AJ Blends Just Suck

Smokindaddy

I know this thread is going to be very unpopular with a lot of the members of this forum, remember this is just my personal opinion and review, if you do not agree please be kind and respectful.

Through the forums here I have met a lot of amazing people, and getting to know what people like and being able to share what I like has been a great part of the process. I have been very fortunate to have received some awesome sticks from members here due to trades or bombs and just like many of the members here I will try a stick a few times before I completely write it off. That being said....

AJ blends and brands, for me, just suck!! I have tried and revisited a lot of his stuff lately. I know he is known as the budget blender and thats exactly what they are for me. I look at his product and yes I agree the price he offers his stuff at is hard to beat, but to me it really comes down to what kind of cigar smoker you are. Personally I would much rather save a little more of my budget up and buy better quality over having yard gar quantity taking up space in my wineador. Don't get me wrong, I do have my go to stick that I refer to as my yard gar, but I have very few of them. Reason being, getting to smoke a cigar is a treat for me. I smoke a couple times of week and when I do smoke it's not going to be an UHC or Man of War. I could treat cigar smoking as a daily thing but in my opinion it would not have the same meaning behind it as it did when I first got into the hobby. I jumped into this hobby not because cigars tasted good, the first stick I ever smoked was a baccarat, I got into this hobby because of the history behind it. Cigar smoking was once and kind of still is a very classy thing to do. Cigars were smoked for special occasions and to celebrate new life and for the more avid smokers, cigars were a treat or a show of status. Now days with some of the quality of sticks that are out there, and the quantity that are being smoked, is like having a humidor full of 3-5 dollar cigarette singles. Over the past 12 years I have been able to depict what I like in a cigar and what flavor profile does it for me. So now it's just not the history that I enjoy with this hobby.

Back to the review; In my opinion, most AJ blends are the same. I don't get much difference at all. There is nothing that grabs my attention and makes me think I need to buy a box of any of the sticks Ive smoked. I have tried AJ sticks ROTT and aged and have not been impressed. I honestly think that AJ and everything he produces is over hyped due to his training from a known master blender and add to that pricing that would blind and convince anyone to buy mass quantitys of below average sticks. To sum this review up, I am not a fan of AJ Fernandez and probably never will be.

I know there are a lot of AJ fans out there and Im sorry if what I wrote upsets you. I also know there are a lot of people on the forums that will disagree with some of the brands I love, such as Padron, and thats totally fine. There is one thing I can offer to AJ fans, sticks. If your an AJ fan PM your addy and anytime I get AJ sticks sent my way, I will be more then happy to send them out equally to everyone.

Gaetano7890

Well now that I have calmed down about it and am ready to reply I will admit this post has opened my eyes to try other blends. I will agree with smokingdaddy that some of aj more expensive blends ie armada and the new diesel did not wow me haven't had the armada corona yet. I will say the core and ave Maria conq were amazing and I love them.. With my purchase of the little monsters I have been really enjoying DPG and JDN and have a htf padron from bandy that I will enjoy soon which will be my first padron that is not the original. I can see why aj blends don't appeal to everyone and that initial spice that is in all his blends that I love I can see others not enjoying it. Ian open to trading one day and I promise to not send any aj sticks maybe lol. On a side note I can't trash any of your smokes they all look pretty good even the ones I don't like since you enjoy them I respect it. My nature is to talk a lot of trash so I hope it was not taken personal cause it was not ment that way. I will say in meeting aj for a brief period at cigar fest he seemed very humble and extremely nice compared to other famous people thati have met.