Rate your Top 25 Cigars of the Year

[larrysputnik]

Since there is some controversy over Cigar Aficionado's Top 25 cigars of the year I thouht it would be interesting to see what the users on this forum consider their Top 25. If you didn't try over 25 brands this year, just make it your Top 10 list.

Be as short or as detailed as you like.

[Robusto]

I find it incredibly difficult to submit BEST OF lists without qualifying them in some way, so I will do so as I go along here.

Since the forum started, I have tried a good number of new cigars. I've surprised myself by looking through my smoking list. It's in part due to the fact that I've experimented after reading enthusiastic reviews on here, and also certainly due to the exchange cigars - or, more often - the gift cigars from people like Joe, Dale and Monte. Many thanks to you, my BOTL mates!

It's this exchange of smokes and ideas that makes this a great site as far as I'm concerned. My passion for cigars has definitely increased over the last six months, and I'm no longer smoking the same old sticks.

I'm a teacher. I'm in the learning trade, and I'm learning stacks here from you cigar buds. I love you in my own online hands-off way.


BRYAN'S TOP CIGARS OF 2008

1. COHIBA ROBUSTO

2. PARTAGAS SERIE D4

3. PADRON 1926 MADURO

For me, the top three above stand FAR ahead of the cigars that follow.

To smoke a Cohiba Robusto is a massively sexually satisfying thing to do. Orgasmic every time. A work of art. Beautiful.

The Partagas D4 is consistently sublime... and a bit baffling because the taste is very difficult to describe. I find it overpowering as a taste - yet brilliantly zingy and almost lemon-y (I think). It is only the difference in price that makes me buy D4s over Cohibas. Some D4s make me start sweating, and I love that! This is a STRONG cigar. If you like that, you will love a D4.

The three Padrons I have smoked have been absolutely superb smokes. Stunningly tasty and rich. Strong, dark cigars. Billowing thick smoke. Glorious, lush indulgences. Close to orgasmic!

4. PUNCH PUNCH

I only tried Punch Punch for the first time before Christmas and fell in love straight away. I bought a box of 25 immediately.

5. BOLIVAR ROBUSTO

To smoke a Bolivar is a bit like getting into a boxing ring with a muscle-bound opponent. Bolivars are supremely heavy smokes, and I adore them! They smack me round the jaw. I want that from a cigar sometimes!

6. PUNCH RARE COROJO

This was a longer gift cigar than my normal Robusto choice. It helped deepen my love affair with the Punch label as the Rare Corojo became more and more complex through the journey. Supremely compact ash, I remember.

7. MONTECRISTO EDMUNDO

I smoked my first one of these before Christmas after reading good reviews on here. It was rich and complex and (from memory) fat in the mouth as it was beyond 50 ring gauge. I will definitely buy more Edmundos because I like a really fat cigar in my mouth when I wear my Stetson and go out frightening people in Kent.

8. NUB HABANO 358

This was a fat, stubby bastard of a cigar - but what a cigar! I have to say this cigar, and a "SNUB" sent by Monte, were quite hard work to keep in the mouth! I had to bite these cigars pretty unnaturally to get my teeth in to make a purchase! I smoked the NUB 358 in my car on the way home from a late gig, and it was powerful with a strong, dark fruity taste, and the smoke was EVERYWHERE! A very comforting and satisfying stogie.

I am a fat bastard with a fat bastard's podgy face, so this NUB suits my generally gorgeous look!

9. HOYO DE MONTERREY EPICURE No2

This is one of a few cigars on the list that I've had a love affair with for many years. Maybe 15 years or more. The Epicure No2 is also a sexual moment, but a very delayed one rather than a backseat frottage quickie. They are such squash-y cigars that you can play around with them quite stupidly. This was one of my "getting into cigars" cigars. A sort of rite of passage cigar before learning to smack my skull with a Bolivar. Consequently a No2 tastes a little tame to me now, so I save this cigar until I've had two or three weeks' gap from smoking. Then its subtlety comes through when I fire up. I love buying 25 of these for the chess-pieces wooden box and the gay yellow ribbon.

10. JUAN LOPEZ ROBUSTO

This was a gift cigar which I enjoyed in my garden in late Summer. I didn't know this Cuban cigar make, but it hit me like one of the best. An impressive all-round strong smoke which I will consider going back to.


I think that makes:
7 Cuban sticks
3 Non Cuban sticks

I don't know if there was a case to prove in this exercise, Joe. Tell me off if I've done this wrong, as it were.

It was great just looking through my smoking list and snaps. What a fine interest this is!



Spot the tough bastard with the stick.

[emeraldisle]

Must go through all my single cigars smoked and make up my list from there. Humidor would have a variety of different cigars in it at present. I dunno if you think variety is the way to go in the meantime or should I buy say a box of 25 same brand cigars.

Gabriel