At first glance, the database may seem to be intimidating and too technical for some readers (and some will find it too un-technical, I'm sure). This document will serve as a sort of tutorial on the review database, and will help you to understand what aspects of a tobacco blend are measured here, and which are not. At first, we will start out by reviewing the most important page on the site, the detail page.

To orient ourselves, here is a sample detail page for a tobacco:

The typical detail page can be split into five main sections: the blend summary, the action links, the tin picture, the average ratings, and the reviews. The blend summary will appear at the top left of the page and can be found immediately underneath the name of the tobacco. At the top right of the page (just above the tin picture), you will find the action links. At the middle right, we provide a picture of the tobacco tin (if available). Just below the tin picture, you can find the average score this tobacco received for each of the ratings. Lastly (but far from least!), the reviews begin at the bottom of the screen and often continue well beyond the bottom of the screen.

We will explore the detail page by treating each section separately. First, let's take a closer look at the blend summary.

blend summary

The blend summary contains all the top-level information that is specific to the blend of tobacco you are currently viewing. Each detail page you view will contain different information, but the structure will remain the same. On the left side, you will find the name of the tobacco, along with detailed information such as the brand, the blender, the contents, the cut, and the manufacturer's description of the blend. Each of these fields are defined below:

brand

The company under whose name the tobacco is distributed.

blender

The person or company who actually blends the ingredients for this tobacco. This is frequently different from the brand of the tobacco, but is sometimes one and the same.

description

This is a description of the tobacco, as provided by either the packaging itself, or print advertising from the brand company.

country of origin

The country in which the blend was originally formulated and from which the blend is distributed. This is not necessarily the same as the country where the tobacco is blended.

group

The main classification for the blend. It can have one of the following values:

Air Cured	The air-cured group is the mildest of the curing groups. Air-cured tobaccos are first dried in open sheds, them fermented, usually in large sacks. The fermentation causes a chemical reaction in the tobacco, causing a soft flavor to develop, and reducing nicotine content.
Fire Cured	Fire-cured tobaccos are the strongest of full-strength tobaccos. They are dried by hanging them above glowing fires, and are smoke cured to achieve their distinctive flavor. This method is popular in the United States, Italy, Poland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The fire cured group is also called 'Latakia' after the Syrian port of Latakia, from which large quantities of fire-cured tobaccos originate.
Flue Cured	Flue-cured tobaccos are hung in closed sheds immediately after harvesting and dried by circulating currents of hot air. The quick drying causes the leaves to turn a yellow color. This is a popular curing method for blending tobaccos.
Sun Cured	Sun-cured tobaccos are strung into garlands and hung up, usually against sheds, for drying. Almost all Oriental tobaccos are dried in this manner.

contents

The individual types of tobacco that make up the blend.

cut

The form in which the tobacco is offered (Broken Flake, Coarse Cut, Cube, Curly Cut, Flake, Krumble Kake, Plug, Ready Rubbed, Ribbon, Rope, or Shag).

packaging

Some sizes and containers in which you could find this tobacco packaged.

notes

Any pertinent information about a blend that is not contained in any of the other fields. This would be such information as: "this blend is no longer being produced" or "this is only available in Europe".

the action links

At the top of right any detail page, you might find one or more action links. These links look a little like buttons, and are always grouped together. The actions you can perform will differ, depending on the data contained in the page you are viewing or depending on the level of access you have.

For the tobacco detail page, a registered reviewer has many actions that may be available. Each of these are described below. If a certain action link is missing and you believe it should be present on that page, check to be certain that you are currently logged in.

update

The update feature allows you to help us update the information in the blend summary. If you have more complete information than is currently present, or if you would like to make a correction to the existing data, simply click the update link and fill out the resulting form. We will review your update and post the changes as soon as possible.

review

This is one of the most important links on the page. Clicking here will allow you to submit your own review of the tobacco. The resulting page contain almost all the same elements as the current page, except that the reviews section will be replaced with a form in which you can submit your own review. Once you fill out the form and submit your review, you will be returned back to the detail page for that tobacco. Note that your review now appears in the reviews section, at the bottom of the screen. Usually, your review will be at the end of the list and may require scrolling a little before you see it. For more information on the reviews section, see the section on the reviews in this help document.

edit review

If you have already reviewed the current tobacco, the review link will not appear. Instead, you will see the edit review link. Clicking on this link will peform very much the same thing as the review link did, except that your previous values will already be filled in for you.

find similar

If the blend summary contains enough information to find similarities with other tobaccos, we will present a find similar link. Clicking on this link will take you to another page, with a list of tobaccos that share characteristics in common with the current tobacco.

buy it now

Tobaccoreviews.com is made possible through the support of Laudisi Enterprises, Inc and their website, www.smokingpipes.com. In order to somewhat defray the cost of running and maintaining tobaccoreviews.com, we will provide links to purchase the tobacco (when available). If SmokingPipes.com currently has the tobacco in stock, we will display a buy it now link along with the other action links. The resulting page will open in a new window so that, when you are done shopping at SmokingPipes.com, you can easily return to where you were on our site.

tin picture

If available, the tobacco detail will often include a picture of the tin or the label that comes on the tin. If no picture is available, a small box will appear in its place to explain that no picture is available. If you encounter a page that is missing a tin picture and you know where to locate one, please let us know. All you need to do is send as an email with the image attached, and we will post the image for you.

average ratings

When reviewing a tobacco, each of our reviewers rates the tobacco on five main criteria: strength, flavoring, taste, room note, and recommendation. People have differing opinions on what qualifies as flavored vs. unflavored or strong vs. mild, and so forth. To address this, we offer an average for each of the ratings so that the reader can see a somewhat less subjective view of the tobacco's character.

For most of our ratings, we chose a ten point scale. This is for two reasons: first, it provides for a wide range of possible ratings, thus addressing the variance in perception for each reviewer; secondly, we chose it makes the math a little simpler. The one exception to our ten point scale is the reviewer's final recommendation. In order to fit everything into our rating system of 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, and 4 stars, it was easiest to provide only four options for the recommendation. Over time, we have found that people like the descriptions we chose for the recommendation and are able to quickly place a tobacco in one of these four categories.

While reading the average ratings, make sure that you always consider the number of reviews we have received for a tobacco. In general, we consider the rating to become accurate only once five or more reviewers have submitted reviews. Obviously, a larger number of reviewers provides for even greater accuracy. You may wish to take other things into account, such as whether or not the reviewers tend to admit to being biased towards the particular variety of tobacco.

Below, we expore each of the five ratings in more detail.

average strength rating

A calculated average of the strength ratings submitted by reviewers. Strength is a measure of both the general strength of the blend, as well as its nicotine strength. Possible values are as follows:

1	Extremely Mild
2	Very Mild
3	Mild
4	Mild to Medium
5	Medium
6	Medium to Strong
7	Strong
8	Very Strong
9	Extremely Strong
10	Overwhelming

average flavoring rating

A calculated average of the flavoring ratings submitted by reviewers. Flavoring is a measure of how much 'casing' or 'topping' has been added to the blend to enhance or change its flavor. Possible values are as follows:

1	None detected
2	Extremely Mild
3	Very Mild
4	Mild
5	Mild to Medium
6	Medium
7	Medium to Strong
8	Strong
9	Very Strong
10	Extra Strong

average taste rating

Similiar to the Average Strength and Flavoring ratings, but measures how tasty and flavorful the reviewer found the tobacco to be.

average room note:

Also known as the "Wife Test", or the "Significant Other Test" to the politically correct crowd, it measures how likely this particular blend is to be pleasing or annoying to others in the room where it is being smoked.

average recommendation rating

A measure of the average of the recommendations from reviewers. The possible values are as follows:

1	Not Recommended
2	Somewhat Recommended
3	Recommended
4	Highly Recommended

the reviews

Arguably the most important part of the entire page, the reviews section contains a separate entry for each review we have received for the given tobacco. For each entry, it includes the reviewer's nickname and his or her choice in each of the five rating categories (see above). Below this, you will find the text of the review itself. Our reviewers often include detailed explanations of the entire experience, from opening the tin all the way to emptying the ashes from the pipe. Read a few reviews and you will get an idea of the wealth of information that is available here.

Before submitting your own review, you may want to read for a while and see the style that different reviewers have adopted. Some interesting habits have emerged in how to structure a review. Once your are ready to submit your own review, sit down with a good pipe and then click the review link at the top right of the page. We look forward to hearing your comments.

conclusion

Hopefully now you understand a bit more about the reviews database and will be able to easily read the reviews. We hope you will find some useful information within, and perhaps even find a new tobacco to try.

If you feel we have omitted anything in this introduction or if you would like to see us cover other topics, please feel free to email us with your comments. Thank you, and we hope you enjoy your stay at tobaccoreviews.com!