are not able to be bought at retail. I think what you ment was more in line with- If a major manufacturer has a "rare" line that is not out on the market or impossible to get, we will get it from them. I know this may be slight, but with the nattering naybobs trying to link ratings with ads and whatnot- the clearer the definition the better.
Why rely on the ratings of others? I mean, just how many adjectives are there for cigars? Also, what's one man's poison is another man's elixer, and nobody is better suited to know what you like than........YOU!
Most of the time, the ratings are illusory, and they go on to taint or make a particular cigar the smoking experience for which might be very different from yours. Many a market has been made by how a cigar is rated in a magazine, and that does not in the least mean that the particular cigar is good or warrants such acclaim. Just because someone says it's good doesn't make it good. That's for us ALL to determine for ourselves.
While some guidelines, ratings, and comments might give us a little bit to go on, those things in the end are a disservice. Hints of cocoa, leather and alfalfa? Root beer and vanilla? Chocolate and coffee? I mean...really. The BEST advice might be if there were 3 groups of cigars...in a few categories. For example, a category for small cigars, a category for big cigars, and a category for torpedo...and then within each category, groupings of "strong" or "mild" or "full bodied" or "finesse"...and then a "good" "bad" and "so-so" standard. But points, the descriptives...they really don't mean anything when it comes down to it.
I remember back years ago when the magazine rated a Fuente Spanish Lonsdale very highly...there wasn't one in the marketplace for YEARS! The rating caused a run on the cigar. Were they that good? Not really...but the magazine review sure as heck made the market for them...and made Fuente FAMOUS beyond belief. So much so that their advertising budget increased with their profits, and so spiraled the market for Fuente cigars.
That's just one example. But you get the point.
Maybe the secret would be to feature cigar ratings from what readers send in. That way, the market does not get made or broken by what an editorial staff believes. There have been many occasions where the magazine rated a particular cigar quite low, whereas the general and really universal sentiment was that the cigar in question was an absolute classic in the making. Similarly, there have been occasions where the magazine rated a cigar quite high, but the general sentiment was that it was terrible. Go figure.
Alas - and in all due fairness to the magazine - that's the service of a specialty magazine, to provide ratings to the community that it serves so that the community has an idea as to what is on the market. Problem is, with cigars, unlike wine, the differences from cigar to cigar within the same box are often very dramatic. With wine, a vintage is fairly standardized and so you know what to expect, and the grape juice is infinitely more complex than tobacco...to most, anyway.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 10302 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
