The Verdict Distribution, Out Loud
As of this writing, this site has published 35 cigar reviews. Six earned Box Buy. Twelve earned Five-Pack. Eleven earned Hand-Me-One. Six earned Not Even Free. That's an average of about 2.5 on a 4-point scale, and 17 of 35... just under half... landed in the bottom two tiers. I'm publishing the grade curve because almost nobody else in cigar reviewing will.
What a normal grade curve looks like
Go pull up any big cigar publication's last hundred rated reviews and look at the spread. The 100-point scale in practice runs from about 83 to 95, which means the entire universe of cigars, from a $2 bundle stick to a $40 anniversary release, lives inside twelve points near the top of the scale. There is no failing grade. There is barely a C.
That's not because every cigar is good. It's because most review pipelines are built from samples the manufacturer sent, relationships the publication needs, and readers who came to have their purchase validated. None of that has to be corrupt to bend the curve... it just bends, the same direction, everywhere.
What this curve says
The distribution above is what one palate, buying with my own money at prices I disclose on every review, actually experienced across a year of smoking. A few takeaways from my own numbers:
Box Buy is rare because it should be. Six cigars in 35 earned "commit to a whole box at street price." That's a 17 percent rate, and every one of the six had to be excellent start to finish. If a site hands out its top tier every other week, the top tier means nothing when you need it.
The middle is where most cigars live. Five-Pack and Hand-Me-One together cover 23 of 35. Most cigars are neither treasures nor disasters; they're fine, with a specific reason they didn't clear the next bar. The review's job is naming that reason, because "fine, but the burn needed six touch-ups" and "fine, but flat by the final third" send you to different next purchases.
Not Even Free exists and gets used. Six cigars, 17 percent. Every one of those reviews cost me the price of the cigar plus the evening I spent on it, and more than one was a line the market speaks well of. Publishing them is the entire reason to trust the other 29.
Gear runs friendlier: 10 Buy Again against 3 Wouldn't. That's not softer grading, it's a different market... a $10 lighter has fewer ways to fail than a $10 cigar, and I mostly buy gear I've already researched. The three failures got named anyway.
The promise in the numbers
A grade curve is a standard you can hold a reviewer to. So here's the standing offer: these numbers get recounted and republished as the archive grows, and if you ever watch this site drift toward everything-is-a-Box-Buy, you'll be able to see it happen in the distribution and call it what it is. Averages don't lie about inflation. Reviewers do.
The scale itself, and what each tier asks of a cigar, lives at how to read a WSA review. The misses get their own defense in Why I Review the Misses.
More from the Deck
Why There Are No Ads Here
I don't like clutter, I don't look at ads, and I don't want to be beholden to anyone who can pull one. So there will never be ads sold on this site.
Why the Deals Page Has Rules
The deals page started as a list I kept for myself. The rules exist because most deal emails aren't deals, and I got tired of reading them all to find one.
The Case Against the 100-Point Scale
I scored cigars on 100 points my first year. A cigar I'd never smoke again landed a 78 and a phenomenal one an 87. That's why this site runs four tiers.