Pete Johnson = Rocky Patel, JR ?

[Fuente Fan]

[quote author=hdsale link=topic=16228.msg78965#msg78965 date=1353190118]
Ive been wondering if Pete and Don Pepin are spreading themselves too thin as well.  [/quote]

This started taking place 2 years ago.

[fishingfor5]

So what are you guys opinions on drew estate and all the crap they have been putting out as of late. The OR 52's were great and now they are simply dog rockets. How do you go from not having enough of a wrapper to make 20,000 sticks a year to being able to produce hundreds of thousands of sticks a year with the same farms? Imo their quality sucks right now and it has steadily been getting worse. And now their focus is to expand more internationally...they will be rp sooner that pepin or pj

[Gee-Man]

[quote author=fishingfor5 link=topic=16228.msg79049#msg79049 date=1353421947]
So what are you guys opinions on drew estate and all the crap they have been putting out as of late. The OR 52's were great and now they are simply dog rockets. How do you go from not having enough of a wrapper to make 20,000 sticks a year to being able to produce hundreds of thousands of sticks a year with the same farms? Imo their quality sucks right now and it has steadily been getting worse. And now their focus is to expand more internationally...they will be rp sooner that pepin or pj
[/quote]

TURDZ !!!

[avioli]

As many Tat or Pepins are out there, they still manage to keep quality
in sight imo.

[SRQCigarman]

I think J. Drew cigars are average at best, very one dimensional and I hate how the T-52 and no. 9 keep burning, I always get smoke in my eyes. I do enjoy his Pigs, specifically the T-52.

[StrongerSmoke]

I agree with the point that Pete is becoming a Patel jr...but my other BIGGER concern (tats and pepin blends quality taking a hit aside) is that everyone else is taking note of all these special, limited or exclusive editions and playing the same game. Now you have Padilla going to small batch, EP Carillo is turning out his small batch stuff and inagural editions etc, Gurkha keeps pumping 'em out just like the Cuban labels and their regional editions and then add to all these semi-obscure, I've never heard of that before but wouldnt mind trying it boutique brands you notice in the Cult journal ratings and the consistent ltd editions like the liberty series and 5 Vegas etc and your pulling ur hair out.

[polarbear]

With companys like Viaje ONLY doing limited run cigars now i find myself not as keen to purchase them. Seems like the "limited edition" tag is just an excuse to charge premium prices for unkown cigars.
Tatuaje has more limited runs than regular lines and while some of them have been outstanding, quite alot have been pretty average. All of them have been priced at around $10 a stick.

I understand that some companys might have a limited supply of tobacco that they feel the consumer would enjoy, or want to try a new blend/size out in the market without having to commit to a full scale launch but it all gets a bit much when there are companys who have released 15 LE's but only have 2 regular lines

Im not drinking the Tatuaje Cool Aid anymore. The early Monster series, Pork Tenderloins and Barkley Rex were all fantastic, but the Appoc/Anarchy, Mummy, Little Monsters (except for the Baby Face), Little Boris were all a bit Meh, IMO

[hdsale]

[quote author=StrongerSmoke link=topic=16228.msg82307#msg82307 date=1358712301]
I agree with the point that Pete is becoming a Patel jr...but my other BIGGER concern (tats and pepin blends quality taking a hit aside) is that everyone else is taking note of all these special, limited or exclusive editions and playing the same game. Now you have Padilla going to small batch, EP Carillo is turning out his small batch stuff and inagural editions etc, Gurkha keeps pumping 'em out just like the Cuban labels and their regional editions and then add to all these semi-obscure, I've never heard of that before but wouldnt mind trying it boutique brands you notice in the Cult journal ratings and the consistent ltd editions like the liberty series and 5 Vegas etc and your pulling ur hair out.
[/quote]

I think the explosion in small batch and LE NC stuff is more of a marketing ploy than anything.  By getting hype up and releasing a limited number of boxes while charging more, they are able to suck the money out of gullible folks pockets.  Thats all.  They are hardly ever better quality cigars than regular production (the AB Fine and Rare is a great example here), and probably use some if not mostly tobaccos from the regular production runs (but they do get some sort of special kryptonite-cured wrapper!  :rotf: ). 

That said, I really enjoyed a couple of the earlier Tatuaje limited releases, like the 2006 Reservas Noella.  The Black Petit Lancero is pretty good too.

[avioli]

I like almost all of Petes cigars.
Havnt smoked a bad one yet.
But to critique him on his marketing methods
is like telling Progressive Ins. to get rid of Flo.
Or to tell Budweiser they cant advertise during the Super Bowl.

[phidelt076]

I don't think PJ is following in the footsteps of RP just due to the fact that the quality of PJ core lines have not decreased in my opinion.

I used to really enjoy a RP Vintage '92 or Decade but those 2 sticks in particular seem to watered down campared to older versions of the same cigar.  Running across an OWR maduro that leaves your fingers brown pisses me off as well, especially at that price point.  The Edge Sumatra that is currently available doesn't even compare to the original release of this stick.

I don't chase after all of the PJ new releases or limited stuff but it doesn't seem to me that his core stuff has suffered because of the new releases like it has with RP.  And I haven't found too many PJ sticks that I don't like the first time I try them whereas I gave up on trying any new RP sticks.

Just my $0.02