Recently, I covered Cigar Sense for our Friday Brand Feature. If you didn’t get a chance to read that yet, the company or platform provides a recommendation service for cigars. You sign up for free, share some of your favorite smokes, and it will provide a curated list of recommendations.
The recommendations don’t come from a self-proclaimed cigar expert, but rather a panel of renowned flavor gurus. You can read a little more about how Cigar Sense expert curation works on the site. I won’t delve too deep here.
But in the Friday Brand Feature, I didn’t explain in full detail how the recommendations are, or what kind of experience you can expect after signing up. I thought it would be a good idea to walk you through that process and share how my own experiences are. So, if you haven’t yet, light a good smoke up, grab a cold beverage and let’s sign up for this fantastic flavor-friendly experience.
It’s ridiculously easy, and the system walks you through everything.
You register with an email and a password, and away you go. It’s totally free. You don’t need to enter any credit card information, and you’ll get to see your top ten personal recommendations. If you want more, you can subscribe to premium. More on that later.
One of the first things the system asks is to provide three of your favorite cigars, or more. The three I eventually entered were: E.P. Carrillo Pledge, San Lotano Requiem Habano, and Warped La Colmena. A few I tried to enter were not in the system or not recognized, including the Boneshaker Full Body Cast, and the Aganorsa Rare Leaf Reserve. But since they were extras I was trying to put in, I just moved on. I figured it would spit out some good recommendations thanks to the three I shared.
Based on what you provide, it automatically fills out flavor charts for Aroma and Taste and Feel. But you can go in and tweak these later, which I did. You’re basically sharing which flavors you like best, or don’t like, such as herb, toasted, pepper, spice, sweet, wood, and so on. You do the same for taste and feel with things like sour, spicy, sweet, cooling, metallic, dry and beyond.
After all of that’s done, you can see your top recommendations.
What kind of Cigar Sense recommendations did you get?
With the three I put in, and the adjustments to my tasting notes, these are the top ten cigars recommended to me:
H Upmann Connossieur A
La Aroma de Cuba Connecticut
Davidoff Winston Churchill
Joya de Nicaragua Número Uno Le Premier
Matilde Serena Maduro
RafaelGonzález Perlas
CLE Connecticut
West Tampa Tobacco Company Red
San Cristobal Revelation Legend
El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme
You also have the option to prevent the system from showing cigars that are difficult to find, which I did.
What’s interesting is that some of these recommendations I have had, some I have not, and a couple I’ve never even heard of. But from what I do know, I’d say it’s pretty spot on at recommending cigars in my preferred flavor channels.
For each recommendation, there’s an option to approve or disapprove, with simple thumbs up and thumbs down indicators. You can also dig deeper into your profile and adjust personalizations for nicotine strength, wrapper types, ring gauge, flavors, price range, and more. You can, for example, select which price ranges you’d like to see recommendations from.
How much does the Cigar Sense Premium plan cost?
Cigar Sense Premium is $97 per year, and it includes a much larger selection of cigar recommendations. But also, you’ll save money on the site’s Cigar Tasting course, webinars, and live events, and you’ll get access to those members-only events.
“Cigar Sense is the champion of the sensory experience for our industry in many ways.” – Matt Booth, Room 101 and STG Creative Director
Something I didn’t touch on above is that you get your personalized cigar log on the site, accessible from desktop or mobile. So, you can log and rate all the cigars you try along your journey, including scoring them yourself and jotting down flavor notes you taste. That will help align your smart search on the site for new recommendations.
So, basically, as I’m trying out the cigars that the service recommended, I can share my experiences and fine-tune what shows up in the future. The more you engage and interact, the better the recommendations get.
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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