Consistency...

[Kenyth]

Now that I've been smoking a little while and had the opportunity to buy certain smokes more than once, I've noticed a lack in consistency. I had a Don Kiki brown label that was really great! Exciting since at the same time, they were at a good price! I bought a five pack from another source, and they were nowhere near as good. More harsh, less smooth and sweet. Even the roll on the second batch was visibly worse. I recommended them to someone based on the first batch and now I fear I gave a bad recommendation. I also feel foolish as I gave one to a friend with my recommendation and the smokes are only mediocre.

Is this a more common, or less common problem with cigars? If I find a cigar I like, should I buy more only from the same source to assure consistent quality?

[jdavis4082]

i claim no knowlege of this field but i got an albert fuerte reserve with a hole under the band. that'll piss you off

[MMAB]

sort of like wine.

One year's crop will be different from the next. Also, inexpensive cigars will have serious inconsistencies as opposed to higher end cigars which will have less. You get what you pay for to a degree.

I have experienced the same thing with many brands. The best cigar I have smoked to date was a Perdomo Estate Seleccion Prestigio, 4th of July, 2000. It was phenominal, I was thrilled to have found such a great cigar. The next day I went to the local shop to buy a few to share with my buddy, knowing that he would go nuts over this cigar. I was somewhat disappointed when it wasn't quite what the one I had smoked the night before was. Oh they were good, damn good, but not what I had previously.

Now of course you can get a box of a particular cigar and they're all great with little fluctuation. But the next box you buy may not be exactly the same. Blenders constantly struggle trying to keep similar flavors from year to year's batches. It's difficult, but they do it as best they can.

A cheaper cigar is just that. A cheaper cigar. Very little care is put into blending and rolling. More expensive cigars are made with more care and attention.

Lew Rothman of JR Cigar once said something like "The best cigar you'll ever smoke is sitting in a box right now right next to one of the worst you'll ever smoke". He's right.

Oops! I forgot! Cigar smoking also depends greatly on your physical and mental state. What you've eaten and drank during the day. How well hydrated you are. Are you sick? Are you depressed? Etcetera. There are many variables both on the cigar's end and your end. The weather also affects how your cigar will taste. Raining? Very humid? Cold? All can cause changes in the cigars flavor.

[Kenyth]

I agree fully on the state of mind and environment. My best smokes always occur in a similar situation. After a nice meal, with a drink or two in me, but not too much. Usually at dusk in temperate weather. Also, the air should be still so you can wreathe your head with the smoke and sample the aroma by gently sniffing.

The drink is important too. I've tried plenty. Spirits, port, beers, and mixed drinks. Strangely enough, my current favorite drink with a cigar in warm weather outdoors is an ice cold Coke or Vernors ginger ale with no ice. A good malty ale or beer works too though. For the chill of spring and fall, a Manhattan, port, or Bourbon whiskey seem to do.

[cigar no baka]

The more you pay for cigars, the better quality you get, in my experience. The vast majority of cigars from 3-7 dollars have varying degress of consistency problems. Once you start paying $8 and over, consistency is much better.

[Johnny]

Because we are buying handmade cigars and it is a live product, one that ages, there will always be differences in cigars. I have some quite expensive Cubans that are lovely but the occasional one is plugged or a bad flavour comes into play. No-one can say until the cigar is smoked whether it will be great, plugged etc etc, all they can do is TRY to get consistency. Part of the fun with real ale is that a beer can be fantastic from one barrel and horrible from the next, if you wanted it made exactly the same each time there would never be any lows or highs, no richness of fortitude when you have that really excellent cigar which isn't always the same in the next exact same cigar. In Japan they try and make their whiskies exactly the same but I like my Scotch which can ever so often have a devine minute difference which may be recognised in a single cask whisky. Each leaf of the tobacco plant is different, how can anyone say without smoking it what it will be like. What we can say is i like that cigar most of the time and when at it's best it really is a world beater, but a plugged cigar at $1 or $50 smokes the same, badly