Ratings Rant

[RDBM]

Ratings systems are all well and good if you don't take them as gospel and are willing to make your own mind up on whether or not you like something. I'm pretty sure we've all been seriously disappointed in something that was supposed to be brilliant and equally delighted in something that wasn't supposed to be that good, however relying only on someone else's ideas of what is good and what isn't would have resulted in missing out on that surprisingly good smoke.
I agree ratings systems have their place, but IMO not to be totally relied on.

[RobBooth]

One of my favourite podcasts has a rating system which I really like : lawn mulch, try one, fiver, box split, box worthy, fight chuck Norris and Oasis. I find the ratings a lot more informative and fortunately my taste profile isn't too different from the reviewers.

Another site I like is Blindmanspuff because they do unbanded reviews with a few reviewers which rotate. The reveal comes at the end so there's less potential for preconceptions coming into play.

[Emaresee]

you like what you like. Challenge yourself from time to time, in order to be suprised! If all you like are Behikes, then bad luck wallet! But keep sampling- for example on whisky, i could never stomach laphroaig.... Tasted like a wound dressing to me... But in recent times have found it quite appealling! I like the lawn mulch to oasis score above... Fairly no BS approach!

[Niela]

Key to any rating system is always the person who reviews it. They need experience and knowledge to distinguish between fine subtleties. More important though, the review should have nothing to do with the test of the reviewer.

A good example was a review of a Juan Lopez by Dalay Cigars. He was able to praise the strengths of this cigar even though it was not his kind of flavour profile. In another review he compared a behike with puffing hot air. :-)

[Matt Wall]

I can see what you're saying about the fact that a lot of brands now produce very good cigars but I still believe that the top end of the spectrum is too closely packed. Every rating I have seen from CA lies within the 85-95 range, I have yet to see one outside of that, so that tells me one thing really; that every cigar made is really good. That's brilliant news but it sort of defeats the object of CA, if everything literally the same in rating then what's the point in having a rating system? There are "classics" out there and there are "good" cigars out there but the rating system atm doesn't reflect that.

However I do agree with a lot of people that experience is key. The rating system is more of something to keep us enthusiasts interested in it all or to give us all some light reading when we're bored or want to try a new brand.
Cheers,
Matt


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