There are more rotten....

[Midas]

Fortunately my palate isn’t particularly fussy, I enjoy the hour or so of relaxing more than anything else.

I’ve had some terrible NC’s but also some very good ones. Now I tend to keep a note of what people on here are recommending and giving them a try, CA and sponsored YouTube videos are never going to be your best source of information.

I agree with Simon, don’t invest in boxes if you’re not smoking a lot or you’ve found what you really enjoy.


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[Niela]

I can agree with much you have said Niela, 20yrs ago a friend told me (he was a newbie, who used to smoke my Cuban's happily enough & then tried a Griffin's Maduro Toro, think I bought him a pack of 3 for his birthday), his tobacconist told him if he regular CC smokers rarely crossed over to to NC's but those who started on NC's rarely got what Cuban's were about especially the tight draw ect.

I for one find many NC's to have too easy draw for me. Now as many of you will now, this is now a regular problem with CC's too; perhaps due to lack of experienced rollers who can roll firm but avoid plugged stix, so they less experienced are encourage to roll looser to avoid plugs & maybe make the tobacco go further? Personally after 25yrs of smoking CC's I like a firm draw but of course one man's firm is another's too tight.

Flav wise, obviously I love the Cuban flav profile & the way the flav should develop during the smoke, can't say I have noted that in NC's but happy to defer to those who are more familiar with them.

Time is limited, as is money. The time to experiment is really when your starting out/younger. I have a large inventory, with a rotation that takes a couple of yrs to get through so fitting in new stix just means others are getting older & a little softer.

If I was starting out today, the one thing I wouldn't do is buy boxes but stick to buying 3 stix of something new (you need to try a few to know if it's really for you & not a single bad stick throw you off) half a dozen singles of a brand/ vitola that you already know are fav's. Buying boxes ties up an awful lot of cash & even if they turn out to save you money in the long run or a good investment if you sell them on, unless you smoke a high volume it's probably not the best way of tying up cash. Besides, if you have become a collector, your never really want to let them go!

As for marketing, Habanos came up with EL's & RE's, pure marketing ploy's. A few were gems for sure but mostly none better than aging your own stix, for less IMHO. Also note more fancy boxes & collectors Humi's/jars ect, paying x2-3 more than buying the cigars separately. There are still 'cheaper' CC's worth smoking, it's just finding the ones you want at this present time.

And remember, however desperate things get, friends don't let friends smoke Guantanamera!

Makes sense if you have a large stack that needs to be gotten through to not add too much new stuff to the rotation.

The main reason I stopped buying CCs was the whole issue with having to buy boxes and age them for years, in hope to have caught a good one.

But that was just the initial impulse. The main reason I now smoke NCs 90% of the time is the range of flavours I can't get from Cuba. I just love the variety.

But when I do smoke the odd Cuban, I enjoy it even more. So part of me is a bit sad that Cuba has closed its doors to me due to the price hike. But then again, there's so many others to fill the gap.

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[Hookmaker]

Cigars are like wine, the vast sea of wine 99,999% of all is IMO bullshit wine at best used to cook stock sauce. I on the other hand only enjoy top wines from XX terroir.
Having said that, the masses still drink from the vast sea and enjoy most of it.
Same with cigars, factoring in all things price, taste etc., there’s a sea of smokes out there and just as many palates and purses - people can smoke what they want IMO.


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[Very Old Man]

Cigars are like wine, the vast sea of wine 99,999% of all is IMO bullshit wine at best used to cook stock sauce. I on the other hand only enjoy top wines from XX terroir.
Having said that, the masses still drink from the vast sea and enjoy most of it.
Same with cigars, factoring in all things price, taste etc., there’s a sea of smokes out there and just as many palates and purses - people can smoke what they want IMO.


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I fully understand what your saying.

Nothing is sacred anymore.
Like it or not the global population explosion, and the excess money people in the lower and middle classes have in their purses has lead us down this route.
They want some of this high living, above my station in life stuff that the rich have.I

But the manufacturers do too.

Look at Cadburys chocolate. Made for a million years with the same solid recipe.
A wonderful product ruined by cheap crap introduction replacements of ingredients at rock bottom prices..
Using the brand name to massively increase global sales.
It stinks.

And they are all at it not just cadburys.

And butter.
Yes butter.
The beautiful creamy Yellow stuff spread on toast.

Wrong.
It's bloody white today.
As a child the oldest trick played in school playground during summer was to pick a buttercup And hold it underneath your friends chin And ask.
" Do you like butter? "
And the yellow reflection from the buttercup said you did.

Back then you went to a corner shop for a quarter pound of butter that sat on the end of the counter in a huge block.
A wonderful yellow colour that the shop owner cut a chunk from And told you it was fresh from the farm.
It tasted like...hmmmm Butter!
And today?

Well today every little bit of cream is extracted from the milk then chemically 're introduced in a slightly different format to give you, skimmed, semi or full milk.
But it's changed the make up remarkably.
The cream you but now has the same problem and if you try making butter at home with it you get the same insipid rubbish they sell to us all.



And what happens?
In the end a generation passed and they know no different.
Everyone is eating a sub standard variance of the real thing.

And those changes are in everything we eat.......And dont
get me going on tomatoes....drink, and ......smoke.

Look at China.
Wonderful cheap machinery.....?
Or do you but British made, or US made.....
With everything except the label made in China.?
No one knows?


So why shouldn't you but a replica Rolex at a fraction of the price when Rolex refuse to increase production and the waiting list is forever?
You can't tell the difference today.
They want one now.
This second.
That is the nature of what has been created.
And cigars, wine.....whatever are no different.
It's just that the underlying changes to cigar production have not been fully revealed yet.

[PeeJay]

Feel free to change your forum name to 'grumpy old man' any time

[simwells]

It sounds like by now you know what cigars you like so just smoke those ones no one’s making you smoke others so why get stressed about a section of cigars you have decided you don’t like? Life’s way too short to stress about what you can’t control, grab a cigar relax that’s what they’re there for and if cigars themselves are causing you stress then maybe cigars are the wrong choice as they should be a haven from that.

[Niela]

Feel free to change your forum name to 'grumpy old man' any time

😂

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[groundhog]

NC's excel at two things - presentation and construction. They don't have the Kudos of Cuba to carry them, so they have developed other strengths. General Cuban construction is always "good enough" rather than good.
However - NC's are a far, far broader spectrum than CC's. There is an awful lot of shit out there - and that's the problem. You need to smoke far fewer Cubans to find ones you like than you do to find NCs you like.
That's why places like this are invaluable to help peeps avoid the trash.