It seems like only yesterday that 20 cigar lovers of all ages and types from across the country were first gathered to conduct a blind-taste evaluation of premium cigars for Smoke's premiere issue in Winter 1995.

A few of the cigar brands profiled in that historic first Cigar Review - Don Marcos, Los Libertadores - are now themselves history. Others have either gone away and been reborn, or hung around and been revitalized, like Troya, Felipe Gregorio, Dunhill, Joya de Nicaragua, and Torano Virtuoso. Still others were relative newcomers with no idea of the smashing success the coming decade would bring - venerable tobacco families redefining themselves like Fuente and Padron, and cigar biz upstarts like C.A.O. and Avo Uvezian.

Now, as we close out the Winter of 2005, we fondly recall many hundreds more cigars, tasted and rated by many dozens of helpful cigar panelists. There have been a few significant changes in the Review section itself: No numerical ratings were given in that first issue, a sincere attempt to be as objective as possible in the evaluations, acknowledging that everyone's cigar tastes were different. After two years, we bowed to the will of a majority of readers who felt that some sort of numerical rating would be more useful in making their choices, establishing our long-held five-point system. Just one year ago, we evolved again, expanding the scoring range to 10 points. The design of the Review section has also undergone a number of revamps intended to make it an easier read and a more streamlined source of vital cigar information.

SMOKE Cigar Ratings
Rating	Quality
0-5.9	Poor
6.0-6.9	Fair
7.0-7.9	Average
8.0-8.5	Good
8.6-9.0	Very Good
9.1-9.5	Excellent
9.6-10.0	Superior

Through it all, one thing has remained the same: the reviews and scores are awarded not by us (though we like to think we're pretty knowledgeable about the subject here) but by you. Our reviewers have included doctors, lawyers, authors, school principals, musicians, policemen, sales professionals, soldiers active and retired, and numerous representatives from nearly every career field and walk of life - including retail tobacco dealers from just about every state in the Union.

In this issue's Cigar Review, in the spirit of the first issue, a conscious effort was made to balance the reliable titans of the cigar world with the emerging boutique superstars - some of which just may become to the late 2000s what Fuente and Padron were to the late '90s. That's why you'll find household-word brands like Punch (Honduras), Partagas, H. Upmann (Dominican Republic), and Romeo y Julieta (Cuba, this issue's top scorer at 9.2) alongside up-and-comers like Fittipaldi (Dominican Republic), Shakespeare (Honduras) and La Carolina (Nicaragua) and a host of other brands of more recent vintage. In keeping with Smoke's decade of cigar evaluation, you'll note that quality and consistency - rather than simply reputation - rises to the top of the rankings.

With the crazy days of the cigar boom now history, today's manufacturers, whether they've been around for 50 years or 15 months, are now more dedicated than ever to serving a marketplace that demands substance over empty hype and expensive packaging. Looking back, we'd like to think that our little no-bull forum played some small part in that.

Of course, none of it would have been possible without the panelists who pressed their unbiased palates into service over the past 10 years. David Saba of Chandler, AZ; John Crandall of Valley City, ND; and Anthony Bibb of Sacramento are the latest to be chosen in our online "Become A Reviewer" Contest. If you're interested in joining their ranks, click here to enter our contest. But first be sure to check out the following pages for our detailed cigar reviews.

So let's raise a cigar and a celebratory cocktail in a toast - to 10 great years of Smoke, a new one on the horizon, and a premium cigar renaissance with, thankfully, no end in sight.