First of all, great topic Tim!

A recent study poll from the IPCPR asked 400 cigar smokers what influences them when purchasing a cigar. It surprises me to find out that still 50% say it's the reccomendation from the tobacconist. All the magazine and internet ratings were polled at 8% if I remember correctly.

Here is my order for rating...
1) Burn: without a good burn/draw... flavor is usually thrown out the window
2) Construction: a cigar is an artform to me. if it's underfilled or poor quality then flavor is again thrown out the window
3) Flavor: this is a no brainer
4) Price: i have to consider how much someone is asking for the cigar as "I" always find myself compairing the smoke to what else I could be smoking, as good, for less $$$
5) Appearance: who cares if it rates high on everything else. some wrappers are just better looking than others.
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After posting my order, I thought to myself that 1-3 must go hand in hand. I can't put them in order. To me they are equally as important.
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Being honest
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Great point! :-)
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Unlike most I don't find a lot of use in Flavor determined by another person as we all sense taste differently and I find about 99% of the time my perception of flavor is way off from the review.

I am interested in the following items::-)

Burn - I hate bad burning cigars worse than anything
Draw - Important to be at least pretty good or better
Construction - Don't like falling apart and don't like veins
Flavor - Little Value
Price - just for a reference point, if they are $25+ I am not likely to buy one just to try unless I find a special. Also MSRP has become a joke anyway - Ghurka & Graycliff for example.
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Valid points, Michael. :-)

Sorry. I should have said female ass. :-) :-)
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Another issue is the # of cigars smoked to determine the rating. With so many variables, I find assigning a number rating to a cigar fairly meaningless. My experience with a cigar varies with the condition of my palate, atmospheric conditions, what I am drinking with it, who I'm with, not to mention variability in the cigars themselves. If somebody really likes a cigar, I'll really want to try it.

The purpose of rating #s is to establish which cigars are better than others and try to give some kind of quantitative measure to how much better/worse they are. Which brings to mind kind of a side topic, which would be ranking. Which cigars are better than others? You could go strictly from which cigar scored higher, but when I think back on the best cigars I have smoked, it seems a lot of my pleasure comes from the experience. Who I was with, what happened while smoking it, where did the cigar come from, special occasions, etc. So I am hard pressed to be completely objective.

Bottome line for me, I have a 0 or 1 scale. 1 meaning I will buy this cigar again.
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taste
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Flavor, construction, price, appearance in order for me with Flavor getting the majority of the importance. It could be the most beautifully constructed, visually stimulating, pricepoint friendly stick but if it tastes like a turd, I'm passin'.
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Flavor's the bottom line for me.

But I agree that a tight draw or plugged cigar is the pits.

However, I don't experience too many tight draw issues with the cigars I regularly smoke. Probably the storage conditions.
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Agreed!
:-)
:-)
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One thing that just struck me while reading through the responses.

Those that smoke primarily NC cigars may give flavor the nod as being more important because they're less used to dealing with construction issues. It's rare to find a NC cigar that doesn't draw well, making it less of a concern.

Those that smoke more CC cigars may give construction a higher priority, simply because it's more common to find draw issues in CC cigars.

At least that's been my experience.

And I certainly can't argue with the Admiral's ass tasting expertise. :-)
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I would agree with that exact order.

Although if a cigar is too expensive, the chance of me ever trying it is minimal...

So I would probably break it down to 60%F/25%C/15%V.
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1. Flavor
2. Flavor
3. Flavor
4. Flavor
5. Construction (Draw)

It is all about flavor with me...

Quote from my site (about how I rate cigars):

~brooks
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1. Taste
2. Flavor profile
3. Smoking experience (stays lit, no tar, doesn't unravel or split, holds ash, etc.)

A cigar will take a ratings hit if it is just "good" but the price is high.
It will get a boost if it is just "good" but the price is low.

Hit all three high and I will most likely buy a box if it's less than $200.
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I would have to say for me it's all about flavor. I do like Brooks W's way of putting it on the other issues:

The construction alone doesn't mean squat to me, unless it affects the flavor. Same go with burn and appearance. If the flavor suffers from having to keep relighting it, then in my mind the flavor has suffered not the burn.

Price is a factor only if I intend to buy more than say a box or two. I can usually justify price on great tasting stick.
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My top factors are - enjoyment and relaxation . If I'm to worried about flavor and burn it just seems to not be as good . I've gotten past the want of every cigar to knock my socks off and when it does happen , all the better the enjoyment . Not that flavor doesn't matter to me , it does and is part of the experience . Smoke what you like and smoke as much as you want . I've been duped by some of the magazine ratings so what I look for in reviews is what flavors the smoker is commenting about that I like . :-)
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Since the O.P. asked about rating not judging I would have to add that I would put these on a - N + type of scale. So for importance Flavor profile would be last as a negative in taste or smoking experience would make me not want to smoke one again, possibly, but a boring cigar may be OK still.
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Thanks for all the input here! It's very interesting to read everyone's point of view on this.

I posted this on several forums and one thing is clear from the responses... BOTL are as divided over how to rate a cigar as they are over the cigars themselves. :-)

Most everyone ranks flavor at the top of the list. it was interesting to see people were very divided over the importance of price for a cigar with some saying it was unimportant and others said it was extremely important.

We sure are an opinionated bunch! :-)
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Like they say in Boston, "Flavah!"
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