Organized Group Reviews

SleevePlz

Hey everyone,

We've done some group reviews in the past (the old Smoke 'n Post threads) and thought we could try it again. Simple idea, we pick a cigar each week and anyone interested in participating smokes one during the week and posts their thoughts in that week's thread. I know most of us aren't up to posting full blown reviews like many of the more talented guys do around here, but we can post some simple thoughts and as a group end up with a pretty thorough review. Could even try to coordinate a vherf each week to smoke the particular stick. 

Interested? Thoughts on making it better? Use polls to pick each week's stick? Talk to me.

Gray4lines

Sounds good to me.  Maybe different kinds of sticks. Old favorites,  new boutiques, whatever...  The poll feature may be cool. 

peter4jc

It might be good idea to come up with a long-range schedule so that those who would want to partake have a chance to source a stick and let it rest for a few weeks.

jimmyv723

That would be pretty sweet and would definitely be down to participate if I had the Cigar being reviewed.

Patrickbrick

jimmyv723 said:

That would be pretty sweet and would definitely be down to participate if I had the Cigar being reviewed.

This.

Gray4lines

I like the idea of a schedule so we can find a cigar or make sure it has a ltitle rest.   Maybe only a month or two out?  Or bi-weekly reviews... planning out 2 months of weekly reviews and getting a consensus may be a little slow

avengethis

I would be up for this.  I like the idea of planning it out.  I would say if we went a month out at a time and each we we start a new stick you add a new one a month out so it gives everybody a few weeks to come up with the sticks.  When we first start the person organizing could just give us the first 4 weeks to start out and then that first we puts up a poll of may e a few sticks that could be voted on to add for the 5th week.  Then the next week we start a new poll for the 6th week and so on.  (we could draw a random person from the past weeks participants to create the poll of what they would want to have reviewed) 

Just some ideas but I like it.

Usaf06

Sounds like some good ideas avengethis

Bob_Luken

I'm interested. When can we start? 

SleevePlz

We can aim to start a new cigar review each week on Monday. Since it is shorter notice, we should pick something pretty common for this first week. How about the Tattoo from Tatuaje. 

How about some suggestions for the first poll?

avengethis

I would say our first couple should probably be easier to find or common sticks so with that.....
My Father LB, DPG Blue CC or JJ, Fuente hemingway, Montecristo Media Noche would be a couple off the top of my head.

peter4jc

No matter how common we feel some cigars are, there will always be someone who wants to join in on the group review that won't have some or all of those cigars.

I say just take the list that you two just stated, and run with it.  That'll give us 5-6 weeks.

Then, we'll come up with the next 6 weeks, which will give people a chance to acquire whichever cigars they want to review down the road.

Another thought would be to keep an original thread with the list, which would get edited (if the one-hour restriction gets lifted) with following weeks added on, and then start a new thread each week with that week's cigar; start it on Monday, with members adding their own reflections - as well as somebody who picked up that stick at a future date - and then a new thread the next Monday...  that will keep the weekly group reviews more searchable.

SleevePlz

@peter4jc, that sounds perfect. We'll use this thread for organizing and create individual threads each week for the reviews. The starting lineup shall be:

6/15 -- Tatuaje Tattoo
6/22 -- AF Hemingway
6/29 -- DPG Serie JJ
7/6 -- Monte Media Noche

This will get us started with a nice variety. In the near future, I (or someone else if he/she wants to do it) will create a poll with a bunch of possible review sticks. Maybe do the top 2-4 vote getters as the next selections (depending on how many options given/number of votes). Sound good?

avengethis

Works for me teach. 

ExpendableYouth

Awesome I have all of those.

avengethis

I will have to look to see if I have the Tattoo in the cooler.  I know I have a few but I also know I have smoked a few.  Either way I'll figure it out.

Bob_Luken

At this time I don't know for sure if I have any of those but I'm NOT complaining.

It gives me an excuse to visit my local B&M for some singles.


 
 

Bob_Luken

SleevePlz said:

@peter4jc, that sounds perfect. We'll use this thread for organizing and create individual threads each week for the reviews. The starting lineup shall be:

6/15 -- Tatuaje Tattoo
6/22 -- AF Hemingway
6/29 -- DPG Serie JJ
7/6 -- Monte Media Noche

This will get us started with a nice variety. In the near future, I (or someone else if he/she wants to do it) will create a poll with a bunch of possible review sticks. Maybe do the top 2-4 vote getters as the next selections (depending on how many options given/number of votes). Sound good?

Yes that does sound good.

Glad to see this kick off.

Great ideas from Peter and I like the poll question idea too Tony. 

Bob_Luken

I know you can't please everyone and not everyone will be able to join in every time but,...........I would like to suggest at this point to somehow give priority voting on next month's  lineup to any guys that live in the boonies. Since they can't easily visit a B&M, then they would have to place an order and then they may not have time to give the cigars a proper rest period. There may be a few guys out there who would like to join in but may be holding back because of this. 

EDIT: OK I went back and re-read the whole thread and I see that some similar concerns were brought up earlier. But still I think it would be nice of us to at least try to think of a way to offset the disadvantages of our brothers in the boonies. Maybe we could invite a known "boonie dweller" to join in with us and assign picking duty to them for one week in the future rotation and they could pick something they already have on hand. Just my rambling thoughts. I used to be a "boonie dweller". 

avengethis

Yeah thats why I liked the idea of voting each week and that stick will be the one that is 4-5 weeks out.  Gives people time to hunt it down if need be and get it to acclimate if needed as well.

Usaf06

should the voting start now for the 5th stick then? 

SleevePlz

Usaf06 said:

should the voting start now for the 5th stick then? 

To avoid having constant polls, I think we should do bigger polls. Maybe list around 10 sticks and take the top 2-4 vote getters for the next few reviews. I'd hate to see the review sub-forum get cluttered with stuff that isn't actual reviews. Also, if anyone wants to create the poll, please do. I'd like to see this be a forum thing, not a SleevePlz thing. That said, I'll happily put together a poll if no one else is up for it.

onestrangeone

I definitely want to participate in this as well. I have the first 3 on the list, are we going to try to list dates as well? the AF and the JJ I have are probably 2yrs. old.   

Edna20

Awesome idea, I'll participate when I can. I know I have all but the DPG JJ, well, I think I just got one for the lottery, I just need to confirm.

matkn293

Sounds like a great idea!!!  My review status to this point is good/not good.  Fasntastic/sucks a$$.  heavenly /belongs with the dog turds in the yard....

onestrangeone

One of the things I'm hoping to get out of this experience is to be able to Identify and describe what some of the different flavors/taste are. I can tell when the flavors change and I can pick up a lot of the subtleties, what I can't do is describe them very well. I'm not a 'supertaster' or a gourmet Chef but I would like to improve my palette and vocabulary a little bit.     

peter4jc

onestrangeone said:

One of the things I'm hoping to get out of this experience is to be able to Identify and describe what some of the different flavors/taste are. I can tell when the flavors change and I can pick up a lot of the subtleties, what I can't do is describe them very well. I'm not a 'supertaster' or a gourmet Chef but I would like to improve my palette and vocabulary a little bit.     

That's a very good point.  When I was learning to "cup" coffee and attach words to what my palate was experiencing, my roasting buddy and I would take our roasts and read the cupping notes of the vendor who sold us the green coffee.  His palate is/was very refined, and it helped us know how to describe what we were experiencing.

What'll happen here is there'll be a slew of reviewers and a slew of flavors described.  Eventually, us novices will learn who else has a similar palate and a similar way of describing the cigars' flavors, and we'll then be able to use that info to not only refine our own vocabulary/palate, but also purchase others sticks somebody else likes.

avengethis

Anybody have a tattoo they want to trade for?  I have extras of the media noches that I could swap with you if needed.  I guess I smoked all of the tattoos I had.  My B&M doesnt carry this Tat blend either.

Bob_Luken

I just thought of something. We should be consistent with the Individual review thread titles so they are easy to find in the future. Especially now that we can't edit nuthin. How about this? "Week two group review 6/22/15 -- AF Hemingway"

Gray4lines

Using tags will help too. OP can tag threads with cigar name and "group review" or something

brianetz1

Why wouldn't you just create one thread where everyone puts their review?  that would make 100% more sense to me and would make it pretty easy to get to and cut down on the amount of threads to search through.