[Raralith]

I don't understand your supporting statements since there's isn't a whole lot of support.

1. Were they all blind test? How many did you smoke? How many did you have other people try? This is pretty subjective too...

2. I would love to see someone saying this, or a manufacturing commenting on this. I couldn't find anything to support this either.

3. I can't say I agree with what you are saying. The big guys get incredible discounts because they buy in such large quantities. The supplier is willing to make less margin on each cigar if they can sell ten times that amount. This may or may not effect the tabacoo, but being such a big distributor, if you are out of one cigar, you have 50 others that you can sell in its place. I can't see how a big guy could not be aware of what they are getting either. It's not like they are only employing 2 people, and being such a big distributor, there probably is a customer service and quality control department.

I have tried side by side comparisons, and it rarely ever works out since almost every single B&M I've gone to keeps their cigars at 70RH and its much too wet. When I take them home though and compare, I personally don't see a difference. Cigar wise, I think it would be hard pressed to show impericle evidence that B&M cigars are better than online retailers simply because so much about cigars are all subjective. What probably plays the most important factor is how a B&M stores their cigars. I've seen some that are just terrible, and others very well maintained.

Honestly, a cigar is just a cigar. What makes a good cigar better is perception and mood. Take for example tea; I love tea. Tea's great, and I've got a lot of different brands, variety, and even aged tea. But, the best tea is tea with good friends and company, and even the highest grade tea taste terrible when one is in a foul mood.