A year of keeping records: what it changes
Mostly it changes what you buy, and it does that by disagreeing with you.
After a year the record starts contradicting you, and that is the entire value. People discover their favourite brand is not the one they rate highest, and that half their shelf is a category they rarely reach for.
What usually turns up
- A gap between stated and revealed taste. You say Nicaraguan; your scores say Dominican corona on a weekday.
- The format effect. Most people rate smaller formats higher than they expected.
- Rest matters more than brand. The same cigar at six months and at two weeks often differs by two points.
- Buying and smoking are different lists. Nearly everyone owns boxes of sevens and singles of nines.
Do this: once a year, sort every entry by score and read the top ten and the bottom five. Twenty minutes, and it will change your next order more than any review you read this year.
What stops being a question
"Is this ready", "have I smoked this", "did I like it", "how long has that box been down there". None of them require thought once they are written down, and all of them consume attention when they are not.
The cost, honestly
About a minute per cigar. That is the whole price, and the reason most journals fail is that people design a form that takes ten minutes and then stop using it in week three.
A minute per cigar, and it accumulates
One screen: the band photo, a score out of ten, two sentences. A year of that is a searchable record of your own taste, on the same scale throughout, syncing between your phones — and none of it is public unless you publish it.
Read next
How many cigars before your own notes start telling you something
Around thirty entries, and only if the scale stayed still.
Storage & ageingPast thirty cigars, memory stops working
Not because you are forgetful. Because the questions get harder than recall.
People & reviewsFewer and better: what a year of your own records shows
Most people smoke more cigars than they enjoy, and own more than they smoke.