The Evil Dr. Moki's Group Blind Taste Test #1

Group Blind Taste Test #1 Summary

Here's a summary of the results from The Evil Dr. Moki's Group Blind Taste Test #1

Raw Data

Here's the spreadsheet I used to enter the raw data into:



Cigar Rankings



 #1 -- 6.94/10 -- Cigar #3,  non-Cuban Cabaiguan WCD 120, 2007 -- (10/10 thought Cuban)
 #2 -- 6.65/10 -- Cigar #4,  Cuban Bolivar Gold Medal, 2007 -- (5/10 thought Cuban)
 #3 -- 6.60/10 -- Cigar #7,  non-Cuban Davidoff Millennium Blend Lonsdale, 2006 -- (3/10 thought Cuban)
 #4 -- 6.45/10 -- Cigar #9,  non-Cuban Avo LE05, 2005 -- (3/10 thought Cuban)
 #5 -- 6.45/10 -- Cigar #5,  non-Cuban Ashton ESG Robusto, 20067 -- (2/10 thought Cuban)
 #6 -- 6.39/10 -- Cigar #1,  Cuban H.Upmann Naturales tubos, early 1980s -- (8/9 thought Cuban)
 #7 -- 6.28/10 -- Cigar #8,  non-Cuban Tatuaje Cojonu 2003, 2005 -- (3/10 thought Cuban)
 #8 -- 6.19/10 -- Cigar #10, Cuban Cohiba Panatela, 2003 -- (10/10 thought Cuban)
 #9 -- 5.75/10 -- Cigar #6,  Cuban San Cristobal de la H. La Punta, 2001 -- (7/10 thought Cuban)
#10 -- 5.45/10 -- Cigar #2, non-Cuban Ashton VSG "Round" Robusto, 1997 -- (1/10 thought Cuban)

The same data, presented two different ways:





Testers and their Scores

Here's a chart of each tester and their respective ratings for each cigar:



Some are more positive than others in general, others are more negative in general, and some are just bipolar.

Conclusions

So what do we make of all of this? Individually, people were not very good at picking out Cuban vs. non-Cuban. However collectively, they did a pretty good job "voting" which cigars were Cuban and which were not... except for the Cabaiguan, which everyone thought was Cuban, and it was not... and the Bolivar Gold Medal, which as split 50/50 in terms of Cuban vs. non-Cuban.

In terms of the cigar ratings, every single cigar was all over the map... there was no consensus on any cigar in terms of people liking it or not. The closest we came to a consensus, and the cigar with the lowest standard deviation, was the Cabaiguan WCD 120... which also ended up with the highest average result.

Short of that, it was completely a crapshoot. For any given cigar, some people would love it, and some would hate it. That might reinforce the old maxim "Smoke what you like!"

It's certainly instructive to read everyone's review of the same cigar -- often times, it sounds like they are smoking completely different cigars. Is anyone "right" and anyone "wrong"? Absolutely not... taste is very subjective.

The Future

I plan on doing more blind taste testings. As interesting as it is to see people's guesses for various things, I'm thinking that for successive rounds, I won't ask people to guess the origin, marca, etc. Instead of trying to determine any statistical trends by what people think a cigar is, I will instead just rely on what the cigar actually is for any conclusions. I think then people will focus more on the review of the cigar rather than trying to "get it right".

I also think that I was remiss in not establishing a "ratings scale" guide for everyone, so that we'd all be on the same page in terms of what a "7" meant for a particular cigar, for instance.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who participated -- it was a blast!

Thank you so much for the Blind Tasting Andrew! It was a blast :thumbs:

Andrew, I was flattered to be included with the group for this taste test. I was a lot of fun and even when the tastes weren't going my way, I enjoyed the challenge of reviewing each cigar a great deal. Learned a couple of things, too......

Thanks again, and the very Best Regards - B.B.S.

OUTSTANDING :thumbs:

Thanks to the Evil Dr. Moki for putting this together and to the tasters for sacrificing themselves for this bold endevor .

Thanks for including me in this taste test Andrew. I learned a lot about cigars and more importantly, about what I like in a cigar. It was a great experience.

....and for the record...I don't own an MRN

Brickhouse said:

Thanks for including me in this taste test Andrew. I learned a lot about cigars and more importantly, about what I like in a cigar. It was a great experience.

....and for the record...I don't own an MRN

Click to expand...

MRN owns you! Nice job in the taste testing, Wyatt!

This has been by FAR, the most interesting cigar related thread I have EVER read.

Puts a whole new perspective on ratings and reviews. Thanks, guys, for your significant investment of time and energy put into this project :thumbs:


Dennis~

Thank you Moki and all tasters. This has been a most enjoyable thread to read. I am completely blown away by your abilities to distinguish the subtle differences in the various cigars presented. Being rather new to premiums, I have trouble identifying a cigar I smoked two days ago.

Moki, I look forward to reading your next blind taste test thread.

Thank you again gentlemen for your time and effort. It was most enlightening.

Cheers to all the participants and to Moki for putting this on. Fascinating from start to finish.

Thanks Andrew, I learned a lot about how I smoke cigars. When I smoke cigars in more of a relaxed situation the cigar always tastes better.

Oh,Wyatt, I call shenanigan's on your ass! Where the hell did you get the crystal ball?

Thanks Moki and all the testers! That was incredibly fun to read from start to finish! I look forward to the next one!

A HUGE thanks to Moki and to all the participants of the blind taste test.

This was really a lot of fun to read.

Wow, what a great thread! Thanks to everyone involved, especially Moki for putting it all together and giving us such a good summary. It is very interesting to see just how much everyone's tastes varied (or didn't, in a couple cases). There's certainly a lot of food for thought here.

Thank you Andrew for setting this little test up. I loved that you all showed how different we can be when taste buds and personal likes come in to play. This was one of those long treads that at the end I actually wanted to read more. To all that took this test thank you for some great reviews.

great work moki

Smokyballs said:

Thanks Andrew, I learned a lot about how I smoke cigars. When I smoke cigars in more of a relaxed situation the cigar always tastes better.

Click to expand...

I definitely agree -- your mood and the setting has a significant impact on how much you'll enjoy a cigar, at least from my experience. Since taste has been scientifically linked to emotion/mood, this makes sense.

This was probably one of the most informative and enjoyable threads that I've read. I appreciate everyone who was involved in this process, the tasters for putting themselves out there on a consistent basis and especially for Moki, considering all the time and effort that must have been required to put all this together. I will definitely be looking forward to Blind Taste Test #2! Thanks, again.

Hopefully Rod won't mind me bumping these threads... just thought some folks might find the blind reviews interesting.

Nice bump. This was fun to follow and great to re-read. One vote here for a spider chart in the next go round.

Thanks for bumping this. It looked like it was fun for those involved. It was fun to read too.

I find the span of the ratings to be interesting. Some cigars got a 1s and 9s by different reviewers, and other were very consistent. They all averaged close together and the best smoke ever for everyone is still up in the air.