How do you rate your cigars?

[medzikone]

Here and there I can see your rates of cigars. I'm curious how do you rate your cigars?

I created google form which contains sections like construction, burning, ash, taste and enjoyment. This is very helpful to rate smoked cigars (afterall everything is summed and I can see avarage rate per box).

So how do you know if your cigar is 92 rather than 89?

[NSXCIGAR]

Taste is everything. Construction/burn issues only deduct points for me.

[SmokyFontaine]

I feel like I grade much more harsh than others. I'll see Ken and Pres review a cigar, and maybe Ken doesn't much care for it and he'll give it an 87-88. To me, a "bad cigar" is a 60. One that personally offends me, is as low as a 50. Anything below that, and I figure the people at least managed to roll it into the shape of a cigar, so I credit them for that craftsmanship. 

A 90 is the type of cigar I can't wait to smoke again, and I'm probably buying a backup box the first time i see them on sale. A 95 and above means I've loved everything about the cigar, and the construction was amazing. I'm a big stickler for smoking experience. If the burn sucks, it's too tight of a draw, it struggles to stay lit, I knock off points fast. I'm rating the whole experience when I think to rate them. I keep a spreadsheet with all the boxes, singles, codes, dates, and prices, then I rate those in like groups. So I might give a Siglo II that I bought as a 5 pack an 85, but one I bought as a 25ct box an 80 if those are smoking worse than the others. I don't really care for the granularity of rating individual sticks from the same box. I will update the average score if I start trending away from my initial ranking. 

[Wookie]

I'm all about flavor as well. The only construction issues for me are when it is plugged, in which case i can usually ream it to make it smokeable. i don't like pitching cigars. 90 for me is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. High 80s means it is close, may never get there.. Each point above 90 is a linear progression of the cigar's ethereality. 

[Sir Diggamus]

I tend to rate a cigar based on the overall experience I have with it, with some things about the experience more important than others. For me most important to least would be 

1. Flavors and flavor evolution 
2. Draw and smoke production
3. Combustion (burn evenness and staying lit) 
4. Overall construction 
5. Visual appeal 

For years I have often used the "smoke rings" scale (0-5 or 0-6) for rating than an 80-100 scale. Just preference for me. 

[The Real McCoy]

I have a little website that I’m terrible about updating. I only have a few cigar reviews on it. I’ve just been too busy to give any attention to it. Personally, I hate the 100 point scale. I mean, really, what is the difference between a 92 and a 93? And why do terrible cigars score in the 80’s? I use a more straightforward approach. I score them from 1-10. 
10 – Perfect, 9 – Near perfect, 8 – Excellent, 7 – Very good, 6 – Above average, 5 – Average, 4 – Below average, 3 – Not very good, 2 – Terrible, 1 – Revolting. 

[StogieSteve23]

Flavor, burn, construction, smell (of the smoke), wrapper.  Everything is a bit subjective however based on temperature conditions and activity you're doing (or not) while smoking.  If I do an actual review, i'll base those criteria on a 25 point scale each with 5 points allotted. Flavor is the most important thing though because a well constructed cigar that tastes bad is just not enjoyable. 

[Hammer Smokin']

I use a rather sophisticated method, taking into account numerous definable and indefinable factors, carefully calculated using a long developed algorithm.

the results are as follows:

Option 1) Good Cigar

Option 2) Not good Cigar

 

 

[medzikone]

1 hour ago, StogieSteve23 said:

Flavor is the most important thing though because a well constructed cigar that tastes bad is just not enjoyable. 

Totally agree. That's why 30 pts goes for a taste and 20 are reserved for if I enjoyed a cigar plus would I smoke it once again. 

I had plenty of NC with amazing construction, even burn but they were tasteless. One thing in NC what could deduct points from construction part is wind tunnel for a draw. Hate it so much 

[Rhinoww]

Flavor and to some degree intensity I think. I tend towards the Bolis and Partys generally but have some exceptions of course.  
 

in the end though, it’s binary for me. If I like a cigar, I tend to smoke more from that box (with variations for time required for the stick). Those I don’t like tend to sit and get some attention later. Mongrel used to not bother me much. Lately I’ve been more annoyed and have been gravitating towards older stock. 
 

I keep a spreadsheet w data on the boxes (source, date, cost per stick) but I also have a large section for notes about flavor. Looking through those notes they tend to be more about the level of like and the experience than a precise review. Gosh darn it, that’s the way I’m gonna live my life. Screw that 100 point scale. What’s really the difference between 92 and 93 anyway
 

 

[Chibearsv]

I give them letter grades based on the overall enjoyability of the cigar for me at the moment.  i don't grade on a curve either so it's not unusual for most cigars to be As and Bs for me.  i suppose I could use points but I agree with others here that I'm not sure what a 92 is versus a 91.    A-  just makes more sense to me, covers more territory. 

[Notsocleaver]

I start at 100 and dock points for every negative trait I note down as I go. Usually just drop a point at a time, but if the draw is bad I'll just drop the 10-20 points right there because if I kept knocking points for each unpleasant draw it would mean negative scores.

[NSXCIGAR]

5 hours ago, Sir Diggamus said:

Visual appeal

I've had the most beautiful sticks smoke like rolled dog turd. Giving it even 1 star would be injustice. 

I really don't care what the cigar looks like in terms of rating. It's nice, certainly, but I could never justify knocking an incredible-tasting cigar for looks. After all, it all burns away anyway.

I consider aesthetics to be simply part of a cigar's presentation. I put packaging and bands in the same category.

[Habana Mike]

Love it

Pretty damn good

Not a bad cigar

Smokeable but not earth shattering

Not great

Sucks

 

[wineguy]

25 minutes ago, Habana Mike said:

Love it

Pretty damn good

Not a bad cigar

Smokeable but not earth shattering

Not great

Sucks

 

I am pretty close to this... or on it... 

[Hotboxx]

Im too dumb/lazy to do any notes, spreadsheets, ouija boards,,,,, For Cigar Aficionado ratings on the cigars I have I add 4 points, for HALFWHEEL add 8-18 points. There you have it, they do all the work for me.  Note: I only smoke Cubans. If I did smoke non Cubans, since they are both pimpin' NC's my crap detector tells me to subtract my numbers to get the real scores for those. 

[rckymtn22]

I am like it and buy again or nope don’t like it and don’t buy again.

Luckily I haven’t come across that many I wouldn’t buy again.

[moy71]

Aside from taste/flavour, high on my list is the chewiness of the smoke.  i love cigars that billows thick oily smoke.  I also rate my cigars out of 5.  

[Booyaa]

Gid
Nae gid

Pretty much sums it ups. Occasionally get a "totally rare" or a "dancer". In the case of a really bad smoke it would be "pure pish".

[RDB]

12 hours ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

Option 1) Good Cigar

Option 2) Not good Cigar

Very similar to my approach. It’s a 1 or a zero: the binary scoring method. Does the cigar meet or exceed my expectations (1) or not (0)? Good or not good.

Let’s not take scoring too seriously. 100 point scale is nonsense. For most people it’s only really a six or seven point range, and the numbers replace perfectly useful words such as ‘good, very good, excellent, really outstanding’. But we humans like the sense of security numbers give us!

[medzikone]

100 points scale can help when you are going through a box and few cigars can be 70ish when other are high 80s.

On 1-10 scale 7 and 8 gives you 7.5 pts avg. In 1-100 scale: 71 and 89 gives you 80 pts avg.

But you are right, we shouldn't overthink it.

It's only for fun and gathering data. Typical for our world now 

[shadowACE]

I use a system that has served me well for years. Good or no-good...hasn't let me down yet.

Sent from my SM-N960W using Tapatalk

[Silverstix]

Mostly by ring gauge 

[Fuzz]

[The Real McCoy]

3 hours ago, Silverstix said:

Mostly by ring gauge 

???