Cigar Aficionado June 2009
Just got my new issue of Cigar Aficionado today and on the cover is Jay-Z. As a younger guy I’m somewhat aware of who this guy is. Rapper, music mogul, with Beyonce, and an all-around cool dude. Basically, I just know what his image is – so the part about him probably won’t be all that interesting of a read. Oh well.
The top cigar of this issue is the Padron 1964 Anniversary Series “A” with a score of 95 points. That’s an impressive score indeed and one that I would most likely agree with. My New Year’s Day cigar was a Padron 1964 Anniversary Monarca and I gave it 95 points. Since then I have had a couple of cigars I would rank higher and I will be putting those reviews up in the future.
Then I come to the Editors’ Note. It’s always one of the more enjoyable parts of the magazine for me because it’s not just an advertisement for the rest of the magazine like so many other Editors’ Notes tend to be. It starts out with a nod to the current economic problems and how the fear of today is analogous to the fear from the Depression even if the current circumstances do not arguably warrant as much trepidation. Then they talk about S-CHIP and how the increase in taxes doesn’t seem like it’s going to put a damper on premium cigar sales anytime soon (that’s just what the tax-happy Senators and Congressmen wanted to hear).
And then, oddly, they say that more taxes usually leads to a drop-off in sales for the taxed items. This I completely agree with and, ironically, may explain why premium cigar sales didn’t slack off during the first quarter. When the government tells the people that they are going to raise taxes on a product on a certain date the people will act rationally and start stockpiling those products up to the date when the tax increases. Here’s an example of that and here’s another example.
Go to page four of this report and see the affect that stockpiling could be having on premium cigars. This report is mainly about a tax on cigarettes but I think that we’ll see a lot of the same things happening with cigars during the next couple of months. Maybe the taxes on cigars will have less of an impact due to its premium status but once you couple the new taxes with a soft economy I don’t know how we will see cigar sales increase for the next few months.
Alright, that’s it. I’m going to go and read the magazine and find a better cigar to enjoy (Hoyo de Monterreys are not my favorites by any stretch of the imagination). Have a great day!!!
Am I Too Easy of a Reviewer?
As I look through some of my old ratings I realize that I have a lot of scores that are plus or minus three points of 90. Is that because I smoke a lot of quality cigars or is it because I am just too easy on the cigars?
I currently have 16 reviews that I gave 87-89 points to, seven received 90 points and 13 got 91-93 points. Overall, I have rated 54 cigars. That means about 64.8% of my reviews fall within the seven point range of 87-93 points, 27.8% fall in the 87-89 point range, 13% at 90 points and 24% in the 91-93 point range. Is that normal?
Instead of launching into a massive research project I decided to look at the ratings at A Cigar Smokers Journal because I really respect his ratings. Overall, he has rated 128 cigars. Of those ratings, he gave 15 90 points, 47 between 87 and 89 points and 29 between 91 and 93 points. That means that 71% of his reviews fall in the 87-93 point range, 36.7% fall in the 87-89 point range, 11.7% were given 90 points and 22.6% got 91-93 points.
Surprisingly, to me at least, our proportion of 90-93 point cigars are very close. He has a much larger proportion of his ratings in the 87-89 range though and even though the 90-93 point category is pretty close, I do tend to be more willing to give 90-93 points to a cigar.
Of course this isn’t scientific. The sample sizes are too small, we rated different cigars and I probably screwed up the math a little (adding and division are just so damned boring). But this is a basic way for me to judge how well I am doing at rating cigars and I would have to say that I am not doing too badly. At least that’s what I think.
CAO Gold Corona Cigar Review
My last review was of one of these a couple of weeks ago and I gave it 87 points. This one was a little better but there’s just something I’m not getting from this cigar. Even though it has all the right things going for it there is no way this will ever be a favorite cigar for me. Here’s my review:
This cigar looks pretty good save for one white vein that runs from the cap to the foot. Light sheen of oils – good. Very good construction overall.
Cigar Stats
Corona
Length: 5 1/2″
Ring Gauge: 42
Wrapper: Ecuador
Binder: Ecuador
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $4.50
Second Light!
The draw is substantially more open with this one compared to the one I gave 87 points to. It makes a big difference. Even though it is a mild cigar there are a good amount of flavors. But there’s just something wrong about them – they seem faded.
Oak and vanilla are the major flavors. The smoke is creamy and it is burning well. But, like with the other one, it’s not a great cigar. It’s still somewhat boring to me. I do think that other people would like this cigar.
I also get some floral flavors as the cigar starts winding down. There was not one glaring negative I could point to about this cigar. And yet, I am not impressed. Maybe it was due to the fact that it is a mild cigar (that definitely does play a big part). Whatever the case may be it is still a very good cigar… technically. It’s technically a great cigar but it’s not my cup of tea. It could very well be what others like and that is what bumped this cigar up two points.
89 points
