Selected from a field of almost 150 final applicants, we’re excited to announce that Cigar Public’s Founding Review Team is 30 members strong. Chosen for their exceptional palates, each is eager to share their skills for the benefit of all cigar lovers. Over the next month, you will be introduced to each of them and their unique personalities and perspectives.
As cigar heads first and foremost, we wanted to ensure that the Cigar Public review format would be as fair and as possible. It is with this in mind that we have made our review format completely blind – absolutely no reviewer will know anything about the cigars they are reviewing.
Cigars that we have made available for the review pool and cigars that we receive from manufacturers and blenders for review are carefully unbanded, numbered, and then distributed to members of the review team on a completely randomized basis. Every reviewer’s rating is based on 2 of the same cigars per review.
When any distribution involves multiple products from any one brand, we ensure that they are each spread across multiple reviewers. Reviewers are not allowed to submit more than one review a week in order to preserve their palates. Reviewers also make sure that any cigar they are reviewing is their first of the day so that their palates are fresh and clean.
Knowing all that, please keep in mind that we want our reviews to be as fair and credible as possible. We encourage brands to reach out if something in a review seems off or you’d like to provide additional information or additional cigars for a fresh re-review. Our aim is for cigars and cigar culture to become even more widely understood, and respecting that these are handmade products we always want to give the makers and the readers the best and most accurate information. To that end, we will always offer to publish correspondence from any brands that wish to provide additional information in response to a blind review.
Finally, and to be as clear as possible, whether it be reviews or even general articles – we are not attempting to replace anyone in traditional cigar media – we’re looking to fill the gaps and serve a large and growing segment of the cigar community that is looking for something they may not always be able to find somewhere else.
