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Just expanding on anothe rhtread where rating systems was mentioned. Here's an explantion of the one I use, interested in hearing any comments & feel free to add your own systems.
1/ Appearance: wrapper intact, looks attractive, foot, cap & include bands if you find them part of the deal.
2/ Draw/Smoke/Ash: Draw is a very important aspect of your smoke & enjoyability of that particular stick. Some vitolas are more prone to plugs, Lonsdales being one, as well as slimmer sticks but that is often due to over humidity. Sometimes you get problems with larger gauge sticks that is probably just down to the roller, sometimes a large percentage of a box may be duff & very annoying to say the least. This should be rare as we go forward as more draw testing takes place in the factories. Smoke, somtimes it's thin & wispy & unstatisfying. In theo ther extreme it can be chugging out like a smoke gun. Ash, lots of debate whether the colour is of any significance or not but having it drop off too frequently is annoying & may be problems keeping it lit.
3/ Flavour: This for me is the true centre of a cigars worth, great flavour with poorer other qualities will be forgiven & other sticks brought to check whether the poorer qualities were a one off problem or a brand/vitola problem. This also relates to the cigars age & how it it maturing so the first one out of the box & the last (perhaps smoked sereval yrs apart - yes that's possible when you have a decent collection) can be totally different; just like could happen with a case of wine.
4/ Value: This is contraversal too. Should the value be considered or not? As man with modest means (just a humble oil worker you know), I think it is & so include it but then when looking at my list you have to take that into account when eg Cohibas come down further than they would if price wasn't taken into consideration.
5/ Overall satisfaction: Again an important consideration but perhaps the most variable & often reflects the mood & occasion it was smoked in. Something that might not be reflected the next time you smoke the next stick from the same batch.
Mark each out of ten & then dble to give marks out of 100.
I can see it might sound OTT but give it a try on the next 20 cigars you smoke & see if you can see any relevence in it for you. I have over 200 recorded different vitolas & without a system any comparsion would be just down to memory. Always interested in ohters systems, always prepared to adjust my own.
1/ Appearance: wrapper intact, looks attractive, foot, cap & include bands if you find them part of the deal.
2/ Draw/Smoke/Ash: Draw is a very important aspect of your smoke & enjoyability of that particular stick. Some vitolas are more prone to plugs, Lonsdales being one, as well as slimmer sticks but that is often due to over humidity. Sometimes you get problems with larger gauge sticks that is probably just down to the roller, sometimes a large percentage of a box may be duff & very annoying to say the least. This should be rare as we go forward as more draw testing takes place in the factories. Smoke, somtimes it's thin & wispy & unstatisfying. In theo ther extreme it can be chugging out like a smoke gun. Ash, lots of debate whether the colour is of any significance or not but having it drop off too frequently is annoying & may be problems keeping it lit.
3/ Flavour: This for me is the true centre of a cigars worth, great flavour with poorer other qualities will be forgiven & other sticks brought to check whether the poorer qualities were a one off problem or a brand/vitola problem. This also relates to the cigars age & how it it maturing so the first one out of the box & the last (perhaps smoked sereval yrs apart - yes that's possible when you have a decent collection) can be totally different; just like could happen with a case of wine.
4/ Value: This is contraversal too. Should the value be considered or not? As man with modest means (just a humble oil worker you know), I think it is & so include it but then when looking at my list you have to take that into account when eg Cohibas come down further than they would if price wasn't taken into consideration.
5/ Overall satisfaction: Again an important consideration but perhaps the most variable & often reflects the mood & occasion it was smoked in. Something that might not be reflected the next time you smoke the next stick from the same batch.
Mark each out of ten & then dble to give marks out of 100.
I can see it might sound OTT but give it a try on the next 20 cigars you smoke & see if you can see any relevence in it for you. I have over 200 recorded different vitolas & without a system any comparsion would be just down to memory. Always interested in ohters systems, always prepared to adjust my own.
I combine Aroma with Flav as IMO they do naturally. I can't recall any stick with a bad aroma with a good flav or visa versa.
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