Blinds.....How confident would you be....and what cigar pairing would likely throw you for a loop?

[El Presidente]

Blind tasting...be it cigars, wine or spirits...no single exercise has shattered the hubris of so many 

Case in point...

If in a blind tasting I were to provide you a 5 year old El Rey Del Mundo Choix Supreme and a 2 year old Cohiba Robusto, with the same wrapper shade and I would have chosen a slightly thinner CORO from the box. Never forget, Tabacuba QC allows for a 3 ring gauge tolerance

Blind tasting remember. $1000 buy-in to play. $2000 if you get it right.  Do the poll. 

 

Follow up question. 

Two cigars in a blind tasting that you know you would have trouble separating? 

[MagicalBikeRide]

I’ve done blind whiskey tastings bi-weekly for almost 15 years (as part of a club/society) and they never cease to amaze me. I’ve not tried any blind cigars tbh, but if they’re anything like whiskeys - I’ll be wrong more than I expect.

Take all the Cuban robustos (inc H4’s) for example - I’d be confident of guessing - Epi 2, Coro w- 5 years plus, JL2 and Monte Eddie, I find these to be reasonably consistent and have easily identifiable flavours (for me). Others - I’m not so sure to be honest.

For example, I have a lot of young PSD4. They are really consistent but I find them incredibly different to same sticks with 10 years age. Then there is the usual variance that comes with Cuban cigars - never sure what you’re going to get until you light it up (e.g. I’ve had some incredible R&J Short Churchill but most boxes have been utter crap and all quite different).

 

Anyway, in summary, I’d prefer to be the house/bookie for this particular game. 🙂

[Chibearsv]

5+ year old D4 vs 5+ year old CORO - I can't tell them apart. CORO is a challenging blind cigar for me since it doesn't have the citrus and hay/straw flavors that I normally relate to in a Cohiba.

[Jimmy2]

I succeeded at this one years ago, right here on FoH...😁

Blind tests are not easy and I don’t care how long you have been smoking! I succeeded on my test (or dare) but don’t know if I could do it again. It was hard and the pressure was on, for sure. 
 

P.S. I could pass this one easily! 😉

[Marco_011t556]

Lol I’m the only one to bet.

[Chas.Alpha]

I don’t have experience with either. One thing I mentioned a year or so ago; the ERdM Tainos RE Asia P 2019 and the Espy were rolled from the same blend. Same rollers. Same wrappers. And I only bought 1 box. 😔

[Bijan]

I feel like I'd have a leg up based on the size difference and box pressed vs round cigar.

[Chas.Alpha]

4 minutes ago, Bijan said:

I feel like I'd have a leg up based on the size difference and box pressed vs round cigar.

And the subtle hints dropped on the review videos! 🤣🤣🤣

[Tunkat92]

I agree blind reviews, sound much easier than they actually are. I really enjoy Choix Supremes and I feel like I could tell the difference most of the time. Both vitolas can present quite a variances and that can definitely make it quite tricky.

[chasy]

We’d need to adjust the odds. Right now you have to take it bc its expected value is positive (+500). But I get it, great challenge.

[Chitmo]

Objectively speaking it would be impossible to know, you could compare two Cohibas from separate boxes and not know they were the same cigar. Half of the romance is in the circumstance and story. 

[Lt4-396]

I would instantly know, before even cutting them. I can tell how much more time, care, and love was put into the CoRo and its leaves which is why it is 3x-5x the price of the other. 🙃

Seriously though, I wouldn't guess right. Another two similar enough cigars for me would be the RASS & JL#2. Similar notes and enough variations between them that there could be overlap making you point in the wrong direction when blind tasting.

[Li Bai]

I'd say it would be 50/50 for me. Has Hamlet ever done this kind of blind tasting? 😁

Personally, I would advocate for a "no band no BS" policy from HSA and all cigar makers around the world. Kudos to all of you who answered here for being so honest. 👍

[joeypots]

I’d take the bet based on the size difference alone if I was presented with both cigars. A hermosos #4 is not a robusto, it’s thinner and longer. Just by a bit, but it has a different feel. I used to smoke lots of HU Connoisseur #1s and felt they were very different from robustos.  I’ve often thought that Habanos makes so many minutely different vitolas so they can identify cigars name and marca after they have been rolled but before they have been banded.

[cigaraholic]

This should be easy, you shouldn’t even have to smoke the cigars. One cigar comes in a dress box and the other in a bundle. If you can’t tell round from square you probably shouldn’t even be smoking cigars👻 it would have to be a blind, blindfolded test.

[BrightonCorgi]

You have a 50-50 shot at looking like a hero.

If wrong, at least you smoked $80 worth of cigars as a consolation. 

I saw people fail horribly on whiskey. One friend said he could easily tell and was wrong. I gave him the same whiskey again after he got it wrong and named something else which was wrong.

[RDB]

The problem here is that while I’m confident I could tell the two apart if they were ‘classically representative’ of their marcas, very often they are not. We all chase the citrus, candied fruit & honey CoRo, right? But they are not all like that, and too many are bland. ERdM Choix Supreme have a huge range, from mild and grassy to really rich. Along those two spectrums there is plenty of room for confusing one and the other.

[Edicion]

I've never had a Choix that's anything more than light-medium in flavor. I've heard it described as a good cigar because it leaves no tobacco taste and breath after smoking one, fit for a lunch smoke and back to office. Just very smooth. I think CORO are more medium / full in flavor but smooth at the same time.