Cigar Brand Differences
hoghunter
Posts: 539 ✭✭✭✭✭
New cigar smoker, trying as many as I can, but there are simply too many to try. I’ve found in my “research” that some brands make you feel queasy while others (like Arturo Fuente) have given me nothing but positive experiences. Clearly AF sticks are more expensive and I know many times you pay for a name in the marketplace- but is there truth to the “you get what you pay for” mantra in the cigar world? What do the pricier brands do that the lower cost brands don’t? Again- I’m new to the game but so far for me it’s been hard to beat AF. Believe me- I’d love to find something cheaper that provides the same consistent performance but so far I have not. But to be fair- I’ve only tried about 0.00000001% of all cigar makers.
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Arturo fuente is a Dominican cigar, so I would try other Dominican cigars. La galera, avo, some room 101s, and David offs that go by another name (The Griffin, etc) are some options to try. There's also a crap load of legacy Cuban brands that are made in the Dominican republic, like cohiba, Romeo y Julietta, Monte, and some others. Those legacy brands don't get a lot of play on this forum full of boutique lovers, but they're all solid smokes.
Best thing about this industry is the diversity. Many people limit themselves to a single brand or a single line, but the fun for me is that I have 200 different lines in my humidor.
Generally you get what you pay for, and also generally at a certain point you don't start doubling your value as you double your price. while there are some $10 cigars that are twice as good as some $5 cigars, there are very few, if any, $20 cigars that are twice as good as $10 cigars. There are no $40 cigars that are better than any $20 cigar that I know of, excluding marketing gimmicks like Gurkha.
Oh, and the second best thing about this industry is that there are some cigars that are better than others. If you smoke that ultimate cigar every single day, it will quickly become something less than the ultimate cigar. Save those Arturo's for special occasions and smoke good stuff the rest of the time! You'll probably save money and enhance your enjoyment of it!
We were talking about the propensity of AF cigars molding on a recent vHerf. Something I've noticed, not sure the cause.
Often it's the factory that a cigar is made it that will determine it's quality in terms of construction, burn, etc. Many cigar brands have their cigars made at different factories so it's hard to say that a certain brand has better quality than others.
Price doesn't necessarily dictate quality, but some pricier cigars have rarer, higher quality tobacco in them. Some are just well marketed.
Pay attention to what you are smoking (country, factory, wrapper, filler, vitola, etc). You can run around and chase every cigar someone mentions they like and never realize what you like.
There are a lot of good house blends and cheaper cigars out there. Be careful of the Fumas which seem to be popular these days. A lot of them are sandwiched rolls of short and long filler.
My favorite cigar list here
Go to the home page and find the cigar of the month club..
Join.
5 cigars every month, never know what you'll get, under $40 / month. You'll end up with cigars you would have never bought, some of which you'll like, and some not, but you didn't have to buy 5, or 20 of them to find out.
Also, no one's opinion counts, except yours. Hang around and you'll notice that some folks seem to have the same tastes as you, others think your favorite cigars suck.
You won't know until you try.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
FIFY
FIFY
I can't wait till someone make a cigar called "Don't Suck"
AKA “The Frank Special”.
I saw some crappy "Any Cubans" at my shop. I suppose that if somebody comes in and asks if he has any Cubans, the guy can sell them this box. Connecticut Churchill pieces of crap. I think it's a United cigar product...