This website review comes as a special request from Jerry over at Stogie Review. He had some frustrations finding information on a cigar he’d recently smoked and wanted to call them out. Drew Estate is famous/notorious for the ACID lines, but in recent years they come up with some non-infused blends that are some very good cigars.
Cigars: C
This site is frustrating, in some places they do a great job and in others they don’t. Under each cigar they provide just some information and each one they seem to provide a slightly different type of information. Some places they do great with pictures, some places they are good about listing the sizes and some are lacking in both. The LVH is probably the worst of the bunch. In big letters they tell you the cigar is available in four wrappers, but they don’t mention what four wrappers. They never do a really good job of breaking down the tobaccos in each cigar either. The only thing I can really give them credit for is that they seem to have everything listed.
Company: D
The company history is an interesting read, but they don’t really have much else. There is no news section and no contact information. This is the probably the first website I’ve run across that has absolutely no contact information, not even an email address or contact form.
Features and Usability: C
The website relies heavily on images so if you are on a slow connection prepare for a long wait between page loads. I felt the navigation was a bit clunky, mostly because of the heavy use of images. I’d grade them worse, but they do have some decent features. The photo gallery has a ton of photos, and the events section is up to date. They’ve also got a mailing list I just subscribed to, but not sure how effectively they use it.
Recommendations:
Drew Estate’s website is in sore need of an overhaul. The heavy use of images slows the load time and they don’t effectively use the space on the page unless you are still using an 800×600 resolution. They need to add a news section and a contact pages to really make the site useful. I have to agree with Jerry, the cigar sections are really bad in on some lines and need to provide more information.
Popularity: 9% [?]
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve noticed several cigar companies incorporating that pseudo-Gothic font: Illusione, Tatuaje and now Drew Estate. I kind of like it.
When I saw the D, the first thing that came to my mind was Dio. Now Holy Diver is stuck in my head.
If anyone has Drew Estate’s email address, please advise. I found a 2″ nail in one of their cigars and they obviously have a serious employee problem. I want them to be aware of this product tampering situation that may not be a isolated incident.
Bill
Bill: I’ve dropped Jonathan Drew a note via Twitter alerting him to your problem.
Hopefully you’ll hear from him soon!