четверг, 28 июня 2007 г.

Cigar Judging Section Volume I

There are two general elements involved in the making of a fine, handmade cigar: QUALITY TOBACCO AND QUALITY CONSTRUCTION. They are of equal importance. But the interweaving thread that is the primary consideration in judging whether a cigar is "good" or not, or just how good it is, is the consistency of both.

Consistency then, as in many human endeavors, is the key factor. The sports world provides so many examples of this. The free throw contest in basketball is measured by the number of consecutive baskets achieved: consistency. The golfer gets rated by the number of times his ball lands in the fairway from the tee and the number of greens reached in regulation: consistency. The highest paid baseball sluggers receive enormous salaries because they can hit the ball more often than others. Again, consistency. On and on, as in other walks of life as well, being able to perform on an extremely high level, time after time after time, is the primary way we measure excellence.

So too in judging fine cigars!

Any producer of premium cigars can make an occasional smooth burning, rich tasting product. But, the truly excellent producer will develop a way to do it every time, or almost every time.

If a skeet shooter cannot hit 100 out of 100 "birds", he'll never reach world class ranking, and that's 100 of every 100 he tries. A cigar must be judged by similar standards. Even the weekend golfer will par a few holes during a round. But the real measure of excellence is how close a certain cigar brand, and any shape within that brand, comes to being that good drawing, good burning, good tasting product time after time.

Can Quality Be Judged By Testing Only One Cigar?

Since consistency is an integral part of the quality of a cigar, reason dictates that you cannot judge the quality of any type by sampling only one cigar. But how many cigars should be tested? Statistically, the greater the number, the greater the accuracy. A true test would be like the skeet shooter example: 100 cigars, which would naturally take a period of time. However, to be practical, since cigars traditionally come in boxes of 25, it would seem that one box of 25 would enable one to adequately judge. Besides, acquiring 100 cigars of a given size could get too expensive and, if they do not smoke very well, rather frustrating.

Can Quality Be Judged By Testing Only One Cigar?

Since consistency is an integral part of the quality of a cigar, reason dictates that you cannot judge the quality of any type by sampling only one cigar. But how many cigars should be tested? Statistically, the greater the number, the greater the accuracy. A true test would be like the skeet shooter example: 100 cigars, which would naturally take a period of time. However, to be practical, since cigars traditionally come in boxes of 25, it would seem that one box of 25 would enable one to adequately judge. Besides, acquiring 100 cigars of a given size could get too expensive and, if they do not smoke very well, rather frustrating.

What Makes Construction So Important?

If a cigar is under-filled, constructed by skimping on the number of leaves in the filler, it will draw easily. Now that's often considered a benefit, but the ultra-easy draw will be offset by hot burning and harshness, because, in an under-filled cigar, there are too many air pockets causing a fast burn, thus a hot smoke.

If a cigar is overfilled, it will be hard to draw, sometimes impossible (plugged). This is the cause of the greatest number of complaints by premium cigar smokers. A hard-to-draw cigar gives a much lower volume of smoke, thus much less taste and aroma, and a lot of frustration to the smoker.

Therefore, good construction is essential to achieving good taste and aroma. You can use the best, most expensive tobacco in the world, put together by the most creative and knowledgeable blenders, but if the cigar is not constructed properly, none of the intrinsic quality of that tobacco can be brought home to the smoker.

And again, that quality in construction should be there time after time, if it's a "good" cigar you're smoking.

What Other Characteristics Of Construction Should Be Considered?

While taste and aroma are the most important attributes of the consistently well constructed cigar, there are others as well. Some of these have to do with aesthetics. All are other indicators of how well a cigar is made.

Assuming the cigar is properly lit, it should burn evenly all the way down. A terribly uneven burning cigar is a sign of an improper roll. If it happens with any frequency, the cigar should not be judged highly. It would be unusual for such cigars to taste good anyway.

The ash should be relatively firm and get to an inch long without difficulty (except in small ring gauges). A falling ash is not necessarily a sign of a poorly constructed cigar, but, if your cigars develop a firm, even ash while you're smoking, it is an indication that they are well made. And if it happens consistently, your impression will be reinforced. Anyway, it's really annoying to find a cigar ash in your lap, and a consistently flaky, loose ash is a sign of a poorly constructed cigar.

The cigar should have good mouth feel. While it is not recommended to chew the end, the cigar should feel firm and resilient in the mouth. If it does not, if the cigar is soft and mushy, that's another sign of poor construction. It won't feel good either, thus affecting your overall pleasure.

The cigar should look good and feel good to the touch. It should have some life in it. This does not mean the color itself so much, although it should not show too many blemishes, but the color of the cigars in the box should be consistent from one to the other. If they are not, then the manufacturer did not do his color selecting properly. What we see when we look at the cigars in a given box is the wrapper, and wrappers, even from the same crop, can vary over twenty or thirty shades of color. So a variance in color is not bad in itself. It's just that a manufacturer who pays attention to detail makes sure that in a given box all the color shades are the same. Also, the cigars should look and feel smooth when you roll them in your fingers. This is just another indication of good construction and reassurance of quality.

How Do The Aesthetics Reflect Quality?

While DRAW and BURN are the most important factors affected by construction, the aesthetics of that construction can provide early warning signs regarding the quality, taste and aroma of a particular cigar. After all, if a company places so little importance on aesthetics, then is it reasonable to expect that it places any importance on quality? Think about it, does a fine wine taste better from a paper cup or from a beautiful crystal glass?

How Important Is The Tobacco?

When considering the quality of a "good" cigar, it's only natural to think first about the tobacco that goes into it and very often that's the only thing considered. Hopefully, you now have an appreciation as to why the construction of the cigar is of equal importance to tobacco in assessing the quality of that cigar. But certainly, TOBACCO is of great importance. And consistency most definitely applies here as well.

Not only must the tobacco be of consistent high quality, but it must also be correctly processed. If he is to maintain consistency in taste and aroma in his cigars, a producer must be able to ensure a consistent supply of the same types of tobaccos that go into the blends. Since crop years vary as to the availability of the various types of tobaccos yielded, he must be able to buy a sufficiently large stock of a particular leaf when the availability presents itself in order to protect against short supply due to drought, heavy rains, too much or too little sunshine, political upheaval in tobacco growing regions of the world, etc. This requires sufficient financial resources, if high quality and consistency are to be maintained. The alternative is to buy leaf hand to mouth from whatever becomes available, thus rendering it impossible to keep blends consistent, and possibly subjecting the cigar to inferior leaf.

Unless a manufacturer has the resources to lay in supplies of high quality tobaccos, taste and aroma will vary from year to year, even sometimes from month to month. And, if inferior quality is used, the cigars will produce a harsh, rough, musty taste with an unpleasant, penetrating aroma, the kind wives tend to become so vociferous about.

But financial resources are not enough. A manufacturer must also possess the expertise to know good tobacco from bad when he sees it. This comes only from experience. The best tobacco men today have been in the business for decades and travel the world buying leaf stock for their companies. They know whether to accept or reject an offer and they have their particular trusted farmers and processors to whom they return year after year. If, in a given year, one traditional source has had a poor crop, chances are another will make up for it. If not, the knowledgeable and experienced tobacco man will have provided the necessary protection in leaf stock to get his company through to the next crop and enable overlapping one crop to the other for slow integration. Again, this means a lot of money becomes tied up in leaf inventory, but it's the only way to ensure having the supplies of high quality leaf necessary to produce tasty, aromatic cigars on a consistent basis.

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