Do you consider the price when you rate a cigar in your mind?

[luckyfitz13]

Now the 100 anos are no longer made so i might pick up a few to hold onto if you like it

[jam]

Originally Posted by mhlatke

I would say I generally lean towards School #1 - a good cigar is a good cigar regardless of price. However, you always have higher expectations when you pony up the $$$ for a more expensive stick and if it sucks, the let-down is greater.

agree 100 %

[happy1]

Originally Posted by Tha Criddler

It doesn't really come into my mind when judging the taste but when it's over and it's bad I often get pissed if it was really expensive.

Amen to that!

[Bob The Cigar Ninja]

This is a great question, Jim. Looks like there is some back and forth between #1 and #2. I am brand new to doing cigar reviews, and my perspective is yes the price matters when "rating" a cigar. Especially considering we are headed to $4 a gallon gas, how could price not matter? However, I don't think price should be the heaviest weighted attribute when reviewing a cigar. If a $14 cigar is having a bad burn tendency throughout the entire smoke, the 1st 3rd of the cigar had great flavor, but the remaining 2/3rds tasted like ash and isopropyl alcohol then the fact it was a $14 cigar should affect the overall rating to some extent.

[terrasco-cl]

I have to admit that the more I pay for a cigar, the more I expect.

[Legion]

I think most people when start smoking cigars they make the mistake of thinking higher price makes for higher quality. The same mistake people make about wines. I know I made that mistake but it helped me see price does not matter when it comes to a great tasting cigar.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Originally Posted by terrasco

I have to admit that the more I pay for a cigar, the more I expect.

Same with me. I payed $10 for a Rocky Patel Vintage, which in my opinion was no better than a Romeo y Julieta tubo churchill that I had which only cost me about $5.50, so looking back at the Vintage I don't personally give it a high rating due to the fact that I paid more for it and it didn't meet my expectation.

[Doogie]

Originally Posted by mhlatke

I would say I generally lean towards School #1 - a good cigar is a good cigar regardless of price. However, you always have higher expectations when you pony up the $$$ for a more expensive stick and if it sucks, the let-down is greater.

I use * to rate my cigars. with 5* being the best. of the cigars that have my5* rating most are in the 5$ to 8$ range.

[Pug]

How good your experience is smoking a cigar is completely independent of the price of the cigar. Price might become a question when you consider whether or not the cigar was good enough to make you want to buy another one.

I've smoked many very good $15+ cigars... but I can count on one hand the ones that I bought again.

[Webmeister]

There are two phases I go through when evaluating a cigar. The first is quality, the second is value. I prefer to rate a cigar's quality before I have any idea of its price.

Quality takes into account all of the visual elements, construction, consistency, burn, ash, volume of smoke, taste, finish, heat of the smoke and of the stick itself, transitions of all of the above as I make my way through the cigar. The Quality phase tells me if I like the cigar or not. I have a pretty good idea by this time what the stick is worth to me.

The second phase is Value. This is where the price is evaluated and compared to the price I came up with in the Quality phase. If the actual price is much higher than my assessment, it is not a good value and I will not buy one/more. If the actual price is much less than my assessment, it is a great value and I'll grab a bunch. If the actual price is close to my assessment, it provides a decent value for the money. I'll buy more if I really like the stick.

When it comes to pricey smokes, I like to use a comparison method. I pick a couple of tastey sticks that provide good (Illusion mk) and great (Padron 2000) value, and do a quick calculation to determine relative value. As an example... a super-premium that sells for $25 would be 7 Padron 2000 or 4 Illusione mk. Aside from a "special ocassion" smoke, will I receive as much enjoyment?

I find some great smokes for the money in the $6-10 price range. You're not going to see me pick up a lot of pricier sticks unless it's a special ocassion. There are a lot of brands that IMHO are way overpriced and they sell due to loyalty, hype, and marketing.

[Itsme-Speedy-G]

Originally Posted by karmaz00

nope not for me. if i buy an expensive cigar, i would expect it to preform well. i think some brands are overpriced and function just as well as lower priced cigars. its almost like your paying for the name

don't forget you are paying for the expensive box, advertising, and salaries. even if you are buying singles, the price includes the above mentioned costs.

and yes, I do expect more from a $15 stick than a $8 stick. it happens when you have a budget.

[drscholl14-cl]

I don't consciously have it in my mind when reviewing a cigar. However I think the price of a cigar makes a mental impact while smoking it. I know I find myself smoking a high priced cigar and saying on man, this is why it costs so much (and sometimes telling myself that this must be the way cigars should taste somewhat swayed by the price). That didn't make much sense but hopefully it is somewhat readable....Ha!

[AragornElessar86-cl]

I agree with school #2 mostly. I don't care about price as long as it's a good cigar, but if there's two cigars that are equally good to my palate, and one's more expensive, I'm gonna rate the cheaper one better. Same if there's only a slight advantage in quality, taste, etc. Padron is a perfect example. I'd say the Padron thousand series is a much better cigar than either the 64s or the 26s because they're really close as far as taste and construction, but the anniversarios are easily twice the cost.

[Jonjonmacky]

Originally Posted by karmaz00

nope not for me. if i buy an expensive cigar, i would expect it to preform well. i think some brands are overpriced and function just as well as lower priced cigars. its almost like your paying for the name

Exactly, If I'm going to rate a Gran Habano corojo #5 and a Zino chubby, both "blind" I'm not tasting the Hamilton aroma of the Zino compared to the Lincoln flavor of the GHabano. Their price does not affect the performance for me, only upon the frequency with which I will smoke them again, if at all.

[tx_tuff]

I try not to judge by the price but its hard not to sometimes. I know that no matter how well I like a cigar the price does effect how many I smoke! The bad thing is most of the cigars I like the most cost a lot of $, but lately I have found some cheaper ones I like a lot and plan on picking up some more of those. Funny thing is I have prob given away almost as many high dollar smokes away that I have smoked. Go figure?