[bruceolee]

Apologies for the thread hijack! I don't care much for a cigar of the year or top ten list at all. I think the industry puts way too much stock in lists and ratings. The hype of "buy our cigar it's a 94 rated smoke by CA" What does that even mean? I guess people just love putting stats on everything. Growing the tobacco, Aging it, Rolling it, and finally the finished product. I enjoy the mystery of why a cigar tastes so good. Why is it that a cigar tastes pretty good fresh but in 5 years of aging it can become simply amazing and ethereal? I don't know honestly but then you go through the thoughts of "well, if it tastes good after 5 years buried in my humidor what will 6 years taste like?" There's a joy in the mystery of not knowing all the time. I remember some group tested the PH and chemical profile of the soil in the pinar del rio province and then tried to recreate it in a lab and grew tobacco in that synthetic soil and then made cigars from that soil. Why? I guess people want to quantify mystery sometimes. I do not and I guess that's just me.