How cigar ratings work

Every rated cigar on Cigarbench carries one number between 0 and 100. This page says what that number is and what it is not.

How to read it

• 90 and above is the top of the catalog. That is the convention hobbyists already use, and we kept it rather than invent a new scale.
• Most rated cigars sit between the low 70s and the mid 90s. The ends of the scale take a lot of agreeing reviews to reach.
• A cigar is only rated at five reviews or more. Below that we show no score rather than a number with nothing behind it.

The count printed next to the score is how many reviews stand behind it. Treat it as the confidence: a 91 from 40 reviews and a 91 from 5 are not the same claim.

Where the number comes from

Cigarbench does not run a tasting panel. The score blends several independent bodies of cigar reviews — professional critics, hobbyist communities, and buyers rating what they bought.

Those groups do not use the same scale, do not agree with each other, and are not equally consistent. The method exists to combine them fairly.

How it is built

Each source keeps its own scale. Ratings are stored as they were given. Nothing is converted on the way in, so a change in the method is a recalculation, not a lost record.

Each source earns its own weight. A body of reviewers who agree with each other across many cigars is trusted quickly. A body who disagree with each other has to speak louder to move a score. Nobody at Cigarbench sets those weights by hand; they come from each source's own behaviour.

Thin evidence is held back. A cigar with few reviews is pulled toward the middle until more reviews arrive. One five-star review is not the best cigar in the world, and the score says so.

Then it blends. The sources are put on one scale and combined, weighted by how much evidence each brought, and mapped onto 0–100.

What the score cannot tell you

• It is not your taste. Aggregate opinion is a starting point for what to buy, not a prediction of what you will enjoy.
• It says nothing about an unrated cigar. Most of the catalog has too few reviews to score. Unrated means unmeasured, not bad.
• We publish no review prose. The number ships without quotes beside it.
• It has no view on your particular stick. Storage, humidity, and the roll itself vary. See how long cigars last in a humidor.

The score changes

It is recalculated from the raw ratings on every catalog build. New reviews can move a score. Nothing is frozen except the original ratings.

See it in use

• Best cigars — score 90 or better with ten reviews or more.
• Best cigars for beginners — the same score, filtered to mild and cheap.
• Browse the catalog by rating.