Honest cigar reviews. One question.
Cigar and gear reviews with no score inflation and no 100-point theater. Every review shows the street price, what I actually paid, and where the stick came from... then answers the only question that matters: would I smoke it again?
The cigar scale
Box Buy · 4/4 A box stays on hand at all times. Regular rotation.
Five-Pack · 3/4 Yes, I'd buy it again. A few live in the humidor.
Hand-Me-One · 2/4 Wouldn't spend my own money. Wouldn't turn one down.
Not Even Free · 1/4 I'd rather smoke nothing.
Latest reviews
Crowned Heads Mil Días Maduro Edmundo Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4). It fought me the whole night on a tight draw and a crooked burn, and every time it went wavy it slid into a sour, bitter note I don't want to chase. The even stretches were okay, but they almost never showed up.
Perdomo Legacy Nicaraguan Shade-Grown Epicure Review
Verdict: Box Buy (4/4). Sweet cream, roasted cashew, and a baking spice retrohale that never turned harsh... I already own a box of these, and I'd pay full retail for the next one.
Dunbarton LecheBurra Cigars Daily Edition Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). Creamy, bready, and lightly sweet from the first draw to the nub, with flawless construction the whole way — my draw tool and my lighter sat lonely the entire time. At $19.45 a stick, the price and a profile that stays in roughly the same lane keep it ou
Foundation 10 Year Aniversario Salomon Review
Verdict: Box Buy (4/4)... a Mexican hot chocolate of a cigar that stays excellent start to finish, and that's rare. Thirty-five bucks is a lot of money for a cigar, and it still earns the tier. Chocolate, baking spice, peanut, leather, and a creaminess on the retro that coats you
Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich Chef Special 2024 Toro Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4). It opens mild and a little chocolatey, then slides into leather, earth and pepper, turns bitter, and goes full strength, and that whole back end is the part of cigars I like least. I smoked as much of it as I wanted to and set it down right as it hit
Liga Privada T52 Corona Doble Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). A well-made, well-mannered medium-plus smoke with a mild, layered leather-coffee-nut profile that never puts a standout note on the table, and a back half where the ash went brittle and the smoke kept dying on me. At right around twenty bucks a stick t
La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Magnifico Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4). Leather and earth start to finish, with the little bit of sweetness I needed showing up late in the first third, carrying into the second, and then leaving for good after a relight, wrapped around a snug draw and a burn that fought me the whole way.
Boveda One Year Humidor Bag (Large) Review
Verdict: Buy Again. If I'm driving anywhere, this large Boveda bag has taken over from my hard-sided travel case — it holds thirty cigars easy, keeps a steady 69% off one large pack, and I never have to think about it. Not the pick for flying, since nothing in it protects the cig
Diesel Whiskey Row Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). A pleasant nutty-bready-coffee smoke through two thirds that never found the sweetness I chase, then dipped into lingering bitterness and touch-up territory in the final third. Wouldn't buy it again, wouldn't turn one down — the middle stretch was a ge
Xikar VX2 V-Cut Cutter Review
Verdict: Buy Again... if the V-cut is your regular cut. It's solid, it's sharp, and I don't believe it's ever cracked a wrapper on me... but I've drifted back to straight cuts, and $50 is hard to justify for a once-in-a-while tool. I bought this because I wanted a proper V-cut, m