Cigar Sense Inc. are excited to launch their Product Excellence Award program, created to give recognition to those cigar companies producing premium cigars that:
- consistently meet high standards in terms of draw, burn, production consistency, sensory and other key quality indicators, and
- meet a majority of consumers’ preferences much better than other cigars.
From the outset, Cigar Sense has been focused on assessing cigars in two main dimensions: the overall quality of the cigar, as measured by an expert tasting panel, and the degree to which each cigar meets each individual smoker’s personal preferences.
While there are many ways one could assess product quality, Cigar Sense is focused not on the various steps of the production process, but on the final outcome as measured by attributes like the draw, burn, absence of off-flavors and others. David Wells, Vice President of Cigar Sense Inc. explains “These attributes are relatively objective in the sense that a clean steady burn, for instance, is universally considered good. In other words, these quality attributes are generally not a matter of personal preference – virtually everyone could agree on what is good in these attributes and what is not.”
Other characteristics though are matter of personal taste. Which aromas and flavors each of us likes or dislikes are individual preferences, not universal measures of quality. Over the years, in order to serve their members, Cigar Sense has always assessed both and used them to provide personalized cigar recommendations to their members. Cigars which do not meet our internal standard for quality are never recommended to anyone. Those which do are recommended to their members based on the cigars’ degree of fit to each consumer’s unique tastes.
With some years of history now assessing premium cigars across tens of thousands tested samples, Cigar Sense have seen some products clearly demonstrate excellent quality and pleasure for their members.
“All recommended cigars in our database are candidates for the Product Excellence Awards program, regardless of the cigar company size and of their relationship to Cigar Sense. This is possible because today we are able to reliably base our measurements on our independent panel tests and on the validated data of our growing number of members for whom we have inferred preferences with a consistently high level of satisfaction, which has been around 90%+ during the last years” Franca Comparetto, Cigar Sense Inc.’s President and CEO adds.
This exclusive recognition will be limited to 25-30 cigars per year and will be presented to the respective cigar companies representatives by Cigar Sense.
If you own a premium cigar production company, you are invited to allow Cigar Sense to contact you via this form https://bit.ly/CigarSenseAwards : first, to ensure the cigars eligible for the awards are not being discontinued and are available in most of Cigar Sense members’ countries. In addition, a detailed cigar analysis including the measurements that led to the award will be gifted.
The first Product Excellence Award was presented to the Vandermarliere Cigar Family on 16 March 2022, in occasion of the Milan visit of their Global Brand Ambassador, Brian Shapiro. The recognized cigar is the Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado.
Read more: https://www.cigarsense.com/product-excellence-awards-by-cigar-sense/
Cigar Sense Inc. is a USA based internet startup delivering independent advice to premium cigar lovers. In addition to personalized recommendations, Cigar Sense helps both consumers and industry representatives develop a deeper understanding of their unique tastes, discern and enhance their sensory and professional experiences through a data and science based approach. The company adopts sensory science methodologies to develop core cigar profiles and to understand and meet consumers’ preferences.
