wow! Tab was a coke product. didn't know that. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_experiment

Read the description for "Double-blind trails."

We're going to be like cigar aficianado!

Are those for visually challenged hikers? :-)

Your differentiation between smoke shop and b&m is sort of muddled. By your logic most shops out there would fall under both categories depending on what brand you are referring to. Padron, Ashton, Fuente, etc...all require a certain intial box purchase followed up with a certain number of facings to become an authorized dealer. This binds you to their recommended MSRP and allows you to obtain alloted cigars In fact most cigar companies do. Unless you have a warehouse you can't really hope to become authorize for all non cuban cigars out there.

Just my .02, its not as black and white as you are making it out to be. I will say that I have noticed... and this is totally anecdotal. I have run across a few reps, Torano's come to mind, that carry cello wrapped sample packs for giving out at shops. To me these ALWAYS smoke better than the boxed counterparts....

not sure if its in my head. Maybe I'm just stoked to be smoking a free cigar. Maybe there is something to that.

I'm not organizing this trial, but let's just say that CI, JR, and Holts are the internet retailers (even if they do have B&Ms). All of the mom and pop B&Ms, and even places like the Tinderbox we will consider B&Ms (for this test purpose only, if it even is a test). I know that leaves out a lot of other places, but those are the two extremes.

blind leading the blind? :-)

Interesting observation. Maybe a Good B&M Owner knows how to get more of these Sticks!! Who knows?!

From what I have heard, and I'm sure this differs from company to company but I don't think the reps are supposed to leave those with the shop. That said I have yet to leave a smoker where the rep didn't give a good portion of the remaining samples to the shop.

I'm sure we have some reps that frequent here. Maybe they could chime in.

I'll ask again.

I don't think there is any such difference between what you call "internet cigars" and "local B&M." There's just simply no way they can be segregated from one another during the distribution process.

SPSS is for girls....

SAS is the bomb


Don't you need those 5 1/4 inch floppy disks in order to run miniTab?!?

Everyday I pray that this thread will not have any new posts that I have to read and everyday there are more. Damn it people! :-)

Pretty sure I used 3.5' floppy's for it in uni, that was also 12 or 13 years ago but I'm sure that 5.25" floppy's were dead antiques even then :-) Thankfully I haven't had to do any statistical analysis since I finished that course......

Indeed.
Considering there are so many other factors that can influence the flavor of a given cigar, it seems like an unlikely stretch to imply there's a conspiracy on the part of the manufacturer to supply B&Ms with "good cigars" vs. internet distributors with "bad cigars".

Following Occam's razor, it's probably as simple as: B&M cigars are either aged longer and/or stored in a more consistent environment than some internet cigar distributors (I suspect it's just a bit more aged since my B&M rarely move large amounts of cigars--I think the Oliva V's they got in about 6+ months ago are still sitting on their shelves).

I personally, have not noticed any difference in the flavor. And since these days I tend to gravitate to the same half dozen or so blends, I've been mixing various cigars from both my B&M and those I purchased online. For instance, my stash of Oliva V torps consist of about 2 boxes worth of cigars. I have one full box that I got from an online distributor and the rest are a mix of Vs from online and those I bought from my B&M when almost none of the online vendors had them in stock.

Ditto with my Oliva Gs, DPGs, Padrons, and Ashtons. I don't even think about where the cigars came from, just how long it's been in my humidor--I ususally try to grab the oldest first.

Damn youngsters..
I'm old enough to know what a 8" floppy disk looks like. I'm also old enough to know that if you have a hole puncher, you just turned all those single sided floppy disks into double sided floppies with twice the storage!

not in '93

My first job programming job I had to use keypunch machines/cards, floppies appeared years later with first PCs. Or maybe with PDP 10/11?

Members of my lounge here? Not that I know of. Savor the stick went to the lounge a few times but has since relocated to orange county and never took part in any tests. Probably my fault. I haven't really shared the asylum with the botl there. However, this notion actually came from the guys there who had gone on trips to Honduras and the Dominican. I'll be on the next trip to Nicaragua in may. We will be guests of don pepin Garcia. I'll ask him directly and tell you what he says.

Its ok, I'll ask Don Pepin when hes at Habana Premium in Albany, NY on May 4th, and report back :-)