The biggest difference in certain cigars over the past decade?

[Puros Y Vino]

=The negative responses I have read on the Churchhill GR at this years Habanos Festival pretty much says it all, if you can cant get a GR Right... call it a day..

Link pls?

[Scdalak]

Link pls?

Will look up a few when I have time, read it a few times, some blogs people who smoked one, here is one..that was just so-so.. But coincides with the general negativity...How long before we stop making excuses for the Marca?

"Commissioning of the Romeo Churchill Reserva cigars that were handed out at the Farewell Gala night of the 2012 Habanos Festival. In my very personal opinion they should have had a couple of month rest before we smoked them last week. Cigars that fresh are a bit hard to test and enjoy as the fine and elegant flavors only show up later. Insofar I will not “judge” about them for now as they are just too young. Any other comment, of which I admit having heard a few, I would consider a unfair."

[Yoruba Hacker]

Great thread. Although it makes me feel like the old guy on the stoop with his shorts hiked up to his chest telling the young kids to get off his lawn.

Most has been touched on already. The Partagas Lusitania and RyJ Churchill Tubo were what got me into cuban cigars in the mid-90's. Preposterously great, but now both taste utterly unrelated to their current versions in my humble opinion. I went from buying them every time I hit a Duty Free or B&M to never buying them now. Lusi's died around '02. Churchill's about the same. Not to be argumentative, but I haven't had a Lusi with any real flavor since I can't remember when.

Mag 46. Anyone remember Mag 46's? Like smoking freakin' vanilla. Awesome. Just a great great cigar which fell off a cliff tied to a boulder in like '03/04-ish (hard to remember exactly - I'm old). '04 or thereabouts for the death of the BBF - formerly the HCF's signature cigar. That and the RC went from almost fruity flavorful to tasting like paper. And who didn't love the Epi2's back in the day? Had their own little spunky personality. Now, they just taste like everything else. VRU around the millennium bested the legendary Monte 2. Now, again, bland ghost of itself.

The truth is, one can make the general case for around '03/04 for pretty much the lot of the brands from a blend change perspective (again, the memory gets fuzzy). Nothing today tastes as good as it used to, and few things resemble their previous incarnations. Again, different leaf. You go the path of funky hybrids and that's what happens. Good on Habanos for better yields, etc., but I am not confident any of the stuff now will have the legs of the 90's, 80's and 70's. Not seeing any "classics" coming down the pike, outside of some super special-release stuff (Books and GR's). But as we've said ad nauseum, regular old cigars were nearly as good back in the day.

What's stayed the same? The small ones. Exquisitos, shorts, Cosacos haven't changed much to my tastes. And somehow they have nailed every single Monte EL they've made. There's a distinct Monte EL taste that's consistent as a metronome. They got that one down.

[khomeinist]

Keep trying YC

I think the Boli RC, Mag 46, and even the Epi 1 are quite interesting as currently blended. Box-box variability certainly exists but I have had excellent post-06 examples of each. Being the arrogant ass that I am, I am very confident in my assessment.

[Dbone]

I love reading everyones comments. I really can't add much myself because I haven't really been smoking all that long... or all that much to make such comments.

[Yoruba Hacker]

And here's another. Could the prejudice about 1999-2001 cigars, based on the folklore about the plugging history keep the good ones from being purchased and enjoyed? Are there tons of orphaned boxes out there just waiting to find owners?

No sweetie. It's not that there weren't any good cigars from that time. It's that anythng that was good is long gone.

Difference.