And the 2020 CA Cigar of the Year is......

[Puros Y Vino]

????

EP Carrillo Pledge Prequel

It doesn't look like much but kudos to EPC.  Kinda sad to see less Cuban cigars represented these past few years. I know many here, myself included, don't put too much stock into this yearly cigar magazine lists.  It makes me wonder how representative these lists are of what cigar smokers tend to reach for. 

[prshah25]

Its a joke.. 

[Islandboy]

Well I knew no.1 wasn’t going to be Cuban once they advertised their annual contest for a giveaway of the top cigar - I don’t think that would be legal under current law.

I predict 3 CC’s in the top 25, just like it’s been every year since I’ve been following the list (5 years).

[Cigar Surgeon]

As coincidence would have it, our Developing Palates panel review of the Pledge posted this morning before CA's #1. Our take?

5.30, 5.85, 6.00, 5.85.

?‍♂️

We're doing our CoTY recap show on Monday (can't wait), and then spitting some fire about 2020 releases on the 26th.

[smitte3]

11 minutes ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

As coincidence would have it, our Developing Palates panel review of the Pledge posted this morning before CA's #1. Our take?

5.30, 5.85, 6.00, 5.85.

?‍♂️

We're doing our CoTY recap show on Monday (can't wait), and then spitting some fire about 2020 releases on the 26th.

Out of a possible 10?!  Hahaha, good to know.

[Cigar Surgeon]

2 minutes ago, smitte3 said:

Out of a possible 10?!  Hahaha, good to know.

Correct.

https://developingpalates.com/reviews/cigar-reviews/team-cigar-review-e-p-carrillo-pledge-prequel/

[Tstew75]

Much like the wine industry these lists suck.

[Toast & Taste]

 "construction paper" 

 

Big Al 

[FoH.Amyn]

who? Every this seems like a mass marketing activity to promote a particular brand 

[helix]

All marketing of course. Still enjoy CA.

[JohnS]

@bundwallah, I was secretly hoping it would be the Montecristo No.2 because 2020 stock has been so exceptional (I think they give it the nod in 2013, from memory). At least El Pres did give it the No.1 rating in his FoH Top 20 list.

[Bagman]

5 hours ago, Islandboy said:

Well I knew no.1 wasn’t going to be Cuban once they advertised their annual contest for a giveaway of the top cigar - I don’t think that would be legal under current law.

I predict 3 CC’s in the top 25, just like it’s been every year since I’ve been following the list (5 years).

No.  They clearly have a disclaimer about this situation.  In case of a cuban, the winner gets the 2nd (or highest rated non-cuban)

[LordAnubis]

Well.... time to throw out all my trash cubans then. What a waste of money they were

[Fuzz]

20 minutes ago, LordAnubis said:

Well.... time to throw out all my trash cubans then. What a waste of money they were

Send them up to me and the Sydney boys will dispose of them properly.

[Bagman]

7 hours ago, smitte3 said:

Out of a possible 10?!  Hahaha, good to know.

If you read the notes on scoring, it is actually not bad.  I hate cigar ratings where 99% is between 85 and 100 (sorry guys).  Seems like  cigars can easily fall between 1 and 10 where an average cigar elsewhere is an 85.

[cigaraholic]

I believe 2010 was the year CA picked the Monte 2

[HDGSN]

19 minutes ago, cigaraholic said:

I believe 2010 was the year CA picked the Monte 2

Monte No. 2 GUT APR 2013 won one year because I bought a box for a special occasion. 

[Bri Fi]

@Islandboy you called it. Three Cubans. The other two being the BBF and RA #2 

[Ryan]

14 hours ago, HDGSN said:

Monte No. 2 GUT APR 2013 won one year because I bought a box for a special occasion. 

Yes, it was 2013. CA had a party in Havana on the Tuesday night of the 2014 Habanos festival to commemorate the win for the Montecristo No. 2

[Islandboy]

53 minutes ago, Bri Fi said:

@Islandboy you called it. Three Cubans. The other two being the BBF and RA #2 

Year after year, 3 token Cubans. I think that's all their advertising plan allows.

[Cigar Surgeon]

16 hours ago, Monterey said:

If you read the notes on scoring, it is actually not bad.  I hate cigar ratings where 99% is between 85 and 100 (sorry guys).  Seems like  cigars can easily fall between 1 and 10 where an average cigar elsewhere is an 85.

It is our firm belief that the majority of cigars should be scoring in the average category, where as with the current 90 point scale the majority of cigars are scoring in the 90+ point category. There is this belief that has become commonplace among reviewers that average = bad.

Good, very good, and exceptional cigars should be recognized as such and exceptional cigars are outliers not commonplace. IMO.

Although we weren't able to get a 2020 Cuban cigar to the entire panel for eligibility this year, we will be doing a live CoTY show this coming Monday to go over our list.

[Habana Mike]

12 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

It is our firm belief that the majority of cigars should be scoring in the average category, where as with the current 90 point scale the majority of cigars are scoring in the 90+ point category. There is this belief that has become commonplace among reviewers that average = bad.

Good, very good, and exceptional cigars should be recognized as such and exceptional cigars are outliers not commonplace. IMO.

Although we weren't able to get a 2020 Cuban cigar to the entire panel for eligibility this year, we will be doing a live CoTY show this coming Monday to go over our list.

So with the 90-100 scoring a 93 would be a 3/10.

Essentially has become a scale from 1 to 10.

Anything below 90 must be unsmokeable.

[Cigar Surgeon]

22 hours ago, Habana Mike said:

So with the 90-100 scoring a 93 would be a 3/10.

Essentially has become a scale from 1 to 10.

Anything below 90 must be unsmokeable.

I mean that's just it. Someone handing out a 98 on the 100 point scale better be prepared to declare it one of the best cigars they've ever smoked in their entire lives.

[SmokyFontaine]

On 1/14/2021 at 4:00 PM, Monterey said:

If you read the notes on scoring, it is actually not bad.  I hate cigar ratings where 99% is between 85 and 100 (sorry guys).  Seems like  cigars can easily fall between 1 and 10 where an average cigar elsewhere is an 85.

Agreed. The number of times I hear someone complain throughout a whole review of how flat, young, or just not good the cigar is, then give it an 89 is wild to me. If something was barely more than rolled tobacco leaves, that's like, a 40 on my scale. A 90 is a "get at least a couple boxes of these" cigar for me. 

[Bijan]

9 minutes ago, SmokyFontaine said:

Agreed. The number of times I hear someone complain throughout a whole review of how flat, young, or just not good the cigar is, then give it an 89 is wild to me. If something was barely more than rolled tobacco leaves, that's like, a 40 on my scale. A 90 is a "get at least a couple boxes of these" cigar for me. 

Yeah it's crazy.

I think it's a mental/psychological issue with categorization. People are basically ranking cigars relatively, and not giving them an absolute score. So 89 is worse than everything 90+.

This is why I use a 5 point scale myself (1=terrible, 2=barely acceptable/acceptable, 3=acceptable/good, 4=good/great, 5=outstanding). 10 point scale is good too, but that's too many categories for me to categorize things consistently. Sometimes I'll use .5/half scores (3.5, 4.5) if I'm really undecided, so I guess that's kind of a 10 point scale., but I never use 0.5, 1.5 or 2.5, so not quite. Guess I should use a 7 point scale