Stogie Commentary: Knowledge is Power!

While the Internet certainly helps disseminate tips, reviews, and news about stogies to interested parties – and there are a number of great websites (including this one) that do so – cigars are still a convoluted topic for your average Joe. This is unacceptable.

I say this because I know (and I’m guessing you do too) many people who enjoy cigars but have very little knowledge about their makeup, construction, and qualities. They prefer certain brands or types or sizes to others, but can’t put into words why.

In a lot of ways, this naiveté is OK. Smoking is about personal enjoyment and, as long as you’re enjoying yourself, more power to you. But I have a feeling more people would take pleasure in cigars more often if they had the capacity to appreciate them better.

I believe cigar manufacturers and enthusiasts both have a vested interest in an educated stogie populace. On the supply side, the more people know about cigars, the more they are likely to appreciate and purchase them – generating bigger revenue for cigar companies and more jobs in the Third World countries that produce cigars.

For consumers, while this increased demand does result in higher prices, it also breeds better quality, as manufacturers seek to satisfy the public’s thirst for better tobacco, and more choice, as manufacturers implement creative product and marketing strategies to increase their share of the market.

True, the cigar boom of the 1990s resulted in higher prices and decreased quality (because new manufacturers were rushing bad products to market to meet high demand), but almost all of those operations were short-lived. As my colleague mentioned in last Wednesday’s post:

It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that consumers are going to be turned off by a combination of declining product quality coupled with increased prices. So by 1999, cigar consumption dropped almost by half. Thankfully, this meant that many of the fly-by-night operations responsible for the worst cigars of the cigar boom closed their doors.

Most importantly, increased knowledge of cigars allows individuals to find the best cigar for them at the best price. In fact, that’s the main reason we started StogieGuys.com in the first place.

So, since you’re into cigars (if you’ve read this far you pretty much have to be), get your hands on the best information available and absorb as much as possible. And encourage your friends to do the same. We’ll all be better off.

–Patrick A