We can't deny (or at least MAC can't deny) that the best thing to do as you await the reveal of the current year's top 10 cigars of the year is to reminisce about winners past. We scoured the internet from list to list, from cigar journal to blind man's puff, we chose to judge the judgement of the cigars we love for your enjoyment.
We can't deny (or at least MAC can't deny) that the best thing to do as you await the reveal of the current year's top 10 cigars of the year is to reminisce about winners past. We scoured the internet from list to list, from cigar journal to blind man's puff, we chose to judge the judgement of the cigars we love for your enjoyment.
00:00
man we've already done 11 of these that
00:03
is amazing welcome to episode 11 of the
00:06
my cigar pack podcast
00:08
this time we're going scouring the
00:11
internet checking out top 10 lists from
00:13
the past from the present and just going
00:15
over them in anticipation and excitement
00:18
for sigar aficionado's number one cigar
00:20
of the year that will be released
00:21
further this week for episode 12 we will
00:24
record live as that happens and publish
00:27
the video the following day so stay
00:29
tuned for that
00:30
and yeah enjoy episode 11 for now
00:34
episode number 11 of the my cigar pack
00:37
podcast and today we have a very
00:41
interesting
00:42
prelude to what a very interesting
00:45
episode we'll have uh in a week or so
00:48
episode 12 is gonna be special it's
00:49
gonna be special because um
00:52
we'll be shooting
00:53
live as we watch the
00:56
number one cigar of the year an
00:57
aficionado he revealed uh but in the
01:00
meantime we're talking about our number
01:01
one cigar of the year which was the
01:03
makerspace go get your get your
01:05
makerspace cause
01:07
are we over hyping it
01:08
i i think it's uh
01:10
i think it's cool because we're doing
01:12
we're actually doing
01:14
the uh fat noise in the background uh
01:17
eventually stops but
01:19
uh let's roll with it
01:21
top 25 cigars
01:24
of the past yeah how about that i
01:27
actually have a couple cool stories
01:29
about these
01:30
yeah oh you're smoking the eye of the
01:31
shark oh well you ruined my introduction
01:35
to this uh well and you ruined my car
01:37
there you go it's karma right there
01:41
uh yeah dude i'm starting um i'm smoking
01:44
the uh
01:47
number one cigar of the year for the
01:49
2017
01:51
cigar fishionado and i want to point
01:53
that out because we're going to be
01:54
talking about a couple
01:56
um
01:57
top 25
01:58
sources
02:00
and um
02:02
this uh this puppy right here
02:05
has well actually let's let's take a
02:07
look at this
02:08
i want to relate it to last episode you
02:10
know if you could take a look i don't
02:12
know if you can see it properly
02:14
uh
02:15
the cello
02:16
is you see that it has at least three
02:18
and a half
02:19
years of age and if you look at it
02:23
isn't it's not as
02:26
i want to say tainted as the the
02:30
other cigar that i showed you i made the
02:32
explanation because it really depends on
02:34
the oils the humidity
02:37
on the wrapper on obviously on the on
02:40
top of the outer part of the cigar not
02:42
necessarily inside but if there is
02:44
excess humidity that will one accelerate
02:47
how that
02:50
excess
02:52
you know um
02:53
quality you know liquid quality is being
02:57
transferred onto the cellophane so
03:00
this has at least three and a half years
03:02
of
03:03
appropriate i mean you could you could
03:04
touch that cigar that is like crispy
03:07
that no it's perfect it is it is perfect
03:10
ironically this cigar is
03:12
has a cameroon wrapper
03:14
but it doesn't look like a camera
03:15
wrapper it's a very very shiny but silky
03:19
at the same time you really don't
03:22
naturally get that
03:23
or normally get that
03:25
as i should say that quality out of
03:27
cameroon but you see
03:30
fuente consistently use cameroon and
03:33
their classic
03:35
you know description of
03:37
filler and dominican filler and binder
03:39
just basically that's what they they're
03:41
gonna disclose
03:42
um but the cigar is very unique uh i
03:45
have a i still have a few of them um but
03:48
i purchased
03:50
quite a few back in 2017 even before
03:54
they were announced cigar of the year
03:57
i have a funny story regarding that so
03:59
i'll let you finish and then i'll tell
04:01
mine because of course there's a podcast
04:02
and i have to say something but yeah
04:04
here i have a little a few details on
04:06
cigars cigar i believe was braided
04:10
97 yeah it was rated 97. and um it was a
04:16
big deal back then big deal it was a
04:18
fantastic
04:19
name for this vitola that they use for
04:21
other lines but
04:23
um
04:24
in a fantastic name considering it's a
04:26
fuente usually they go really outlandish
04:28
with some of their names yeah but i
04:30
guess if you look at the cigar as i hold
04:32
it
04:33
um horizontally
04:35
i can resonate with cigar official
04:37
description and they say as for why it's
04:39
called i the shark it's most likely do
04:42
the overall form if you look at
04:43
horizontally it resembles the body of a
04:45
great white shark once the four corners
04:47
of bach press foot are fully lit the
04:49
shark begins to express itself
04:51
immediately
04:54
i like that that's a good segue into the
04:56
cigar itself that is that is a fantastic
04:58
segue did you know that i actually got
05:02
my prediction for the 2018 cigar of the
05:04
year right really thanks to
05:08
the suggestion of an employee at a cigar
05:11
shop i went to looking for the eye of
05:14
the shark
05:15
oh wow so
05:17
so do you think it was like
05:20
like ernie's cigar of the year last year
05:22
where are all the back ordered all the
05:25
back orders started before
05:27
they were announced cigar of the year no
05:29
this was with uh with the encore
05:32
okay so there were plenty in stock and i
05:34
grabbed like five
05:36
okay
05:37
just a couple days before they announced
05:40
the cigar of the year that year
05:42
um so i went there looking for the eye
05:44
of the shark and i picked one up because
05:46
i had tried before and they weren't in
05:48
stock so this was uh my first time
05:49
trying it early 2019. okay
05:53
and when i was there i wanted something
05:54
else
05:55
and i recognized the
05:58
the
05:59
encore from some of the ratings i had
06:01
seen
06:02
and i asked and i didn't know much about
06:05
ernie at the time i was relatively new
06:07
to the industry let's just put it at
06:09
that
06:10
and
06:11
basically had a two-hour chat with the
06:14
tobacconist over there and
06:17
picked
06:18
that cigar to be cigar of the year
06:21
so we had already seen
06:24
the 25 through 10 or so about this one
06:28
yeah
06:29
and uh we were waiting on
06:31
the last few
06:33
and i had them in my humidor at the
06:35
office
06:37
and
06:38
uh it was kind of uh like uh damn this
06:41
this kid knows what he's talking about
06:42
because
06:44
it's just because i sat down with
06:45
somebody who did know what they were
06:46
talking about yeah and in reality you
06:48
were you had an inside man right yeah i
06:50
had an inside man and everybody at the
06:51
office thought man this guy knows his
06:53
stuff yeah he got a promotion because of
06:56
it no
06:58
i was an intern at the time
06:59
but i did get hired
07:01
so uh
07:03
i was actually very proud of that do you
07:05
have anybody special you want to thank
07:06
right now
07:08
don't remember this person's name okay
07:11
and i returned to that shop and they
07:13
weren't there
07:15
and i haven't gone to that shop too much
07:17
because it's pretty far away but uh and
07:19
because they didn't really have the best
07:21
relationship with my former employer
07:23
but
07:24
it's a great shop
07:26
great
07:28
shop well let's move on to uh different
07:32
ratings of the past i have an article
07:34
that i want to share here i want to do
07:36
it because
07:37
there's a few individuals that you see
07:40
um
07:42
you know
07:44
kind of
07:46
kind of uh stand out
07:48
because of their the way that they carry
07:50
themselves the way that they um
07:52
you know express
07:55
knowledge or even lack thereof and i
07:57
think a guy really i mean sometimes you
07:59
you need that humility from people to
08:02
understand that they really want to
08:03
learn and grow and i'm not saying it
08:05
from a standpoint where i i picked it up
08:07
from the other end like someone showing
08:09
off their lack of knowledge the wrong
08:10
way yeah exactly that that's not what i
08:12
meant and
08:14
you know i i don't necessarily mean that
08:16
of this person but i i do mean that this
08:18
person is is really good at what they do
08:20
um
08:21
what he does
08:23
was not necessarily
08:25
directly intertwined with the cigar
08:27
industry but has his feet wet with
08:31
you know a very
08:35
relevant website
08:37
a very relative relevant collective that
08:40
does events in new york city and that
08:42
person is matthias clock dice clock and
08:45
i have become
08:47
uh friends in the last
08:49
uh couple of years that's his top ten
08:51
yeah exactly that we that as i've been
08:54
running my cigar pack
08:56
and um i think he uh he he has a lot of
08:59
knowledge
09:00
if with cigars and he's been learning a
09:02
lot and keeps wanting to learn it is uh
09:05
definitely well connected
09:07
and i wanted to share his
09:09
top nine cigars actually because cigar
09:12
number one cigar he will release uh
09:14
january 7th which is two days from now
09:18
actually
09:18
no
09:20
that number two pick that was in our
09:21
december packs
09:23
correct
09:24
that is correct and and you know i want
09:26
to agree with a few cigars in there i
09:28
mean i want to take a look
09:30
at mathias clark's article published in
09:33
fine tobacco new york city where he um
09:37
he basically ranks mccaliff number 10
09:39
lien de special
09:41
don't really know that much about
09:43
mccaliff have heard um
09:46
diverging
09:48
comments on the cigar
09:49
tnt i guess you know macau yeah so
09:54
my opinion on mcaloff is that their
09:56
marketing
09:59
sort of put them in a bad position
10:01
because they started sort of uh
10:04
promoting the become a brand ambassador
10:07
uh that sort of marketing anyway and i
10:10
get it because five years ago or so
10:12
that sort of was uh on something that
10:15
many manufacturers would be on the fence
10:17
on not just in the cigar industry yeah
10:19
and it did marketing for people it's
10:21
like hey i get to be a brand ambassador
10:23
but really what happens when everybody's
10:25
a brand ambassador you get bad
10:27
ambassadors too some good some bad and
10:30
uh
10:31
it's sort of this industry
10:33
really likes exclusivity and it took
10:36
away some of that so if anybody can be a
10:38
brand ambassador
10:40
uh it could hurt the brand a little bit
10:43
so i think that's what happened with
10:44
them
10:45
that's that's a
10:46
interesting take yeah so
10:49
i mean i haven't tried too many of their
10:51
cigars just a couple
10:54
so i can't really say much about this
10:56
rating but
10:57
if you trust this this man who gave it
11:00
the rating well i don't necessarily i
11:02
mean i respect it yeah um i would have
11:05
to try this like i mean there's a few
11:06
that i can comment on
11:08
so vyaje tnt 2021
11:11
i think the tnt is fantastic
11:14
my good friend uh andrea farkas
11:17
that for some reason has never wanted to
11:20
be in any part of
11:22
any cigar club whatsoever actually
11:24
um so i hope that in a couple weeks when
11:27
i see andre as i see usually see him
11:29
once a year
11:31
i'll convince him this time around to
11:33
actually be
11:34
uh be part of my cigar pack and you know
11:37
at least
11:39
form part of cigar yard but tnt is a
11:42
fantastic cigar it's it's uh
11:44
extremely full bodied so what i and and
11:47
just
11:48
usually use is like these very volatile
11:51
and by volatile i mean
11:53
that matches the tnt side exactly
11:56
it has a very just extreme flavors
12:00
um
12:01
that can either be ignited really
12:04
and literally both literally and
12:06
actually like flavor wise literally as
12:08
in
12:08
these
12:09
rappers that have been using the tnt
12:11
cigars at least the ones that i've had
12:14
um
12:15
they seem to light up the cigar really
12:17
well um really burn really white
12:20
and uh but flavors also really like pick
12:23
up and and just drop very subtly i mean
12:26
it's it's it's a very interesting right
12:28
it's like it is actually dynamite it is
12:31
uh
12:32
it's crazy uh but if i can recommend
12:35
something
12:36
from a tnt cigar if you buy it i would
12:37
age it at least a year more because it
12:39
just gets it usually gets better it's uh
12:41
it's uh what wrapper
12:43
i don't know i don't know what tnt 2021
12:46
i don't remember uh robert
12:48
that looks like it's hot on this um i'm
12:50
not sure
12:51
i'm not sure based on the notes i guess
12:54
um
12:55
yeah it could be sign on this we'll look
12:57
that up later
12:58
ager rare collection um again
13:01
rafa was one of my initial mentors in
13:04
this industry i started working with
13:06
agent room when i came in
13:09
but i don't i haven't really been
13:11
smoking a lot of
13:12
uh agent rooms lately i did smoke one
13:15
with rafa jr up in new york city a
13:18
couple months ago it was fantastic
13:20
well to be fair uh
13:22
they've also
13:23
stock on them has been a little dicey
13:25
since uh 2019's uh
13:28
winning of the cigar of the year which
13:30
man any brand that wins cigar of the
13:32
year
13:33
all of a sudden out of stock even if
13:35
it's not the cigar
13:37
at least here yeah they're just it's
13:39
really hard to find those cigars
13:42
and that's what happened with aging room
13:46
coming in number seven uh he put down
13:49
the choshi by
13:51
luxury cigar club
13:54
um chris and ben
13:55
and the rest of the team have been doing
13:57
a phenomenal job
13:59
as competitors of ours met him up last
14:02
year tpe
14:05
wow last year 2021. uh met him up last
14:08
year in
14:08
[Music]
14:10
vegas really cool people
14:12
um i i hope that at some point we
14:14
actually get to work together
14:16
but i'm pretty sure if you get to work
14:18
with uh
14:19
you know aja directly and uh
14:22
the crew over uh billy and gus at
14:25
uh with the viva la vita cigars um going
14:29
to get nothing but greenish i have not
14:30
tried the cigar but i certainly look
14:32
forward to
14:33
monte cristo epic vintage 12 again had
14:36
in new york city when i was there great
14:37
cigar
14:39
um
14:41
the monte cristo the the the let's call
14:45
it the new world monte cristos yeah to
14:48
me are either hit it or miss and i think
14:50
this one the american monte cristo yeah
14:53
or are they making them in other places
14:55
well they they have been making i think
14:57
one or two in uh nicaragua as well but
15:00
mostly in the dominican republic in
15:01
delgado garcia
15:03
i think this one um so good boy meisters
15:06
i think that was made in the dominican
15:08
republic
15:09
uh but this cigar is like the blue for
15:10
me i love the blue i think this is
15:12
probably
15:13
the epics always going to be um
15:16
you know it's going to be a solid cigar
15:17
and then you have the uh the camacho no
15:19
surprises to see camacho absolutely
15:22
camacho liberty series is a cigar that
15:24
was me that to me was underperforming in
15:28
terms of
15:30
seeing the cigar more on the market
15:32
because i or let me just
15:34
rephrase that
15:35
it was
15:37
it was undervalued i guess i think that
15:39
cigar should have been
15:41
should have made a lot more noise or
15:43
should have been at least in my eyes and
15:45
seen a lot more because it's a fantastic
15:47
cigar
15:49
so that's that's my take on that
15:51
underground 10-year kentness um i've
15:54
only had it once actually
15:56
um really good
15:58
didn't didn't i've had it nuns so you
16:01
know you've had it none one up me there
16:03
um david of dominicana just an
16:05
unbelievable cigar especially the short
16:07
robusto and actually classic
16:10
classic well it's it's classic davidoff
16:12
but it's got a different
16:15
feel to what a classic dap i mean you
16:16
can't even say classic davidoff anymore
16:18
there's nothing classic listen people
16:20
out there there's nothing
16:22
classic anymore about dabbing may i
16:25
defend my position go ahead
16:27
classic dive it off in the sense that
16:30
oh okay got it they're going for
16:32
a clean presentation really cleanly
16:35
wrapped cigar where they actually peel
16:38
the inside of the wrapper vein
16:41
just so that it looks
16:42
even if it's a if it's a high priming
16:45
just so it looks nice
16:47
and
16:48
perfectly round
16:50
and that's what i meant by classic
16:51
davidoff it's just they just
16:54
perfect
16:56
i i'll i'll take i'll take you up on
16:58
that
17:00
surprising to see that cigar number
17:02
three
17:03
and then in number two
17:05
yep i'm i'm really happy to see that one
17:07
i'm very happy to see that from our boy
17:09
yeah ostos and
17:12
kyle
17:13
jealous
17:15
from warped cigars we've got the
17:20
i honestly i've heard so many i think
17:22
it's i think it's gallus
17:25
we can ask him
17:26
no colgallus
17:28
i don't even know man anymore you're
17:29
confusing me comments
17:31
they're going to write they're going to
17:33
write it with a g and it's you're not
17:34
going to make a difference for like the
17:36
gif and gift debate but do you give
17:38
people a gift or do you give them a gift
17:41
it's a gift it's a gift it's definitely
17:42
good
17:43
so then it's it's a gala
17:45
it's called gallus
17:47
although i think it's actually jealous
17:49
no it's kyle gallis
17:51
denied your warp release from target
17:53
in the dominican republic the warped
17:55
intelligence booster first surprises
17:56
with this brashness then
17:59
wowed with incredibly balanced nose of
18:01
toast wood fruit floral and savory
18:04
finish
18:06
wow
18:07
um it's definitely a toasty roasty
18:10
it is it is it is and
18:13
it looks a little
18:15
subtle i guess with with the very light
18:19
lightly colored wrapper
18:21
kind of you know you ease into it
18:23
doesn't say much look sort of very
18:25
low-key
18:27
exactly kind of deceives you a little
18:29
bit it's it's not a flavor bomb either
18:31
it's very easy going it's got that like
18:33
cubanesque feel that kyle really likes
18:36
to go for
18:37
and when we first you know i personally
18:40
first
18:41
discussed
18:43
his relationship with hostos is also
18:46
straight up said he knows what he wants
18:48
and if you smoke warped
18:51
you will notice subtle and light
18:53
differences between different cigars
18:55
and that's very consistent with his i
18:58
guess flavor profile or intentionality
19:00
behind how he wants his cigars to come
19:02
out like this the the whole point of the
19:05
cincinnati
19:06
if i
19:07
remember my research correctly was mr
19:10
gallus or jealous
19:12
just to get it right
19:14
was
19:16
looking to make a dominican cigar and i
19:18
guess you could say he was fascinated by
19:20
the microclimates here yeah so video
19:22
gonzalez
19:23
it's a very small region
19:25
that i'm picturing right now
19:27
in the seba valley but you go to
19:30
hakagua gonzalez and now
19:34
they're
19:35
stones throws away from each other
19:38
if you're positioned correctly and the
19:40
results are completely different
19:43
this
19:46
that's your uh your people right there
19:49
it's far right
19:50
to you're right that's my ride yeah
19:56
so as i was saying
19:58
i'm gonna cut that bit
20:00
okay you were talking about michael
20:02
clements so as i was saying uh i read
20:05
that
20:06
kyle gelles
20:08
came to dr and we wanted to really
20:10
highlight the diversity of dominican
20:12
tobacco and the microclimate and that's
20:14
exactly what he went for with chinchali
20:16
and it does have a little bit of
20:17
everything it does go from and he knows
20:20
what he wants and uh
20:23
i think
20:24
needless to say it's very deliberate
20:26
that variation you get in flavor notes
20:28
throughout the entire smoke is entirely
20:31
deliberate intentional and by design
20:35
and you got to give it to the man okay
20:38
now i would love to continue with
20:41
something i found very uh
20:44
very
20:45
interesting from uh the boys over at
20:49
blind man's puff
20:52
we're looking at top 20
20:53
tops regards of the past and i've
20:55
noticed a trend here do you see
20:57
something very uh interesting that
20:59
catches your eye
21:00
from yeah emmett and zane
21:04
yeah
21:05
i mean guys you do a fantastic job and
21:08
i'm not saying this in a negative way
21:10
i'm just very very very interesting
21:13
interested in your
21:15
they're all the same manufacturer
21:17
they're all soccer cigars i love it top
21:19
20
21:21
top the top cigar of the year in 2020
21:23
dumbarton tobacco and trust so soccer
21:27
soda mesa brule blue uh number one
21:31
same of 2019
21:34
same uh brand sakas tim barton dt tnt
21:39
um
21:41
and then
21:42
2018 which is one of my favorite cigars
21:45
and i think it's
21:47
the best
21:48
um out of soccer's profile
21:50
which we look to have very soon in in
21:53
the packs and and the yard is
21:56
great to go it's unbelievable so far and
21:58
then you go back to 2017 and then you've
22:01
got the wise man
22:03
um
22:05
actually yeah 2016 they had wednesday uh
22:09
very
22:10
you know what emma and zane you guys are
22:11
very consistent i love it and they know
22:14
what they like they know what they like
22:16
i love that but uh yeah undoubtedly
22:18
three very different cigars creme brulee
22:22
and cinco promises completely different
22:24
it makes a lot of sense because it's the
22:26
blind man's puff right correct so
22:28
they're going blind into each tasting
22:30
and since they know what they like
22:32
they're they're not bluffing yeah
22:33
exactly
22:35
it's it's very evident that uh
22:37
they've gotten what they've wanted from
22:40
uh from the cigars that they smoked or
22:42
at least they know what they want from
22:44
the cigars that they smoke and they tell
22:46
you about it so that's that only
22:48
validates that uh
22:50
they know what they're about
22:51
yeah actually that year that same year
22:54
um
22:55
sagar snob raided trikitraka
22:58
number five cigar so
23:01
you know
23:02
that cigar has definitely made a a
23:04
little bit of a buzz and talking about
23:05
another cigar that always makes
23:07
uh a buzz
23:09
whether it's the millennial or the sarah
23:12
v or the serie v maduro just that
23:14
every foundation they have to be
23:16
at least in the top 10 of any
23:19
you know i think media outlet out there
23:21
if you could say cigar of the decade
23:24
maybe give it to him because
23:26
in and out that's been oliva cigar for
23:28
the last
23:30
what almost 10 years yeah but then again
23:31
you have cigars like
23:33
this guy right here that is almost at
23:37
least oh that's the decade before so
23:40
like yeah
23:41
that's good that's a great point so 2000
23:43
to 2010 you'd give it to opus x as the
23:46
score of the decade that's that's really
23:49
fair
23:50
but what about
23:51
this guy right here
23:53
the
23:53
anniversary their time they're timeless
23:55
yeah that's true they're timeless that's
23:57
true and but do you think
23:58
opus x have kind of faded away a little
24:01
bit
24:02
relevancy i think that
24:05
the fuentes always won
24:08
the marketing game against paderon
24:12
but the thing is since the market trend
24:13
has shifted toward nicaragua padron has
24:16
sort of given a bit more time to shine
24:20
more time in the spotlight because of
24:21
that okay so i see your angle and i
24:24
think that can have certain validity
24:26
in the sense that
24:28
don't get me wrong padaron has always
24:30
been the cigar lover cigar yeah correct
24:32
so great that's that's not what i'm
24:34
disputing here i'm saying in terms of
24:36
marketing fuentes had a bit of an edge
24:38
on padron
24:39
especially because the the image is more
24:42
unified towards crelido and fuente
24:45
versus padron
24:48
and the more more individuals in the
24:50
family more so than to just jorge i
24:52
guess you could say that
24:54
over at padron the
24:56
the patriarchs i guess you could say
24:58
have been
24:59
a little more introverted than carlito
25:02
put it nicely and by introvert i mean
25:05
that uh
25:06
they don't seek the spotlight in the
25:08
same way
25:09
if they're in the spotlight it's because
25:10
the spotlight found them but carlito he
25:12
he he uh prepares a show he i think he's
25:16
right he just i don't think he prepares
25:17
he thrives on it yeah like i mean he
25:19
prepares for the show exactly yeah yeah
25:21
he's meant he lives that he's a showman
25:24
he's a showman he's a showman but
25:26
there's nothing fake behind it no that's
25:29
him yeah that's him that's him actually
25:31
very casually uh you know uh this
25:34
italian restaurant by the supermarket uh
25:37
right i don't want to name any names uh
25:38
just
25:40
for doxxing reasons but the chef there
25:42
is very close friends with carlito and
25:44
very carefully
25:46
yeah
25:47
you know who yeah and uh
25:50
carlito casually goes there every once
25:52
in a while to have uh dinner with his
25:55
family and
25:56
this
25:57
around 2014
25:59
uh
26:00
my family we went out to have dinner
26:03
there and there was carlito with a chef
26:05
and they were sitting down having a
26:08
having a nice chat and we joined them
26:10
for a few minutes and they were joking
26:12
about sitting with pele watching the
26:14
world cup final
26:16
and i was laughing like ha ha because
26:18
i'm a big soccer fan i was laughing like
26:20
oh haha yeah that's very funny and my
26:22
dad tells me no they're serious of
26:23
course
26:24
and he said carlito he's actually the
26:27
friend of uh his daughter who i go to
26:29
school with went to school with
26:31
uh
26:33
but he makes cigars and he's really
26:35
famous around the world and i was like
26:36
no way really i wouldn't get that vibe
26:40
but really
26:41
and that was uh
26:43
a big eureka moment that yeah before you
26:45
knew he was yeah
26:47
the people who work in the industry
26:49
we've both grown up in santiago the
26:52
people who work in the industry
26:53
you don't really figure out how big of a
26:56
deal they are outside of santiago right
26:59
until
27:00
you get the industry
27:02
yep that's basically it uh
27:07
i mean
27:08
not just the industry i mean the
27:10
industry to a point where most people
27:14
get to but then her leaders i'm just on
27:16
a different level i mean the guy that
27:18
has he is yes you know hublot collection
27:21
watch is uh
27:23
just unbelievable unbelievable a
27:24
reversal
27:25
all the yeah it's basically a reverse
27:27
david off davidoff took the luxury name
27:29
and brought to cigars
27:31
luxury
27:34
exactly
27:36
um so yeah continuing with a few cigars
27:39
let's go ahead and transition into 2020s
27:43
top 25 there's a few cigars we're going
27:45
to talk here we got to talk about the
27:47
pledge we're yeah we you know what i
27:50
don't know if we should dwell too much
27:51
into this into that cigar but here we go
27:54
look at this number eight cigar
27:57
cherry v milano you're you're going to
27:58
find a milani cereal v or siri review
28:01
maduro at least
28:02
at least once my favorites number seven
28:04
dude dude that's one of my favorite
28:06
cigars yeah i love the alec and bradley
28:09
gatekeeper robusto which by the way it's
28:11
a message he's gonna be
28:14
in the
28:14
packs next month with alec bradley
28:17
takeover so get subscribed now
28:20
and
28:21
yeah get we're going to go crazy yeah i
28:23
mean 20 20 we're gonna gonna be huge
28:25
we're gonna go crazy
28:26
i think it's fair to say every year the
28:28
packs have gotten better and better and
28:30
better and better and better
28:32
and i've only been on board for the last
28:34
few months but
28:35
i've been able to see what's in the
28:37
packs and i can tell you that 2022 is
28:39
gonna be
28:42
this cigar
28:44
i think you should see a lot more out
28:46
there but you don't i don't know we
28:48
gotta market it as much though
28:51
from
28:52
uh
28:54
it it's just one of the best cigars out
28:58
there period boom said it i won't take
29:00
it back so
29:02
this is i think another marketing thing
29:05
so
29:06
i know for a fact that
29:08
most of the industry
29:10
isn't to put it nicely very good at
29:16
easy to understand marketing okay you
29:18
read you take that cigar you grab the
29:20
bandit i guess you could say the same
29:21
for the gatekeeper but the gatekeeper is
29:23
different
29:24
and you have no idea
29:26
it's related to that unless you know la
29:28
talier is related to that correct
29:31
mission lat so
29:33
really a lot of cigars do this
29:36
and you can see how placentia for
29:38
example
29:39
have been on the opposite end of it and
29:41
that's really helped them move their
29:43
products
29:44
so
29:46
placencia has so many different cigars
29:48
now in their portfolio but you know
29:49
they're placencias because they've
29:51
gotten their branding consistent
29:53
can't say the same about that and
29:54
because they supplied
29:56
like seventy percent of the industry's
29:57
tobacco before they released them but
29:59
yeah i gotta get your their marketing
30:02
yeah their brand and you gotta give it
30:04
to them uh most of the industry doesn't
30:07
do this now we move on to 2019 where uh
30:10
the uh nicaragua the quattro nicaragua
30:12
maestro
30:14
um
30:15
what cigar of the year that number two
30:17
is one of my favorites of all time but i
30:19
can barely handle that cigar that 1926
30:21
number six is from pedrone is a
30:24
phenomenal cigar
30:26
followed by
30:28
a warped warped series you you
30:31
so seria gonna reserva
30:34
and that has 1988 because it was the
30:36
year of kyle's birth birth and you asked
30:38
me why why i told you the grady eight
30:41
you're like why the gradient it's
30:43
so it's
30:46
that it actually says it on the other
30:48
side of the band it says gr88 grady
30:51
eight gradient
30:53
um great cigar i think it
30:56
it uh meant a lot for kyle to get that
30:58
rating
30:59
oh yeah um i think put him a lot more on
31:02
the map which is fantastic and well
31:03
deserved you're gonna find it opus x and
31:06
number eight and this is cigar fishing
31:08
again by the way it's happy to see
31:10
placencia
31:11
get recognition with um
31:13
at the time very freshly released
31:16
placentia cigars i think you had
31:18
um in 2019 like one or two years out of
31:20
the market um full full force they also
31:23
uh sponsored the uh big smoker lunch
31:26
show that year
31:28
yep so that's something we need to talk
31:30
about like do we need to talk about that
31:32
are we going to do we need to talk about
31:33
we're going to get into trouble if we no
31:35
i don't think we will let's just talk
31:36
about it so it's often questioned that
31:40
whether or not
31:42
a brand buying pages for ads in the
31:46
magazine sponsoring events for the
31:48
magazine
31:50
has to do with the ratings and i think
31:52
it does bananas in the way you're
31:53
thinking right now i'm not thinking
31:55
anything man you're the one that brought
31:56
this not in the way that you guys are
31:57
thinking right now and it's basically
32:00
when you sponsor when you buy pages in a
32:02
magazine when you sponsor their events
32:06
you have a lot more personal contact
32:09
with the people behind the magazine and
32:11
you give them a lot more of your cigars
32:13
to share so basically the truth is the
32:16
reason that it helps your ratings is
32:18
because they smoke more of your cigars
32:20
these guys smoke a lot of cigars every
32:22
single day
32:24
and
32:25
for the top 10 for the top 25 sorry they
32:28
only consider
32:30
a fraction of them that have scored over
32:32
91
32:33
and if you manage to have them try out
32:35
more of your cigars before that and
32:37
obviously your cigars have to be good
32:38
there's a higher chance that they'll be
32:40
considered within that top ten now what
32:42
do you say about cigar journal this
32:44
cigar that was number thirteen on
32:46
cigarette officials
32:48
is number eight
32:50
so the placencia uh
32:52
fuego
32:53
was the same saint got the same uh um
32:56
rated same year on a lower
33:00
number better look at number 17 that
33:01
year
33:03
lhasa
33:04
yeah
33:05
oh wait was that 18. oh they're yeah
33:07
yeah
33:08
that is a phenomenal cigar yeah it is i
33:10
was uh i was on board when it was uh
33:13
when we launched the marketing back then
33:15
and uh it was a lot of fun la rora that
33:18
was a very fun 115th anniversary robusto
33:21
one cigar of the year for cigar and
33:23
spirits that one correct that is correct
33:25
that is correct that was a great year
33:27
2019 was a fantastic it's a great year
33:28
for cigars and uh a few ratings that i
33:31
may not be uh
33:34
in accordance with in accordance with
33:35
but uh well number one cigar of the year
33:37
definitely you can't you can't argue
33:38
with that can't argue but yes
33:40
uh cigar journal cigar number one
33:42
cigarette of the year i love the story
33:43
behind that one yeah it's got a
33:45
that your your
33:47
snippet on on that cigar for the
33:49
breakdown of
33:51
what's the november packs video november
33:52
packs it was just great it was great and
33:54
i love it
33:56
so we all thought it was going to have a
33:57
better rating or a higher rating in uh
34:01
cigar aficionado that year but let's go
34:04
down
34:05
to
34:06
2018
34:09
the encore
34:10
i like that seriously a lot
34:14
can can i'm not i'm not kidding you see
34:16
a serie v or is it
34:18
every single top ten top ten
34:20
that's it yeah top ten it's been in the
34:22
top ten it's crazy along with the cube
34:24
and all that shout out to my guys over
34:26
at billiard cigars san diego colorado is
34:28
one of the most
34:29
flavorful
34:31
um habanos that i
34:33
have consistently have in my rotation so
34:35
that's that's a fantastic cigar they
34:37
have it
34:38
they ranked it number 15
34:40
2018 so graphic sonata did up in the
34:43
churchill size
34:44
i'm not the biggest fan of the churchill
34:45
size but
34:46
nonetheless a great cigar i used to be a
34:48
sucker for churchills yeah yeah because
34:50
to be a sucker
34:52
because you suck on them sort of
34:54
puffing a sucking sword no
34:56
no okay good so no i used to really dig
35:00
churchill's because that's
35:02
basically
35:05
so when i was in the office
35:07
uh in the louvre office
35:09
very often if you had a cigar in your
35:11
hand people would sort of just like let
35:14
you work they wouldn't bother you with
35:16
anything they're like okay if he's got a
35:18
cigar it's because he's really busy yeah
35:20
and the churchills would sort of let me
35:22
concentrate for a longer time i guess
35:24
you could say uh and my favorite cigar
35:27
for a really long time was the laura
35:29
1903 cameroon in churchill because you
35:32
actually bought the boxes at the factory
35:33
i'd buy them at factory price and have a
35:35
stock of like 200 of them for the entire
35:38
year in my humidor
35:39
and uh once one for every work day and
35:42
for all of 2019 i smoked
35:46
almost every day
35:47
a
35:48
1903 cameroon
35:50
every single day wow
35:52
almost every day because i bought so
35:53
many of them oh 1903 cameroon and that's
35:56
a great bank for your bucks a car it's
35:58
like six yes dollars ninety cents it's
36:01
they've obviously gone up with inflation
36:03
but that's what they started at they've
36:05
inflated yeah i mean even aficionado
36:08
their uh best buys of the year they had
36:10
to increase the the price can just
36:13
consider uh
36:14
the price increases across the board for
36:16
the entire industry let's talk about a
36:18
couple cigars on
36:21
this year's top 25 that has been
36:23
completely released by cigar journal as
36:25
of like two weeks ago yeah they're done
36:27
like two weeks ago oh before christmas
36:29
they released it so i'm so out of the
36:31
loop this cigar was actually
36:33
one of my favorite slices the davidoff
36:35
dominicana um
36:37
i think this is like a short
36:39
five and one eighth by fifty two the
36:40
robusto size that's my favorite out of
36:43
the domain and they even have a shorter
36:45
one dominican rapper fantastic
36:48
uh yes with ecuador and binder um
36:52
number five cigar that is a great one it
36:54
is a fantastic cigar it's got great
36:57
value
36:58
and it is actually pretty good in
37:00
churchill size
37:02
um
37:04
another oliva cereal v i mean are we
37:06
surprised no we're not we should just
37:08
skip it this is a guard journal and here
37:10
we go
37:11
or that and this is uh
37:13
this was released
37:15
when
37:15
you were still i did i wrote a lot of
37:18
the marketing for art
37:19
and then i saw some campaigns you showed
37:21
me for the
37:23
for the shoot for the
37:25
bottles yeah
37:26
with the couple yeah
37:28
yeah that that cigar uh
37:31
it's good let's see if you agree with
37:32
the tasting notes
37:34
cigar unfolds notes of wood and cinnamon
37:36
with a subtle nuttiness it also develops
37:39
sweetness of cinnamon and a wood finish
37:40
essentially the same thing they missed
37:42
the caramel a subtle leather component
37:44
in the light kick of pepper appear plus
37:47
some caramel i'm just kidding
37:49
well they do talk about uh cinnamon
37:52
sweetness i guess you could interpret
37:53
that as what the cigar unfolds with
37:55
notes of wooden cinnamon with a subtle
37:57
nuttiness it also develops sweetness of
37:59
cinnamon in a wood finish
38:01
how much wood would a woodchuck chuck i
38:03
guess i guess
38:04
they got some sweetness to it yeah but
38:07
they didn't know what to call it and
38:08
just stuck with cinnamon because
38:10
sweet cinnamon i guess
38:12
but yeah that cigar is really good
38:13
because of its caramel aroma and it's
38:16
got a lot of wooden notes but that's
38:17
because
38:20
i'm going to give a off an industry
38:21
secret if i keep talking but this is not
38:23
a secret don't do it
38:25
it's not a secret don't do it
38:27
[Laughter]
38:29
if you
38:35
so
38:36
that's uh he did it
38:38
he did it now uh i'm gonna show up debt
38:40
in uh two days you know what i'm gonna
38:42
do but
38:44
when i edit this i'm just going to beep
38:45
all of that
38:49
that's great
38:50
do it do it i love it
38:52
uh number three cigar uh
38:54
for cigar journal top 25 2019
38:57
as uh alec and bradley
38:59
blind faith one of the first cigars that
39:02
they released
39:03
love that cigar i think it's a sleeper
39:06
and i think we may have to do something
39:08
about that
39:09
i didn't know about it
39:11
i didn't know about the cigar
39:13
made in honduras that maybe that's why
39:15
i've just been so out of the loop with
39:16
hondurans
39:17
uh
39:19
you should bleep that part as well man
39:20
these are cigars that are gonna be in
39:22
the pants okay dude dude the thing is i
39:24
have some inside i'll give you the thing
39:26
is i actually wanted to try them
39:28
i have one witness and he's a pretty
39:30
high profile witness
39:32
eric calvinia yeah when i went to his
39:34
office okay in miami and he asked what
39:36
cigar i wanted i said i just wanted an
39:38
endurance because i hadn't had any
39:40
before well i actually had
39:42
a cinco promiso
39:45
for
39:47
that's when it i really became obsessed
39:49
with that cigar at his office
39:51
and speaking of cigar snob what do you
39:54
think about their number one throughout
39:55
the year uh two years ago was it uh no
39:58
year ago 2020.
40:05
yep yeah phenomenal score yeah and again
40:07
in accordance to what i said last
40:08
episode it looks like a bicep it it's
40:11
going to hit you like one it's
40:13
i think it's going to be another great
40:15
year for espinoza yeah we just actually
40:17
announced a partnership with guy fieri
40:18
did you see that that's great really
40:20
yeah
40:21
it's going to be interesting to watch
40:23
yeah yeah
40:24
i want to see the tasting notes are
40:25
going to be good yeah i agree
40:28
what do you what do you think you're
40:29
going to pair it with like ideally want
40:32
people to pair that way i'll just keep
40:33
an open mind okay
40:36
because
40:37
sometimes observing is uh
40:40
again yeah you'd never guess what the
40:43
number three for snob was last year
40:47
or is that 21 2021 that's let's uh no
40:50
2020. let's let's leave it to the people
40:52
to guess on the
40:54
comment section below it's it's probably
40:56
something you've seen before and that
40:57
we've talked about seeing consistently
40:59
and being a big part of the last 10
41:02
years
41:04
yeah uh let's let's go uh further back
41:06
with aficionado there's one i want to
41:08
talk about though okay let's do it and
41:10
you know the one
41:11
2016. oh yeah
41:13
number one sega yeah what made that
41:15
cigar so special especially considering
41:17
the size of la flor dominicana
41:22
well i think the size was a really
41:27
you know impactful yeah it was a very
41:29
impactful
41:31
um component on
41:33
it didn't have the highest rating it has
41:35
it had a 96 rating
41:37
um
41:39
does that mean that the other cigars
41:40
that year just weren't as good
41:43
no because 96 points wouldn't wouldn't
41:45
even get you in the top
41:46
uh yeah no
41:48
yes it would no last year now are you
41:51
sure like check out aficionado for 2020.
41:54
let's do it
41:56
yeah i think it would man go for number
41:58
five check out the points
42:03
95 okay yeah one
42:05
of course 96 but these two he's going to
42:07
guarantee a top three yeah that number
42:09
uh that's a 996 is the number four i
42:12
think 96 is also because this year
42:14
number three out of height i think wow
42:17
yeah 97. and uh opus x had an idea
42:19
seventeen
42:20
they tied number two and three tied
42:23
so let's talk about the bull the bull
42:26
i think the story behind it i think the
42:28
rapper
42:29
pardon me the the band is really
42:31
attractive i think
42:33
that the cigar itself
42:35
provides a very unique complexity that
42:39
you know
42:41
even though it looks like a meter cigar
42:43
uh and talking about the bull yeah
42:45
you're gonna do a very um
42:47
interesting review on that so far yeah
42:49
very soon
42:51
along with two others and uh
42:53
i
42:54
you know what
42:55
i'm not gonna
42:57
develop any further on the cigar i'll
42:59
let you do it so if you're curious as to
43:01
why that cigar
43:03
was number one throughout the year
43:05
for 2016 so far that was really six
43:07
years ago and today it is still selling
43:11
hotter faster
43:13
and better than ever possibly more than
43:16
other winners since macklemore
43:18
is gonna
43:19
mac is gonna tell you
43:22
about it
43:23
in the uh the video dedicated to lfd and
43:26
illusion bull and um
43:28
you know
43:30
we're um we're probably gonna wrap it up
43:31
right now i think this is yeah it's been
43:33
pretty uh pretty good conversation if we
43:35
keep chatting about top 10 cigars all
43:37
the way back to oh four oh four when the
43:40
26 one with look at that yeah
43:43
was number two number two 100 years yep
43:46
that's
43:47
still a great cigar uh but it's not
43:49
quite what it used to be because uh
43:51
simple reason
43:53
harvest change that harvest was
43:55
amazing
43:57
uh so
43:58
i love how hp managed to uh dude a lot
44:01
of cuba no it was a cabinet selection
44:02
from cuba so you got
44:06
two
44:08
three
44:09
four
44:11
five
44:13
six cubans in the top ten
44:16
and look at that this is fonseca from uh
44:18
was that casala made yeah quesadilla
44:20
mead of course
44:22
quesada i love that sticker my dad used
44:24
to buy that in bundles like
44:26
bundles and bundles directly from the
44:28
factory
44:29
of course because you are like
44:32
uh don fernando leon used to say
44:35
yeah you're you're right by the the
44:37
plant i guess you could say it's like
44:39
picking uh
44:40
picking fruit from a tree but i think we
44:43
can leave it at that we've
44:45
done some
44:47
we've done plenty of self-indulgent
44:48
rambling about what we think about these
44:50
cigars
44:51
and that's not enough because your
44:53
opinion on these cigars matters so sound
44:56
off it does in a way the four of you
44:58
this time watching uh let us know what
45:00
you think we gotta stop it with that
45:02
joke we really gotta stop it we gotta be
45:04
we gotta be humble but
45:07
the couple thousand of you watching
45:10
thank you
45:11
yes
45:13
uh yeah i think we uh
45:15
wrap it up see you next time
45:20
enjoyed this episode or any other one
45:22
from the podcast check out our websites
45:24
my cigarpack.com and cigarette.com where
45:27
we provide the most dynamic cigar
45:29
subscription service in the market by
45:31
collecting the world's best cigars and
45:33
delivering them to your door and a
45:36
enhanced online shop and experience when
45:38
buying your cigars or learning from the
45:40
culture subscribe to this channel share
45:43
with your friends and family and would
45:44
love to hear your thoughts you can
45:46
contact us through our websites check it
45:48
out my cigarpack.com and cigar.com
45:52
our youtube channel the podcast it's all
45:55
an ecosystem
45:57
see you soon