My Experience Rating

My newer posts now have an “Experience Rating” associated with them. Though numerical, it’s not a calculated rating based on several factors. Instead, it’s based on how I feel the experience went. Yeah, yeah a bit touchy-feely, but I didn’t want to get pedantic with the rating. But if you’re curious, here’s how I look at the experience rating:

Note that I won’t write about anything I don’t like or falls below my 80 rating. I don’t want to put any energy into negativity. So, as you’ll see, I only have three categories: 80s, 90s, and 100. Note: All the cigars I review – except for the cigars I score in the low 80s – are box or bundle worthy.

80s	The likelihood that I’ll post a review in the 80s is fairly slim. The reason for this is similar to how I’ve run GuitarGear.org for years. I usually just want to share my thoughts on sticks that I want to talk about, and that’s usually what I consider to be exceptional cigar. But I will occasionally provide my thoughts on cigars I try that are really hyped up. But more often than not, I just write a few paragraphs and don’t provide a rating.
90s	Cigars in this territory take me on a sentimental journey, the quality of which determines its relative score. In the lower half, there might be some minor burn issues that require a touch-up or two, but the flavor profile is magnificent. In the upper half, the experience is sublime, transporting me to different places. And as the score nears 100, these are cigars that take my mind on a ride!
100	Nothing is perfect, but there are a couple of cigars that I’ve had where I feel almost blessed while smoking them. They’re not necessarily super complex with tons of transitions, but their flavor notes take me on a wild mental ride such that they that stop me in my tracks and I can do nothing but sit and smoke them; they force me to focus only on them.

As I mentioned above, my Experience Rating reflects how I feel about a cigar when I smoke it. This is highly personal and purely subjective. I don’t use weighted scales or compute a score on a variety of parameters. Yes, it seems ambiguous, but it gives me an idea of my relative appreciation of a cigar compared to the hundreds and hundreds of cigars I’ve smoked over the decades.

My rating collectively considers not only the qualities of the smoke, but also the journey it might take me on. A 100-pointer not only tastes fantastic to me, but its flavors transport me to another place, and it forces me to sit back, relax, and enjoy its ride. And the ride of a 100-pointer can be pretty wild! It also has no burn or construction issues. I may have to make a correction or two (frankly, I haven’t had one cigar where I haven’t had to correct the burn line at least once – and that’s probably because I’m a little anal about keeping it straight), but the cigar’s performance is so incredible that a little correction doesn’t detract from the bounty of its offerings.

Also, I don’t consider the price of a stick in my rating. I rate purely based on the experience the cigar provides me. But while price doesn’t factor into my experience rating, it does factor into my purchasing decision. For instance, I love the Zino Platinum Crown Series Rocket Tubo. It’s $55/stick. I haven’t written a review about it, but if I were to give it an experience rating, I’d say it would fall in the high 90s, probably 97 to 98. That’s a great cigar. But there are other much less expensive cigars such as the La Aurora Preferidos 1903 Broadleaf Diamond (yeah, it’s a mouthful) that cost about $11/stick that I rated at 100. Which cigar do you think I’d lean towards first? That said, I smoke at least a couple of the Zino’s a year. But they’re cost prohibitive.

Another thing is that I normally won’t write a review about a stick until I’ve smoked it at least three times and the sticks have had at least a month or two – and maybe more – of rest. Of course, there are exceptions to this like when I got a couple of boxes of Regius Sun Grown that had five+ years of box aging. They were oozing with oils. After I let them acclimate for a couple of days, damn! But exceptions aside, because cigars are handmade products, smoking a few gives me an idea about the consistency of the blend from cigar to cigar.

Finally, most of the reviews you’ll see here are of common- or mid-range-priced boutique cigars. You may see the occasional expensive, luxury stick. But I don’t smoke enough of those to be meaningful, and I usually smoke them on special occasions, not ideal times to take tasting notes.