Is it just me?

[discdog]

That was Mac's blind taste test. It was alot of fun. By the way, where is Mac? We were supposed to do this every couple of months.

[Poriggity]

Yeah I havent seen mac in a while.. I really enjoyed the first review setup we did... Can't wait to do another.  If I had a decent B&M around here, I'd get the next blind taste test going.
Scott  

[FSU Stogie]

Hmm, next month I will see what I can do, maybe I will set up a blind tasting

 

-Ben

[Mark]

Hmm, next month I will see what I can do, maybe I will set up a blind tasting

 

-Ben

If you guys want, I can spearhead the next one if Ben is not up to it.

[Cigar Penguin]

Agreed.....fuentes are not that big of a deal too me.
The opus',WOAM's,and Anejos' are the only ones I feel are top notch.
Opus is a tad overhyped but since I pay msrp its not a problem.There are still some I'd rather buy instead of the opus,like VSG's.

I do like the Fuente sungrowns but the regular line and naturals just are not even average imo.There are alot of other choices.

[Rob The Long Island Cowboy]

Several excellent points here gentlemen. 

Excellent point John about expectations.  I have anticipated, acquired, and reached for several sticks with impossibly distorted expectations.  As each stick failed to achieve anything near what I was hoping for I grew to not only not enjoy them but to become illogically disgusted with them inversely proportional to how much I was looking forward to them.  This plays in large part to my experience with several fuente products as you practically have to genuflect, offer your first born, bow, kneel, hop up and down on one foot all the while spitting jellybeans to get your hands on some of their higher end lines.  No cigar could live up to the hype.  Yes, this is in part my fault for my own illusions but also part theirs for the advertising campaign that gives you the impression that smoking an opus x is the hidden eighth sacrament.   

This being said we must also consider what we look for in a cigar.  I will use beer for example.  I love budweiser.  In the can.  Most folks consider this common, unsophisticated, and rather cretinous.  They prefer fancy imports and so on.  Often times they buy a product and convince themselves they like it because they are not buying the beer but the image that goes with it.  This is the case with people drinking Heinikens and telling you that it's a German beer.  Case in point the spring break tools drinking corona.  Show me a man with a spaten or a grolsch and I know you buy the beer because you like it.

The same is true with cigars.  You have an opus in your collection it's like you've arrived.  It's as if you're suddenly supposed to be taken seriously amongst your peers and those in the hobby as being both knowledgeable and a force to be reckoned with.  People buy lexuses because of the status and allusion that goes with them even though they're a toyota avalon in disguise.   

Fuente has cultivated this image quite successfully through their marketing.  The opus x ads are particularly hilarious.  Father and son in the fields.  Son shining brightly on the beautiful lush farm.  You'd think carlito was cradling the baby jesus for chrissake.  Everyone in the hobby and without knows the fuente name.  It is an excemplary marketing machine. 

This being said I don't subscribe to it.  If the anejo was released on a quarterly basis for example it would lose the luster.  If the opus was more readily available it would become less the artifact that it is today.  Folks in stores often buy the opus and anejo singles not so much because they want one but because if they come back tomorrow they might not have the chance.  The fuentes make a great product.  Not head and shoulders above the other offerings of padron, ozgener, hansotia and so on though.  Where they differentiate themselves is the marketing.  The problem  arises when we take the marketing and reflect it back on the product, when we believe that the product is everything that the ads say and then some. 

Marketing is meant to highlight the strengths of a product and to present it in a favorable light so as to make it appear to be better than it's peers.  Not that it IS better than it's peers.  

My point is this.  In cigars as in everything else in your life you are attracted to and subscribe to those themes that you value personally.  Me, I like bald Tim Ozgener leaning on a wall puffing his new offering.  Working class, blue collar image.  I dig it.  Though I'm sure Tim isn't hurting in the wallet.  I like Camacho's black ad.  Say uncle.  Nice.  No bells and whistles bad ass mother.  Check.  I like Mustangs.  Would never own a Lincoln or Caddy if you gave them to me.  I like jeans.  And real jeans by lee not designer ones from diesel.  I find the fuente ads and supply situation offensive.  I won't wait in line or beg for product that I have to pay for but that's just me.  The fact that you have to wait for line and beg for them is exactly what appeals to others. Bottom line is it's what's right for you.  None are better or worse.  It's all in the perspective of the individual.        

 

[Rob The Long Island Cowboy]

dirka-dirka? 

[Tonto]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ROFLMFAO!!

 

BTW....You didn't mention flannel & I do like Beck's Dark....

[Rob The Long Island Cowboy]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ROFLMFAO!!

 

BTW....You didn't mention flannel & I do like Beck's Dark....

Ah the Robster and flannel...

[Tonto]

Ah the Robster and flannel...