Ever light up a cigar that didn’t live up to your memory?  It happens to all of us, and is guaranteed to happen again as long as you’re smoking cigars.  The good news is, once you figure out the what and why, it won’t bother you as much in the future.  Assuming that your storage is on point, below are the most common reasons for what you experienced. 

"Honey, they done changed the blend!"

Contrary to popular belief, blend changes are just part of the routine at cigar factories across the globe.  Common reasons are weather conditions that change the oils and nicotine content, crop surplus or scarcity, or even cost.  Invariably, the blend will receive small tweaks each time a crop comes in to achieve the intent of the Master Blender.

Most of the time these Master Blenders try to keep original profile intact, but you can imagine how hard it is to balance hundreds of blends over time.  And, if cost or unavailability is a factor, the profile may lose priority.  What's really impressive is when you light up a consistent cigar that's been around for a long time.  This type of dedication takes an extreme attention to detail as well as resources to control the process from seed to shelf.

"But I used to love this cigar?"

Even if the blend has remained exactly the same, under the exact same weather and soil conditions over the years, chances are that your preferences could have changed.  Most of us undergo several phases over time, and move up and down the mild to full-bodied spectrum.

The most common way to approach cigars is to begin with mild-bodied smokes, progress to a full throttled maniac, and then settle down somewhere into the medium-bodied range.  If whatever you used to enjoy falls outside the scope of what you’re smoking nowadays, you can bet your ass that your preferences have changed.

We call this the baseline, and it’s an interesting affect where what we’ve smoked in the past determines how much we’ll enjoy cigars in the future.  How often you smoke and what you’re smoking will determine how flexible this baseline is.  This is one of the reasons that cigar reviewing is so subjective, as everyone has their own foundations with which opinions are built upon. 

It's Like Trying to Hit a Moving Target

What if the blend has remained exactly the same over time (unlikely), your tastes haven’t budged an inch in years (unlikely), and you still don’t like a cigar from a box that you used to treat yourself with?  That, my friends, is because Father Time has stepped in to piss in your cheerios.

I say this jokingly, but many a cigar has become a disappointing shadow of its former self as the months and years go by.  Every blend has its own internal timer that determines when it will be the perfect cigar…  For you!  Being able to recognize when a box is in the sweet spot is an extremely valuable gift. 

Which brings us to the heart of the matter: it’s all a moving target.  The blend, your preferences, the oils, and nicotine content are all revolving around each other waiting to line up for the perfect experience. 

Maybe it’s just not your day

Lastly, if the cigar that you’ve selected just didn’t do it for ya like old times, you may just be having a bad day.  It’s unavoidable, extremely frustrating, and can often reduce your satisfaction rather than the cigar improving your mood.

If you’d like to read further into how mood, ambiance, and weather can affect taste, check out this article here.

Tell Us! When was the last time that one of your cigars failed to live up to prior experiences?