The Truth About Cigar Ratings: Do 90+ Scores Really Matter?

If you spend any time around cigars—shops, lounges, forums—you’ll notice something strange very quickly. Almost everything is “90+.” It doesn’t matter if it’s a boutique release, a long-standing line, or something you’ve never heard of before. The number shows up again and again, like a stamp of approval that’s supposed to tell you everything you need to know.And yet, if you actually smoke through enough of those “90+ cigars,” the experience doesn’t always match the expectation. Some are excellent. Some are good. Some are… fine. And a few leave you wondering what exactly that number was measuring.That’s where the real conversation starts. Not whether ratings are useless—they’re not—but whether they mean what people think they mean. Because once you understand how cigar ratings actually work, and how they interact with real-world smoking, you stop chasing numbers and start using them properly.

What a 90+ Score Actually Represents

First thing to get clear: a 90-point cigar is not meant to be “perfect.” It’s meant to be very good within a controlled system.Most major cigar publications use a version of a 100-point scoring system that evaluates cigars across areas like construction, burn, draw, flavour, balance, and overall impression. It’s structured, repeatable, and designed to compare cigars against each other under relatively consistent conditions. That’s important, because without structure, ratings would just be opinions with numbers attached.But here’s the part people misunderstand. The scoring scale is not evenly distributed in practice.In theory, 50–100 is the range. In reality, anything below the mid-80s is rarely even discussed in premium cigar culture. By the time a cigar is reviewed seriously, it has already passed a quality threshold. So the real battlefield isn’t 0 to 100. It’s roughly 85 to 95. That’s where most cigars live.Which means a 90 isn’t “outstanding compared to everything.” It’s outstanding within a pre-filtered group of already decent cigars.That’s why you see so many 90+ scores. It’s not necessarily inflation in the dishonest sense. It’s compression. The lower end has already been filtered out, so the scoring cluster naturally moves upward.There’s another factor too: tasting conditions. Cigars in formal reviews are often smoked under controlled circumstances—proper storage, ideal humidity, careful lighting, consistent pacing. In other words, they’re given the best possible chance to perform. That’s very different from real life, where cigars get smoked outdoors, after meals, during conversations, sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow, sometimes slightly too wet or too dry.So a 92 in a review is not a promise that you will experience a 92 every time you light that cigar. It’s a record of what that cigar can do at its best.And that’s an important distinction.

Where Ratings Help—and Where They Start to Mislead

Ratings are useful when you treat them as filters, not conclusions.If a cigar consistently lands in the high 80s or 90+ range across different reviewers, it tells you something important: the cigar is well-made, balanced, and capable of delivering a strong experience. It reduces risk. It helps you avoid obvious disappointments.That’s especially valuable if you’re exploring new brands or unfamiliar lines. A solid rating can point you toward cigars that are worth your time and money, rather than forcing you to gamble blindly.But ratings start to mislead when they become the only decision-making tool.Because what ratings cannot capture is preference.A cigar might score 94 because it is complex, layered, and technically impressive. But if your palate prefers cleaner, simpler, more straightforward cigars, that same 94 might feel like a 7 out of 10 to you. Not because the cigar is flawed—but because it’s not aligned with what you enjoy.The opposite is also true. Some cigars that never break into the “top rated” category become personal favourites for thousands of smokers. Reliable, consistent, satisfying cigars that don’t try to impress on paper but deliver exactly what you want in the momentYou see this all the time in real conversations. Ask ten smokers what they actually smoke week to week, and you’ll hear names that don’t always match the highest scores. That gap between ratings and real-world rotation is where the truth lives.Another limitation of ratings is that they capture a cigar at a single point in time.Cigars evolve. They age. They change with storage conditions. They behave differently depending on how they’re smoked. A cigar that scores 91 fresh might become something entirely different after a year or two of rest. A cigar that felt tight in a review might open up beautifully in your humidor at a slightly different humidity.Ratings freeze a moving target.And then there’s the human factor. Even the most experienced reviewers have preferences. Some lean toward richer profiles. Some prefer elegance and subtlety. Some reward complexity more than consistency. You might not know those preferences unless you follow their work closely over time. But they’re always there, quietly influencing the final number.So the number is not wrong. It’s just not complete.

How I Actually Use Ratings Without Letting Them Control Me

I don’t ignore ratings. That would be pointless. But I also don’t chase them.For me, a rating is a starting point. If I see a cigar consistently sitting in that 90+ range, I take it as a signal that the cigar is worth trying. Not worth hoarding. Not worth chasing across countries. Just worth lighting at least once.After that, the rating stops mattering.What matters is how the cigar behaves in my hands. Does it draw easily? Does it burn without constant correction? Does the flavour hold my attention, or does it fade after the first third? Does it match the moment I’m in?Because that’s the part ratings can’t touch—the context.A cigar at noon with coffee is not the same cigar at midnight with a drink. A cigar smoked alone is not the same cigar shared with friends. A cigar after a heavy meal is not the same cigar on an empty stomach. The experience changes, and no score can adjust itself in real time to match that.That’s why some of the best smokers I know don’t talk about ratings at all once they’ve found their rotation. They talk about reliability. About mood. About which cigar fits which moment. That’s a completely different language, and it’s a more useful one in the long run.If anything, the biggest danger of ratings is that they can disconnect you from your own taste. You start second-guessing your enjoyment. You light something you love, then notice it “only scored 88,” and suddenly you feel like you missed something. Or you smoke a 94 and feel underwhelmed, and assume the problem is you.It’s not.Ratings are a map. Your palate is the destination.So do 90+ scores matter? Yes—but only if you understand what they actually represent. They point you toward quality. They reduce risk. They highlight cigars that perform well under scrutiny.But they don’t replace experience. They don’t define enjoyment. And they definitely don’t decide what you should love.Once you realise that, ratings become useful again—not as a scoreboard, but as a guide. And the real satisfaction comes back to where it always should have been: the cigar in your hand, not the number attached to it.