I fully believe that cigar experiences are subjective. Not just the flavors, but also everything to do with the act of smoking. Who you’re spending time with, what you’re drinking, where you are, and even what mood you’re in can all influence how you experience a cigar. You might have the same cigar at two different times, love it one of those times, and dislike it the other.
More importantly, just because a renowned cigar aficionado scores a particular blend high, it doesn’t mean you’re going to love it or agree that it’s one of the top cigars on the market. Every palate is different. Everyone likes or prefers something different. And that is the prevailing idea behind Cigar Sense, a unique company and service, designed to help you discover and match your unique tastes.
That’s also our Friday Brand Feature for this week. I was able to get in touch with the Cigar Sense team — very humble, by the way — and so this one might be a little longer than usual. If you haven’t already, pour yourself a cold beverage, light up a cigar with me, and let’s feel this thing out. Get it? Because of senses? Okay, my bad, moving on.
Co-founded by power couple Franca Comparetto and David Wells in 2014, Cigar Sense was created to deliver a “reliable and independent system that could predict which cigars [people] will like and even love.” It’s an online advisory for cigar lovers who want to find new smokes. Personally, I also think it’s just a really awesome idea.
That mission was inspired by Comparetto’s experience after moving to the United States from Italy. She was used to authentic Cuban cigars at that point and had challenges finding new world cigars she enjoyed. Disappointing smokes are a thing, and she wanted to mitigate that and help others.
Mainstream views are generic and not relevant to everyone. The team estimates that the average cigar is not recommendable to more than 60% of cigar lovers based on their preferences. Despite that, taste is one of the most important factors to U.S. smokers and beyond, yet we’re pushed to buy cigars to find out whether we like them, as a sort of paid trial-and-error. There aren’t many resources for comparing or finding cigars that match a particular sensory profile.
Cigar Sense exists to solve this problem. Comparetto explains it best:
“David and I founded Cigar Sense in 2014 with a simple but stubborn conviction: cigar enjoyment should be … an enjoyment, every time. I had been frustrated as a smoker by the way others pretended to know what was “good” for me based on their agenda. So we built a service that works in reverse: instead of telling people what to like, we 1. analyze their preferences, 2. suggest cigars they might like, 3. ask their feedback to make sure we got it right, 4. offer suggestions and resources to learn more about and refine their sensory profile (there’s often a gap between what people believe they like vs. what they actually like and would buy). Our members keep telling us that we are spot on in 98% of the cases. So, this remains the compass.”
A “spot on” recommendation record is nothing to scoff at. In fact, I don’t know about you, but I would love to have a cigar resource that was spot on with recommendations that often. The next question is, how the hell do they do it?
Understanding the personalized, independent, expert cigar recommendations
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
The way it works is fairly simple. You sign up for free and share your individual tastes. That connects you to a database of thousands of detailed cigar profiles. A state-of-the-art solution will analyze your preferences based on what you share, and curate a new selection. But it’s not AI. “Cigar Sense is proudly not AI-driven, and our members’ privacy is extremely important to us.“
That Comparetto makes it clear this isn’t just some part of the AI boom, well, that’s good news to me. But as you navigate your cigar journey, real-time recommendations are provided.
Cigar Sense doesn’t sell cigars, nor does it serve ads or marketing materials. So, you don’t have to worry about being recommended brands with the biggest marketing budgets. You’ll get accurate, expertly curated recommendations, even with some small boutique brands thrown in there.
On the site, I spotted analysis for Diesel, Lampert, Viaje, Caldwell, Avowed, RoMA Craft, and more. They’re not tiny brands, by any means, but they are certainly not big-budget varieties like Montecristo, Davidoff or Romeo y Julieta.
When asked how they ensure all brands are included, big or small, Comparetto said:
“Our primary goal is to help our members discover cigars they’ll love, regardless of how widely known the brand is. Therefore, in our system, every cigar, whether it’s from a large established company or from the most recent tiny venture, is subject to the exact same process. This means a Viaje or an Avowed go through the same evaluation method as a Padron or a Cohiba. There’s no favoritism and no pay-to-play. The beauty of this is that many lesser-known brands rise to the top of someone’s recommendations simply because the cigar’s characteristics match an individual’s profile better.”
Already, even without much context around how they choose recommendations, you can get a feel for how important it is for the Cigar Sense team to get things right.
It’s not just those at the helm deciding which cigars to include, but the community. The review process has an involved yet reliable series of inclusions. Each cigar is blind tested and sourced directly from the manufacturer. That experiential information, along with specs, helps create a data profile or “sensory profile.”
The system uses the data to build sensory profiles for each cigar blend, and these profiles help match and recommend cigars to interested parties.
“The sensory profile of a cigar consists of a large amount of detailed data, including aromas, tastes and tactile sensations. These are represented in polar charts, which display how every cigar is unique. In fact, we match each cigar not just by what descriptors we encounter, but also by how much intensity they present and by how the different notes coexist. This is the result of our panel’s descriptive tests. The panel work, together with the technology, is a very important pillar in our methodology, as it determines the accuracy of our recommendations. We train based on ISO norms for sensory analysis and regularly measure the performance of the team. Each panelist has tools to self-improve their alignment with the rest of the team.“
After collecting relevant data, cigars that do not meet the internal quality threshold are not recommended. There is a bar for filtering out low-quality cigars, as expected. So, not everything is just thrown around or recommended willy-nilly — there are standards.
In addition, Comparetto elaborates:
“Our samples procurement is driven by our members’ requests and by our proactive search of what’s new. Whether these cigars will be recommended is determined by the outcome of our panel tests.“
Cigar Sense serves everyone. It’s “for every smoker, everywhere.” It doesn’t matter where you live, what you like most, or whether you’ve been smoking for years or just starting.
“While a significant portion of our member base is in the US due to market size, we have members and cigars from all over the world. We also have a Chinese version of our website.”
When asked specifically what everyone needs to know about the company, Comparetto says:
“Cigar Sense is here to empower your personal cigar journey. We believe that enjoying cigars is a deeply personal experience, and our mission is to remove the guesswork and help you discover cigars that perfectly match your unique taste preferences, without being swayed by hype, marketing, or general popularity. It’s about finding your perfect cigar for every situation.”
“In the process, we can help companies better meet the collective demand. High tides raise all ships.”
So, there’s a business side to it?
Source: Briley Kenney / The BS Lounge
Cigar Sense and the team also work with businesses, as well as ambassadors and other industry professionals. But Comparetto assures they “are not involved in the “pushing” of products.” In other words, they’re not interested in marketing or sales, just advisory roles.
“We had considered to partner with retailers in the “traditional” way in the past, but we decided not to sell cigars nor take commissions. Today we partner to license our recommender via API’s, which is also integrated with a POS system. We help not only retailers but also manufacturers. We recently integrated our engine with the Casa Carrillo website, which engages their visitors while personalizing their cigar selection process. We are always open to new ideas, as long as they don’t compromise our independence.”
It’s always commendable when teams have a vision, stick to it, and avoid compromising on their ideals. That’s especially true in a world so rife with corruption and compromise, like the cigar industry, where paid reviews, powerful influence, and sponsorships might affect scores.
“We also work with the industry, mainly helping manufacturers understand how their products align with consumer preferences. Our insights help product development and portfolio management in creating and prioritizing blends that resonate beyond marketing stories. We also provide sensory education to ambassadors and other professionals.”
Even so, the Cigar Sense team is dedicated to improving and providing reliable resources for everyone, you and me included, dear reader. The future of the company and its services very much aligns with the future of the cigar industry. Innovation and forward momentum are important, but not quite as important as the experiences we have with these beautiful, handcrafted products we all love.
“We keep researching to deepen the connection between sensory science, data and ethics. The future, for us, is still about putting the mindful cigar lover at the center of what we do. And we work with the ecosystem to create change. Over the years, we’ve realized that Cigar Sense isn’t just a service, it’s something closer to a movement. Every time someone trusts their own senses over the noise, they’re taking part in a quiet rebellion against hype, claiming the right to have their integrity respected, and with it, the right to a deeper pleasure the cigar is patiently waiting to offer.”
Where and how do you sign up?
Easy! All you have to do is head over to Cigar Sense and sign-up to get started. After that, you’ll be well on your way to a curated selection of delicious, one-of-a-kind tobacco experiences.
Of course, you can also find a host of additional resources at Cigar Sense. Virtual seminars with expert commentary, podcasts, articles and guides, analysis on various cigar blends, cigar tasting courses, virtual tasting groups, quizzes, you name it.
When I think about experiences and tools that align with the love of the leaf, a true resource for cigar enthusiasts everywhere, Cigar Sense sits at the top of my list. Expertly curated recommendations, personalized taste profiles, and the promise to discover new, untold riches, at least when it comes to tobacco, all sound phenomenal to me.
Briley has over 16 years in the publishing and content marketing business. He's been writing about cigars for nearly half that in various forms. What makes him a tour de force is he also smokes them.
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