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Friday, January 9, 2009

Cigar Aficianado's Top 25 Cigars of 2008 (1-5)

The Fuente family has been making Arturo Fuente Don Carlos cigars since 1976, longer (by four years) than they have been making cigars in the Dominican Republic. The blend is the creation of Carlos Fuente Sr., patriarch of the family. In 2006, his son, Carlos Fuente Jr., made the Don Carlos Edición de Aniversario to celebrate the 30 years of Don Carlos cigars. He swapped out the Cameroon wrapper for the Dominican shade-grown leaf he uses on Fuente Fuente OpusX. He also boosted the cigar’s power considerably.

The result is a tremendously intense and complex blend, especially in the Double Robusto size. The cigars are wonderful, but especially hard to find due to their extremely limited production—only 9,000 cigars were released in 2008.


MADE BY: Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
FACTORY LOCATION: Dom. Rep.
WRAPPER: Dom. Rep.
BINDER: Dom. Rep.
FILLER: Dom. Rep.
PRICE: $32.00
RING GAUGE: 52
LENGTH: 5 3/4"
RATING: 94

La Aroma de Cuba is an old Cuban brand name, believed to have been a favorite of Sir Winston Churchill. Ashton Distributors created a Honduran version of the brand in 2003, made by La Flor de Copan, and last summer it added the Edición Especial variation, which it contracted out to the hottest name in the cigar business, Jose “Pepin” Garcia. Pepin’s La Aroma de Cuba is the best yet, made with his trademark Nicaraguan filler and binder tobaccos, and covered in something relatively new for him, Ecuadoran leaf.

The belicoso-shaped No. 5 is a wonderful smoke, brimming with spice, coffee and cocoa notes. Ashton is becoming a major client for Garcia. This is the second major cigar brand he has made for the Philadelphia-based company, a follow-up to his San Cristobal—one size of which took the No. 12 slot in our 2007 ranking.


MADE BY: Tabacalera Cubana S.A.
FACTORY LOCATION: Nicaragua
WRAPPER: Ecuador
BINDER: Nicaragua
FILLER: Nicaragua
PRICE: $7.80
RING GAUGE: 52
LENGTH: 5 1/2"
RATING: 93

Litto Gomez has, arguably, the most innovative mind in the cigar business. The proof is evident in his Chisel-shaped cigar, which first appeared in his La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero line. With its wedge-like head, the Chisel is Gomez’s unique spin on a figurado: he was inspired to create the size after chewing on a torpedo. The Diez line was Gomez’s coming-out party for his wrapper tobacco, which he grows on a farm in La Canela, Dominican Republic.

Gomez, known for his distinctive Montecristi Panama hat, launched the Diez line in 2004 to commemorate his 10th year in the cigar business. He made a change to the cigar last year, adding a vintage date to showcase the year of release—2008 is the first. While he also says he tempered the blend a bit, the Chisel remains a favorite of seasoned smokers, full of prominent leather and black pepper notes, and just enough balancing sweetness. The cigar is a work of art, and the flavor unmistakable.


MADE BY: Tabacalera La Flor S.A.
FACTORY LOCATION: Dom. Rep.
WRAPPER: Dom. Rep.
BINDER: Dom. Rep.
FILLER: Dom. Rep.
PRICE: $11.00
RING GAUGE: 54
LENGTH: 5 1/2"
RATING: 93

Eighty-three years ago this coming June, José Orlando Padrón was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba. He emigrated to the United States, and in 1964 he founded Padrón Cigars Inc. in an attempt to re-create the beloved Cuban cigars of his youth. The first Padróns were humble, 30 cent fumas sold exclusively in Miami. The cigars were later taken nationwide, largely due to Padrón’s son Jorge, now president of the company. Numbers are important to the Padróns: the 1964 Anniversary Series marks the year the company was founded, and the Serie 1926 line commemorates the birth year of the company patriarch.

This year’s No. 2 cigar celebrates his 80th birthday. It is undeniably an amazing cigar, teeming with complexity and depth that can only be achieved through inventories of well-aged tobacco. The cigar has the signature Padrón flavor: cocoa, coffee, nuts and toast; it also has orange peel, leather and some spice on the finish. It is made with some of the company’s oldest leaves by only one buncher and one roller, who create but 300 cigars per day. It’s a rare find. The Padróns, two-time winners of our Cigar of the Year contest, have never finished lower than third in this ranking. Their long-standing philosophy is that they make cigars to suit their own taste, and sell what they don’t smoke.


MADE BY: Padrón Cigars Inc.
FACTORY LOCATION: Nicaragua
WRAPPER: Nicaragua
BINDER: Nicaragua
FILLER: Nicaragua
PRICE: $30.00
RING GAUGE: 54
LENGTH: 6 3/4"
RATING: 96

Manuel Quesada has been making cigars since 1974. His original cigars were mild bodied, most of them a blend of Dominican filler and binder tobaccos cloaked with light Connecticut-seed wrappers. His latest endeavors are bolder, more vibrant smokes. The Casa Magna is his greatest innovation. He joined forces with Nicaragua’s largest grower of cigar tobacco, Nestor Plasencia, and created this blend in Plasencia’s Segovia Cigar factory. The line of five cigars saw first light in the summer at an industry trade show and the entire brand was initially reviewed in the August 26 Cigar Insider. Standing above the other sizes was the robusto, a stubby cigar with a bold heart of Cuban-seed tobacco, all of it grown in two very different regions of Nicaragua: tobacco from Estelí (the area where most Nicaraguan cigars are produced) tends to be strong, while that grown in Jalapa, to the north, is typically more balanced and elegant. Together they combine to create a full-flavored cigar, full of rich coffee notes and balanced by a cedary sweetness with a hint of raisins.

Best of all is the price: at only $5.25, this superb smoke is less expensive than all but one cigar on this list (No. 23, which is a nickel cheaper.) The word “Colorado” in the brand name refers to the dark, slightly reddish hue of the wrapper, and is a hint that Quesada will expand this line to more styles. It will be hard to improve upon this.


MADE BY: Segovia Cigars (Nestor Plasencia)
FACTORY LOCATION: Nicaragua
WRAPPER: Nicaragua
BINDER: Nicaragua
FILLER: Nicaragua
PRICE: $5.25
RING GAUGE: 52
LENGTH: 5 1/2"
RATING: 93

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