Quote Originally Posted by wabashcr View Post
Oh look. Katman declared it a flavor bomb. He said the same thing in the Los Blancos Premiere Selection review I linked to earlier in this thread. I actually enjoy his reviews, but he likes a lot of stuff I would never touch. I guess that's kinda my issue with CI buying brands and contracting them out at lower quality. There are reviews out there that make people think they're good cigars, and people may think they're getting a great deal, only to find out they've paid for crap.

I just bought a box of Ave Marias on cbid last night for $60. That's $3 a stick, and even though I believe these have been CI smokes from the get go, if I get my box and find out they're not the same as all the others I've come to enjoy, I'll be pretty pissed off. I think they're fantastic morning smokes, and at $3 each, they're an incredible value.
Well first of all Katman wasn't the only one who liked it which is why I posted links to 2 other reviews. That aside we've drifted off into apples & oranges comparisons here.

AFAIK Kismet is still made by Royal Gold and isn't some no name stick rebranded because CI bought the stock of leftover bands & boxes. The same scenario applies to Ave Maria, they're made by AJF so I don't think you have anything to worry about unless you've heard something different.

The Los Blanco cigar that he reviewed was made by the company owned by David Blanco as opposed to the unnamed DR factory pumping out the dogrockets.