How many cigars before your own notes start telling you something
Around thirty entries, and only if the scale stayed still.
Around thirty entries is where patterns stop being noise. Before that you have anecdotes; after it you start seeing which origins, wrappers and formats you actually rate higher — as opposed to which ones you say you like.
Why five entries mislead
With a handful of notes, one memorable evening dominates everything. A cigar smoked on holiday scores high, and suddenly you "prefer Dominican" on the strength of one afternoon in good weather. Small samples do not average out conditions, and conditions are most of the variance.
What shows up around thirty
- Origin and wrapper preferences you did not know you had, usually contradicting what you tell people.
- Format effects — many discover they rate the same blend higher in a smaller ring gauge.
- Blind spots: categories you rate well but hardly ever buy.
- Your own drift: the same cigar scoring differently a year apart.
Do this: once you pass thirty entries, sort them by score and read the top ten. That list is your taste, stated by your own hand — and for most people it is not the list they would have recited from memory.
The requirement nobody mentions
Patterns only appear if the scale stayed still. A journal where the meaning of "8" drifted upward over two years produces confident conclusions about nothing. Keep the scale fixed, score before reading anyone else's opinion, and note the conditions when they were unusual.
What thirty entries will never tell you
Whether a cigar is objectively good. Whether you would like a blend you have not tried. Whether your palate is right. A journal describes one person, which is exactly what makes it more useful than an average of strangers — and exactly why it cannot settle an argument with one.
Same scale, every entry
Every tasting in Ligero is scored out of ten on the same scale, which is the condition patterns depend on. Entries stay searchable by brand, line and your own words, so the top of your list is a search rather than an exercise in memory.
Read next
Scoring out of ten so the number means something
A score is a sorting tool. It only sorts if you use the whole scale.
Tasting & notesSmoking the same cigar twice: what to record the second time
The second note is where a journal stops being a diary and starts being data.
Storage & ageingPast thirty cigars, memory stops working
Not because you are forgetful. Because the questions get harder than recall.