Excel your smoking

[taerin]

I just took the time (about 2 hours) to go over and rate (1-10) all the tobacco I have ever tried, both pipes and cigars and created my inventory/reordering system as well. I apparently smoked 42 differint pipe tobacco blends and 13 differint kinds of cigars since I started in 2010. The great thing is, I had a record of every single brand of pipe tobacco I ever smoked and most of the cigars I have smoked, so now I can keep track of this stuff over my entire lifetime. I think it is a neat idea, much easier when you have good records and your a beginner like me. I find the 1-5 ratings at tobaccoreviews.com too restrictive, at 1-10 you get a much better feel for your likes.

 

[gwtwdbss]

That is a pretty good idea Eric. It would be neat to have a column for a second evaluation once a particular tobacco is aged for some time. And of course a smokers opinion would need to be reevaluated as their taste in tobacco may change over the course of their smoking career.

 

[taerin]

I just update the score when I feel differintly about a tobacco. I like to keep the system as uncomplicated as possible. I keep everything sorted by the score.

 

[judcole]

I have a log I have been keeping for close to 10 years. Started with a 4 star system, but have moved to a 1-10 scale.

 

[cortezattic]

I like the 1-to-3 scale: don't like it, indifferent, good. I could never distinguish a 7 from an 8, for example.

Anyway, my tastes change, and a 1-to-3 scale isn't always reliable. Sometimes you can slice the baloney too thin.

 

[shawn622]

I'm way too unorganized. I need to do something like this eventually.

 

[ghost]

It's a great idea, but for me my pipes are an escape from spreadsheets...

 

[mick]

I agree that the tobaccoreview ratings are basically meaningless (but then again, unless you rated it yourself, all ratings alone with qualifiers are meaningless).
Good idea keeping a log. You could actually do it all online and keep a journal (blog) for your own personal pleasure. That way it's easy to add links and/or pictures.

 

[cigrmaster]

bulldog, I will respectfully disagree with you about review sites being meaningless. I have found almost all of my favorites from tobaccoreviews.com. Back before sites like this existed, that was the only place you could get an opinion about all the different blends. I found people who liked the same things I liked and then would read their other reviews and buy things based on that. It has been an invaluable resource for me over the years. I would take the opinions of certain older more established members and use their reviews to determine if I wanted to try something or not. I also would use their star ratings and try 4 star tobaccos and then go down from there. I could list at least 40 blends that I found on that site that I have enjoyed.

 

[mick]

cigrmaster, I probably did not spend enough time getting to know reviewers, that's for sure. I can see how following people with similar tastes as your own is beneficial and I'll try that. What I found particularly meaningless is reading one and four star reviews of the same tobacco. There is really so much that goes into a smoke: smoker's body chemistry/taste, the smoker's packing, puffing and tamping habits, the moisture level of the tobacco, etc. Too many variables to make reviews all across the whole spectrum. You'll see English tobaccos that get reviewed as too much latakia, not enough latakia, too bold, too weak, too much nicotine, not enough, etc. Like I said, I'll try your method of finding a reviewer with a similar taste, but so far I haven't found it a useful resource. Thanks for the tip!

 

[photoman13]

I feel as though the review websites are good only as long as you can trust the reviewer as cigrmaster stated. Talking about excel for inventory and reviews makes me think some of you might want to check this out.

 

[revs]

Need it on my Droid. That or buy an iPod touch.

 

[numbersix]

Eric - I've been doing the same. I've been keeping a database of my tobaccos - rating room note, taste, price (though I only started mine this year).
It's a good way to remember what not to buy (for some reason, it's easier for me to remember the ones I really enjoyed than the ones that were just so-so). I have to say, I really appreciate tobaccoreviews.com, even with the 1-5 rating system. Still, I take each review with a grain of salt since it's so subjective, but it's a good place to start.

 

[ssjones]

I keep a "Pipe Log" using Excel for my pipes but don't really track my tobacco purchases/use pattern.

 

[pstlpkr]

As an inventory geek, I keep an Excel Spreadsheet with every tobacco I have ever owned, current inventory levels, and of course my meager cellar. I have links out the wahzoo on there so I can find just about anything I desire to know. Also links to reviews, my own notes and comments. I prefer the 5 stars method, but I use a decimal as well.

So, to me a 4.5 is definitely different than a 4.6. I only have a few full blown 5's.
I need to catalog my pipes... sigh. :|

 

[rigmedic1]

My tobacco diary sounds similar to Lawrence's . Over the last 5 years I have tried 128 different pipe tobaccos and logged my thoughts on all of them. Considering that I only smoked 5 different tobaccos for the previous 20 odd years, I felt I was a little behind on things. I guess I discovered that there was more to tobacco than black cavendish.

 

[ssjones]

I can upload a blank copy of my pipe log if anyone wants a copy. I just have to send you a link to my Drop-Box.

 

[jaywellington]

Funny title, kind of punny - I thought you meant '(to) excel your smoking', but it turns out you mean archiving it in Excel!

Well, it is an Excel-ent idea actually!

I keep a log -albeit a handwritten one- of the books read annually(as a matter of fact, I might start a thread about that!), never thought of having a similar one for my tobaccos.

I started smoking cigars in 2010 too, and I think I have smoked about 11 different brands and types (all inclusive-even 'Backwoods', as well as 'real' cigars, like Cohiba etc),

and I have smoked about approximately 8 different pipe tobaccos (all ribbon-pouch-aromatic).

Don't know if I ever keep an Excel record, for I favor traditional types of reading and writing over tech., but keeping a log might be a good idea anyways!

 

[gnatjulio]

Thats a great idea. I used to save cigar bands planning to rate the cigars I smoked, wound up with a cigar box full of labels. Hopefully I can get organized enough to try this here.

 

[daytonsean]

How do you rate them? What qualifies as a perfect smoke? I have a journal, and everytime I try a new blend I write down what it's like. I've never really thought about giving them a numerical value though.