Im confused by
@Jfire list. Am I on there as an "elitist" smoker because i transitioned away from NCs to CCs only? If that's the case then i get what your list means because i know and interact with pretty much everyone on there and know what they tend to smoke.
My transition was gradual, but inevitable in hindsight. The last NC i tried to smoke was a Padron 1964 and it was disgusting. about 12 puffs and i flung it. Only smoked it becuase i ran out of sticks up north. It was so bad i would rather smoke nothing.
Doesnt mean a lot of people dont enjoy them. I used to at one point. Fuente, Tats, Roma, Warped, CH, etc.
But my palette chased a more flavorful balance of strength and taste that I could only find in CCs. I think a large driver in this was doing blind reviews. Blind reviews removed all of the expectations and pre-judgements and allowed me to focus solely on flavor and experience. For me, this pushed me towards chasing the flavor spectrum differently and as a result of trying some key CCs while traveling abroad, it threw me off the cliff. Add to that, the chase for limited NCs and some of the prices went overboard well before the CC regional lunacy of late.
Ive removed myself from the regional/limited CC chasing lately and have been focusing on building a stockpile for years to come. Why? Because to me, CCs with 3, 5, 10, or 20 years cant be competed with. I smoked a 1998 Partagas 898V with 3 other gents on a cruise last month. They spent the week smoking Olivas and other dogshit cigars(my opinion i guess, even though its true) and the 98 898 blew their friggin minds. We all sat around marveling at the semi-mildness, but overwhelming amount of flavor. So much so that 2 of them said they were saving the bands for some display of sorts LOL.
I havent seen too many guys excited about smoking any 1998 NCs, so maybe theres some credence to
@Jfire claims of the downhill aging of NCs. I havent had too much impress me from the NC realm thats been more than a couple years old in my experience. Its all personal preference so people can smoke whatever, but Im pretty damn confident I will never smoke another NC. And I sure as hell am not buying NCs to smoke in 2025 as I am now with CCs.