Why average ratings mislead
An average is a summary of people, not of a cigar.
Two cigars can average the same score and be completely different products. One rated 7 by everybody and one rated 10 by half and 4 by the rest both average seven, and only one of them is safe to buy blind.
The distribution is the information
Polarising cigars — very strong, very sweet, very unusual — produce split ratings. That split is far more useful than the mean, because it tells you the cigar has a strong character that some people reject. An average erases exactly that.
Who is averaged matters more
People who review cigars are not a random sample: they buy more, smoke more and tolerate more strength than average. An aggregate score drawn from enthusiasts describes what enthusiasts like, which may or may not be you.
Do this: before trusting an average, look at how many people it is drawn from. Under about ten ratings, it is one or two opinions with decimal places attached.
When averages do help
For construction, they are excellent: if twenty people mention a tight draw, that is a real property of the cigar rather than a matter of taste. Averages work for facts and mislead for preferences, and most rating systems mix the two into one number.
The better question
Not "what is this rated" but "how many people who smoked it would buy it again". That is a fact about behaviour rather than an opinion about quality, and it survives the differences between palates that averages quietly flatten.
The average, and who is behind it
A cigar card in Ligero shows the average across everyone who published a review and how many people that is, alongside the individual verdicts. The number is never presented on its own, because on its own it is the least informative part.
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