How to use tobaccoreviews.com
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this site for some time. I can say without hesitation that its all but worthless for simply looking up a blend and getting a solid consensus of opinion. Too many bandwagoners, fanboys, axe-grinders, and frankly, people with no clue. My favorite example is the guy who reviews Old Joe Krantz and compares it to a balkan and questions whether it has Perique.
This blend remind’s of a dryer version of some balkan blends, that are out there.(But,they say there’s no latakia?) … I really didn’t notice the perique,very much,if at all???
Those who know and love the blend as I do know it’s a burley based blend with no Latakia or Oriental leaf at all, and a monumental amount of Perique! Yet this gentleman’s obviously mis-informed review and grade is counted against the overall score on the site.
But I’m attracted to to tobaccoreviews.com like a moth to the flame anyway. I just can’t help it. I’m in this hobby for the tobacco, and I love reading about blends, even when there is a lot of garbage among that reading.
A great way to sort out that garbage is find other reviewers you trust. This takes some work, but it is very do-able. Go to a blend you know very well, be it one you don’t like that much or one at the top of your list. Go through the reviews until you find one that matches your impressions of the blend. Now work your way through the site’s clunky navigation system to find the list of reviews for that reviewer. Find other blends he’s reviewed that you like and check those reviews to see if they match as well. If a lot of them do, you have a winner! Reading this person’s reviews of blends you haven’t tried will probably prove much more useful than sorting through the rubbish wondering who to trust.
Too bad the site doesn’t have a better navigation system and maybe some mechanisms like “favorite reviewer” or such. I’ve heard of people knowledgeable about web databases who have offered to help out with such things and they’re turned down or ignored. Sad.
