How Concentrated/Broad is Your Collection

[bnasse9900]

Right now my stock is 23% Montecristo, 18% Cohiba, and 10% Upmann.  All other marcas are <10% each.  

When I started smoking a few years ago, I started with Montecristo (what I read was a "beginners"  marca), Cohiba (the "best" marca), and Upmann (the "in the know" marca).

I now love these cigars (some vitolas more than others) for my own reasons, but since I started with these three brands, I've naturally bought more over time.  

I think in 2018 I may try a few different case studies, for science of course.  For the first half of the year I'm going to focus on specific marcas and dive deep into available vitolas.  This will help me better understand if I can truly pick up on a recurring flavor profile across different sized cigars from the same company.  It'll also help me hone in on which sizes I enjoy most.  Finally, it'll give me directional information about which brands I like more "overall."

Then, I think I'll pick a few of my "favorite" cigar sizes, and grab some sampler packs.  After smoking/rating these cigars, I can compare to my favorite vitolas/marcas from the first experiment.  

And, since I've clearly accounted for every single variable (age, quality, storage, smoking environment, drink accompaniment, stress level/mood, etc.), by the end of this experiment I should be able to choose my all-time favorite cigar, buy nothing but this single cigar, and have a stock of 100% that cigar.  

[joeypots]

I've had something like 1000 cigars for more than 5 years. I used to have all sorts of stuff, a wide variety of marcas and vitolas. About four years ago I started to tighten up my inventory by selling cigars and replacing them  multiple boxes of what I like in the hope of having a core group of well rested and acclimated  ready to smoke cigars on hand. 3 Marcas take up more than 55% of my inventory while 6 others take up the rest. 

[Philc2001]

I don't have a very big collection compared to many here (under 600 CCs, maybe 100 NCs), and I'd qualify my collection as more deep than wide. I experiment in small quantities, so I have a lot of singles or partial boxes of different things I've traded for or have been gifted, but I've learned from experience there is no rhyme or reason why certain brands or vitolas get cut, so when I find a vitola that puts a shine on my palate I make it a mission to load up on them. Subsequently I've ended up with about 5 or 6 vitolas I love and have stocked deep, and then a wide range of singles and partial boxes from experiments.

[sjmistry]

20 Habanos marcas are represented in my collection. I am deepest on Winnies, QdO Coronas, RASS, Coro and Cola. I have never did an official inventory but I believe I have over 1500 CC along with another who knows how many NC. 

-Shake

[Cubadust]

I have a somewhat moderate but growing collection at the moment, 600-700 sticks or so, and 1/3 of it is Partagas D4s . And I'd say of the total 700 stick roughly 60% are variations on robustos. 

[Buck14]

I just renewed my passion for Cubanos early in 2017, so I am still trying to dig a wide trench before I worry about depth.  

Including boxes "in the air", I have:

1. 11 Marcas
2. 8 Vitolas de Galera
3. 14 different types of sticks
4. Plus a small handful of one-offs

My understanding is that there are currently 27 Habanos Marcas.  There are 9 Marcas that I have never tried or that are in the "it's been so long it doesn't count" category for me.  I'd like to branch out to those Marcas before going deep.  Surprisingly, I've had short fillers from two of the Marcas that were far better than long filler cigars from other Marcas.

[zepp69]

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 10:21 AM, BuzzArd said:

@zepp69

Gretsch 6129TL

Thank you sir. 

Sure is a beauty. Is it custom made?

[zepp69]

My collection is very diversified. Lots of Opus and Fuentes. Don Carlos. HDM, PL, Partagas, HDM, Ashton, Behike, etc...Size wise I like double coronas and churchills. Need more Cubans though. Have a box of SLR regios on the way from this great site. Haven't tried those yet. Smoking on a box of El Rey Del Mundos right now. Mighty tasty imo. I know I am leaving out some other stuff but it's all good.

 

[BuzzArd]

8 hours ago, zepp69 said:

Sure is a beauty. Is it custom made?

No. It's standard production, alrhough I'm not sure that color is available any more. 

[PigFish]

I tend to view cigars as sizes and shapes, not bands and boxes. I concentrate on the cigars that come in the sizes I like. To me, size is more important than the branding.

I therefore largely own cigars of certain sizes. Refining it further, I largely concentrate on cigars 42 ring and less. The majority of my cigars are that size.

While I too refer to my hoard as a collection, it is not for the sake of collecting, that I own cigars. It is for the sake of having them when I want them to smoke. I therefore refer to them as a cache, stock or hoard generally.

I don't think my stock is very broad based. I know what I like and I concentrate on buying what I believe I will like and continue to like. Trying new things is not very important to me. Repeating a good experience is better than a lesser 'new' experience.

-Piggy

[oliverdst]

On 27/09/2017 at 12:18 PM, PapaDisco said:

How much do you focus your cigar collecting?  I've got about 2,500 sticks on hand (including LT aging stuff) spread over about 12 marcas and 14 vitolas.  I seem to think just about any good looking stick is a good idea to get a box of.    There are cigars I love, that I may not smoke twice in a month simply because there's too many others to try.    How focused is your collection?  

 

A FOH member did a kind of survey 1 or 2 years ago. If you try hard maybe you will find the thread,

[PapaDisco]

I should figure out a way to reorganize my storage to get the best of both worlds (broad collection, focused sampling) 

Right now I store things in three piles: 1) a desktop humi for current grab-and-go smoking.  This thing has everything in it from current production to 17 y.o. churchills.  Quite the mish-mash.  2) Larger scale storage in my cellar for 'current' smokeables; this has every marca and vitola in it that is smokeable today, so like my desktop humidor but on a 40 gallon scale.  3) Large scale storage for stuff I'm trying to keep my hands off for 5-10 years.

If (contingent on more storage capacity!  ) I rearranged all this to store not by 'vintage' but by vitola or marca, it would make it much easier to enjoy periodic "robusto or prominente" seasons, or "Romeo & Julieta" month, that sort of thing.  That might be more entertaining and educational to the palate (or not  ).  I wonder which method would be the more interesting?  Organizing by vitola or marca?  If one's collection was massive enough, you could organize by marcas and then by years even, but I don't have enough sticks for that (nor enough climatized storage).   

Any of you guys organize this way?  

[Fugu]

4 minutes ago, PapaDisco said:

Any of you guys organize this way?

Not organized in any way, sorry Poppy, can't help...