How do you all identify your cigars so well? Many manufacturers have simple labels with only their name on them. Fuente, Punch are great examples, or even brands like Comacho where the lables are different colors, but only have a C on them. I don't recall what the red label or gold label or green lable meant, etc. Over the years, I have picked up a number of cigars from the same manufacturer, and a year later, cannot tell which they are by the label. I can certainly identify rough size, but how do you all keep straight exactly what you have?

the more you smoke, the more you'll get to know what you smoke...

in my case, I only smoke cubans, so the choice might be a little mroe limited than the NC market, but I find that with the years of smoking, browsing online sites, reading books and all the works, you pick up a lot of information..

for example, i can tell you every size (and it's name) that is available by almost all the cuban big brands .. how do I know that.. I certainly did not sit down one day and memorize them like in school..I just picked them up slowly slowly, simply smoking more and more

The size is a big indicator of what you have on your hands. Normally, a brand will not release two cigars of the same size.

If you are smoking mostly NCs, I can see how this can be a problem though because brands launch a new line almost every other day. Then, you just have to remember which type of band goes with which line.

Good points, thanks. My Cubans I can keep straight because I only buy Monte #2's and Partagas Series D's (don't tell customs!) I also had an easier time when I mostly just smoked Fuente's, but even there, unless you learn the code between the black, red or green sliver at the bottom of the label, you can't tell them apart.