Stogie Commentary: What’s With All the High Ratings?

It’s been happening a lot recently. So much so that I thought it appropriate to write this and get it all out in the open. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m speaking about the fact that our cigar ratings—particularly those published over the last month—have been climbing like grade inflation at an Ivy League school.

Yesterday’s review of an Opus X Perfecxion No.2 was no exception. Including the Tesa Vintage Especial Rothchild and the Montecristo Sublime Edición Limitada 2008, it was the third stick to receive our highest rating in the last five weeks. This may not sound like cause for concern, but consider that only 21 cigars have earned the “five stogies out of five” distinction since we started publishing reviews.

Those three exceptional cigars aside, we’ve also recently given high marks to the Casa Magna Colorado Torito, Nub Habano 464 Torpedo, Tatuaje L’esprit de La Verite, and both Nestor Miranda 20 Aniversario blends. All of these scored better than our average rating (about 3.5/5 when you calculate the mean of our library of almost 300 reviews). So what’s the deal?

In anticipation of any concerns, no, we haven’t changed our methods. We’re still relying on our tried and true—albeit unique—ratings system, and we’re still smoking multiple samples of each cigar before we publish a full review (unless we specify otherwise).

I’d also like to reiterate that ads or samples from manufacturers in no way influence our decisions. We’ve worked hard to earn your trust over the years; believe me when I say that we have much more to lose by being dishonest than we have to gain.

The recent upward trend of ratings can best be explained in this way: We’ve simply been choosing a lot of fantastic cigars to smoke, read, and write about. Heck, even though we can’t let preconceived notions impact our ratings, it’s much more fun to fire up that highly anticipated new release than it is to sift through value smokes to try and find a diamond in the rough.

We understand we must do both, however, if we are to provide our readers with the most comprehensive coverage of the world of cigars. Rest assured that we haven’t abandoned our goal of identifying undervalued and under-priced gems. Be it the timing of new releases or be it coincidence, we’ve just been picking a lot of winners lately. Hopefully you’ve been doing the same.

One final note: I realize some of you don’t buy into numerical ratings altogether. I can dig that. That’s why my colleagues and I spend so much time and text discussing our impressions of a cigar and so little time and text describing how we derived its score. Consider the rating a mere guide—more of a means to evaluate cigars relative to one another than an ultimate judgment.

After all, remember that the best cigar in the world is the cigar you like the best.

-Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys