Cohiba Stevie Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Pretentious shite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradbrennan Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 Used to hate it. Then I started reading it critically, looking out for specific things. I began understanding the reviews, and now actually take away a lot from it. So for me, CA has become very informative. Can you elaborate, I'd like to hear your take on the reviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liuzzi Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 I enjoy getting the magazine and browsing it while smoking, I don't pay much attention to their ratings 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyfall Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Any Magazine that rates Alec Bradley Prensado and Flor de Las Antillas Toro as cigars of the year in 2011 and 2012 should probably be sold in the comic book section. Are you kidding me?? These cigars, and I use the term loosely, beat out all the Habanos for cigar of the year?? My ! ^ This 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradbrennan Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 Bingo. I really don't have a problem with CA reviews. Subjectivity is impossible to measure. Quite enjoy the CA mag on the rare occasions I get to read it. It actually has a remarkable place in Cigar history. Kudos. CA clearly drove me to FOH, through the many higher rated CC's, I had to try them. Next I found the reviews by Rob and Ken kept pulling me in deeper and built confidence to eventually purchase. I know that many here believe CA clearly favors NC's, but I didn't see that in the magazine. Every time they published their long list of quarterly reviews, CC's dominated the top end. All I saw was how crazy it was that we in the U.S. couldn't freely try the CC's. And then you have some people doing reviews in the U.S. that truly believe that CC's are no different, they're just another cigar. That to me is a far greater injustice, as I accepted it to be true for quite some time. But I did have some confidence in CA always rating the CC's at the top in the quarterly magazine and also their reviews of the CC's. You could tell in their emotion when smoking the CC's that they loved them. Just as when Rob and Ken, like their last review, when they really enjoyed one, just made you want one, no matter what! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dowjr1 Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I get the magazine and enjoy it. I read what I like and skip the rest. My favorite part is the reviews. I like to see and read their comments on each cigar. But I look at those comments and recognize them for what they are...just data points/someone's opinion. Doesn't mean I have to agree or not with their conclusions. Basically I look at it the same way I do every other magazine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susanne Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I'll never forget when the either 2010 or 2011 Top 25 was released and I was in a B&M smoking my CC's and the owner pulled out a cigar called "Brickhouse" and gave one to me to try, heralding its laurels based on its Top 25 rating and rank, and that day will forever be etched in my memory as the day I smoked the worst tasting cigar of my life. Brickhouse, more like Outhouse! Yuck! Sounds like my experience - I kept thinking of the term "Brick S***house". I really tried to give it a chance, but it left a lasting acrid taste worthy of the appaling appelation for a couple days afterward. I remember in the early years I used to read it somewhat regularly, until I realized that the info within was kinda faulty. That hasn't happened in such a long time I forgot it about it until I saw ones at a B&N a few months back. Picked it up, flipped through the pages, and put it back down... It looked like a magazine which tries to make cigars into some kind of yuppie wannabe lifestyle rather than, well, just a cigar. Someone up above said it best... there are people who fantasize about the good life, the "Elegant lifestyle", and read the magazine, and others who live their version of the good life and don't have time to read a wannabe mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugomarink Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I used to work as an editor at SMOKE Magazine back in the late '90s. We were in heavy competition with CA at that time but they were clearly the top dog and had just about complete control over the advertising dollars coming in from the major manufacturers. All in all though I do think CA is a pretty good mag. Yeah, you can take the reviews with a grain of salt, but their content is pretty good for what they're trying to accomplish and it's certainly a stylish and pretty magazine to look at. I don't read it much these days but always find some things of interest when I pick up an issue. Overall I think they do a good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sw15825 Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 CA serves a purpose for the general cigar lover and high end lifestyle I like the Connoisseur corner w reviews about vintage cigars I did bring w me the Cuba issue down to Havana, very useful As far as the Top 25, it holds no merit overall but their picks of Cubans in 2013 was spot on IMHO but there should of been more on that list but it doesnt make CA any money so we will never see 5-15 Cubans ever on that list The Cuban forums are a joke anymore w regards to the trolls that sign up and start trouble, there are some decent members there but for the most part a bunch of jackasses impersonating others talking about other cigar boards Bart You hit the nail on the head! I love the articles on Cuban news/cigars, the connoisseur corner and the ratings on cubans in general seem accurate for the most part with some exceptions, but it is subjective afterall. In almost every issue the cuban cigars are the top scorers, unless of course when they dont rate any cubans in the category! Not sure how the Top 25 makes any sense overall. They throw in a few Cubans to make it appear legit to less informed smokers but unfortunately non cuban cigars ads are exclusively their bread and butter so they have to give them props. I like and subscribe for the Things that are interesting to me though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbuAmelia Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I like all the pictures. ONLY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helix Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Corporate dribble........................... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Japan Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 one of the first magazines I subscribed then lately I did not renew it . Kudos for all the great info got on it but nowadays I think it is more a lifestyle magazine that about our cuban cigars. Top 25 is always been just a premium to who gives more money in advertising . Of course each review in each magazine ...each smoker...is subjective. just my 0,2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigcars Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 further observation it was apparently a blind test of 77 cigars, in the top 8, 6 were Cuban. my observation is simply that it doesn't appear to be favoring non Cubans Are you sure they're blind tested here at Cigar Aficionado? I know Smoke Magazine makes it a point to painstakingly blind taste their cigars, which was one of the characteristics they were applauded for upon their debut. CA's ratings, in a lot of people's opinions were based on whether or not that particular cigar company paid for advertising in their magazine. I also really love Cigar Journal (formerly European Cigar-Cult Journal) magazine. And now they've got Cigars & Spirits Magazine. VERY fun and interesting cigar/tobacco mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PigFish Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I see CA as a bit of a dichotomy. I think that there is room for a cigar magazine, the culture is interesting or I would not blog on a forum like this one. The magazine and the concept 'should' help neophytes interested in cigars and cigar culture along in their travels. Cigars will not survive without an influx of new smokers. Since advertising of tobacco is highly regulated, a periodical dedicated to the 'advertising' of cigars should be a good thing. I don't read it. I have been a member of the board there for a very long time but don't post there even though some of my oldest cigar friends were met on that site. You can conclude what you want from that! The concept of cigars being the folly of rich people, presumably therefore implying good taste is exactly that… folly! Those with wealth have no better tastes than any other, but of course they can afford to explore more and experience more and buy the best, if there is a correlation to the best being the most expensive. This entire concept of smoking as an elitist activity will be its downfall (IMHO). If cigar smoking had never come to be a practice amongst common folk, it would never have evolved into the refined model that we see today. It would still be nothing more than a tribal custom!!! Common interest makes for the best cigars (again, MHO). There is no Salzburgring to test the best cigars against the worst. There is no fastest speed, nor clock to best the competition by… There are only people tossing their own numbers in a hat. Those people represent the market. And if the market believes that the best cigars cost the most, that is what they will get! I reject that premise via empirical testing and regard the 'push' of the market in that direction as a mistake. It is a mistake for the development of a superior cigar, and a mistake for the evolution of the cigar and for the evolution of the market for cigars. Denying the humble roots of tobacco smoking, its magic, simplicities and complexities, attempting to mask its face in a facade of diamonds when it prefers rhinestones, is a mistake! CA does not promote cigars really. It promotes what I believe will be the ultimate decline of the great cigar. I don't see great cigars, nor great numbers of cigars being generated by this process of pushing tobacco as high society commodity. If you look at the size if the magazine today verses what it was over 10 years ago, you will see what I mean. Like the ratings of cigars, no matter who rates them, it is just opinion. This is just my opinion… Tobacco advertised in newspapers worked to sell tobacco. There is no evidence that I can see that tobacco sales (general global sales) are growing as a result of being published in glossy magazines where neither the models nor interviewees have a clue as to what a good cigar tastes like! I think true aficionados smoke cigars because they love them. I don't think that posing with one out of the 'top 25' comes into that equation at all. I am an aficionado and it does not factor into my accounting. While not all are like me, there are a few of us left… -Piggy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Are you sure they're blind tested here at Cigar Aficionado? I know Smoke Magazine makes it a point to painstakingly blind taste their cigars, which was one of the characteristics they were applauded for upon their debut. CA's ratings, in a lot of people's opinions were based on whether or not that particular cigar company paid for advertising in their magazine. I also really love Cigar Journal (formerly European Cigar-Cult Journal) magazine. And now they've got Cigars & Spirits Magazine. VERY fun and interesting cigar/tobacco mag. Yes. They claim to test blind and rate and review after only an inch or so in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigcars Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Yes. They claim to test blind and rate and review after only an inch or so in? *They can claim it, but that don't necessarily make it so. Plus their descriptions of "nutmeg" and "chocolate" in their ratings has always left me with some distaste. It's a cigar, not a candy bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinnyc Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 *They can claim it, but that don't necessarily make it so. Plus their descriptions of "nutmeg" and "chocolate" in their ratings has always left me with some distaste. It's a cigar, not a candy bar. So I take it you don't like the reviews on here either as they constantly refer to honey and chocolate and spice etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImTripN2 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 So I take it you don't like the reviews on here either as they constantly refer to honey and chocolate and spice etc Of all the BOTLs that have good reason to be disgusted with CA, I'd say you are at the top of the list Vinny. The long time guys who made it so much fun have all bailed out, and the trolls rule the forums now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinnyc Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 CA was what brought me here to FOH. I also have made some life time friends from the site. It goes in cycles you have some idiots trying to ruin it at the minute but I still look in and read there to see what is happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 *They can claim it, but that don't necessarily make it so. Plus their descriptions of "nutmeg" and "chocolate" in their ratings has always left me with some distaste. It's a cigar, not a candy bar. Same as Cigar Journal claiming something...lol Also nutmeg and chocolate and all those descriptive terms are used by tons of people. You have never written or thought of a review? You have never tasted anything other than tobacco? I'm not saying some descriptions are over the top ridiculous, but chocolate and nutmeg seem pretty standard to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplepie Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Also nutmeg and chocolate and all those descriptive terms are used by tons of people. You have never written or thought of a review? You have never tasted anything other than tobacco?now now, Shlomo. don't try him by fire The Bloke with an awesome username just doesn't enjoy sticks that are sweet. or he just doesn't think cigars SHOULD taste like that. probably just doesn't enjoy weak NCs or Rafael Gonzalez like the rest of us Sent from my Q10 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 now now, Shlomo. don't try him by fire The Bloke with an awesome username just doesn't enjoy sticks that are sweet. or he just doesn't think cigars SHOULD taste like that. probably just doesn't enjoy weak NCs or Rafael Gonzalez like the rest of us Sent from my Q10 using Tapatalk That "bloke" is actually a lass....lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradbrennan Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 That "bloke" is actually a lass....lol Crazy stuff Here I thought Maplepie was a lass 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigcars Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Yes, I'm a "girl"! And yes I HAVE referred to my smokes in my own personal overviews as being closer to maple and raisins, toasted bread baked from the hearth with love - and so on. I don't know what it is about Shanken's descriptions like "toffee", "nutmeg" and "chocolate" that chafed me the wrong way. Probably due to how often he used those descriptions, like he was taking a quick way out in describing the smokes instead of putting more thought into them. Thanks, Maplepie, for coming to my defense, and thanks Shlomo for being one of the few folks to take the time to tell the folks I'm a Dame! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradbrennan Posted July 23, 2014 Author Share Posted July 23, 2014 I'm noticing in the Ratings area on CA that many 2013 CC's are rating exceptionally high...is it still a conspiracy?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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