Cigar Aficionado Top 25 Cigars
, by Brian Desind, 8 min reading time
This article takes a hard look at Cigar Aficionado magazine and its famous Top 25 Cigars of the Year list. We trace the magazine’s origins under Marvin Shanken, explain how their 100-point blind tasting system works, and reveal the real pattern behind the rankings: the same major brands dominate year after year. Names like Padrón, Arturo Fuente, Oliva, My Father, E.P. Carrillo, Montecristo, and Cohiba appear on nearly every list, while boutique and craft cigar makers are almost entirely ignored. We also explore the role of advertising—pointing out how companies with long-term ad buys in the magazine consistently land on the list. Readers will learn the pros and cons of relying on the Top 25 when choosing cigars: while it offers mainstream availability and a safe entry point for beginners, it also suffers from predictable winners, restocked blends that rarely match the original review, and a near-total lack of recognition for smaller boutique brands. The article ultimately argues that the Top 25 is less a guide to discovery and more a reflection of corporate cigar marketing—useful for understanding what’s popular, but not where to find the truly interesting smokes.
Introduction
When Marvin R. Shanken returned from Cuba in 1991, he carried back more than stories—he carried a vision: to create the world’s first dedicated cigar lifestyle magazine. Against skepticism and uncertain market prospects, he launched Cigar Aficionado in 1992. With lavish photography, celebrity features, rare interviews—including a landmark sit-down with Fidel Castro—and an impeccable “Top 25 Cigars of the Year” list, the magazine became a catalyst for the 1990s cigar renaissance. Over thirty years later, it remains the pinnacle of cigar culture—where craftsmanship meets lifestyle, and every annual “Top 25” unveiling is nothing short of a high-stakes celebration for aficionados around the globe.
💡 Did you know
Every winter the cigar world stops to refresh the Cigar Aficionado Top 25 page. The list is built from a blind retest of the year’s highest scoring cigars which makes it a tournament of consistency. That process rewards the makers who can hit the same high mark over and over. The result is a predictable pattern across the last ten lists where a small circle of brands dominate the rankings and often the top ten.
Selecting The Best Cigars Of the Year
Step 1: Understanding Different Mat Materials
When it comes to Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list, it’s not just about what cigar smoked best—it’s about who gets to be reviewed, who has enough clout, and who keeps showing up. Over the years, the magazine has made it clear: being in the Top 25 isn’t only about flavor profiles and ratings—it often depends on visibility, reputation, and long-standing relationships. The result is that many of the same manufacturers (and their flagship lines) dominate the list year after year—not just for quality, but for having the resources, distribution, and marketing — including advertising — to stay in the conversation.
“For cigar lovers and industry members alike, the Top 25 list is more than just ratings—it’s a benchmark. Winning Cigar of the Year or even making the list has an immediate impact on sales and reputation. That’s why we take the process so seriously, stripping away bands and retasting the top scorers blind. It’s about finding the cigars that consistently deliver.”
— David Savona, Executive Editor, Cigar Aficionado
How Cigar Aficionado Rates Cigars
Cigar Aficionado uses a 100-point rating system, similar to wine and spirits reviews, designed to standardize how cigars are judged. All reviews are done blind, meaning the bands are removed so tasters don’t know the brand, country, or factory. Cigars are scored across categories like flavor, balance, construction, consistency, and overall impression.
95–100 = Classic
90–94 = Outstanding
80–89 = Very good to excellent
Below 80 rarely makes print
Throughout the year, cigars that perform well in regular tastings are retested. At the end of the year, the top-scoring contenders go through multiple rounds of blind tastings to decide the Top 25 and ultimately crown the Cigar of the Year. This process is why the same elite brands often dominate—because they consistently hit those top marks year after year.
Do You Have to Advertise to Make the Top 25?
A quick look at Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 lists over the last decade shows a striking pattern: the same handful of companies dominate year after year. Padrón, Arturo Fuente, Oliva, My Father, E.P. Carrillo, Rocky Patel, Montecristo, Cohiba, La Flor Dominicana, and Ashton family brands (La Aroma de Cuba, San Cristobal) appear with clockwork regularity. Even when new blends or sizes are highlighted, they almost always come from these legacy houses.
That repetition is no coincidence. Cigar Aficionado is a magazine first and foremost—a business fueled by advertising. Its biggest and longest-running advertisers are also the same companies that routinely land in the Top 25. Smaller boutique brands, especially those who don’t advertise in the magazine, rarely get reviewed at all, let alone considered for Cigar of the Year.
While the magazine emphasizes blind tasting and consistency, the selection pool itself is already tilted toward the same advertisers. The result? A Top 25 list that looks less like an open competition and more like a predictable showcase of the same major companies with the budget and incentive to stay in the magazine’s pages.
Understanding Cigar Aficionado’s Rating System
Cigar Aficionado uses a refined 100-point rating system, akin to those seen in wine and spirits evaluations. Here's how it works:
Blind Tastings: Cigars are smoked without revealing their branding—bands are stripped and replaced with generic coded labels, ensuring panelists judge solely on quality and not reputation Cigar Aficionado Wikipedia.
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Tastings are scored across key categories:
Appearance & Construction (max 15 points)
Flavor & Smoking Characteristics (each up to 25 points)
Overall Impression (up to 35 points) Cigar Aficionado Cigar Country.
The Score Interpretations:
95–100 points → “Classic” — the highest tier, reserved for truly exceptional cigars.
90–94 points → Outstanding — strong performers with consistent high quality Cigar Aficionado+1.
Real-World Data for Context:
In 2023, editors rated 621 cigars, with 51% earning 90+ points. Among them, seven achieved the Classic status (95+), and some reached an astounding 96 points Cigar Aficionado.
For 2024, out of 628 cigars, 358 scored 90+, but only seven reached Classic, including one at 96 points. Nicaragua accounted for four of those, Cuba for two, and the Dominican Republic for one Cigar Aficionado.
The high scorers, especially those rated 93+ during the year, enter a rigorous Top 25 blind-tasting tournament—similar to a March Madness bracket—to determine rankings and the coveted Cigar of the Year
Should You Use Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 to Choose Your Cigars?
Pros
Easy starting point: If you’re new to cigars, the list is a simple way to see what the “big name” players are pushing that year.
Availability: Because the list leans on large brands with national distribution, you can actually find most of the cigars in brick-and-mortar shops and online.
Consistency (to a point): These houses have infrastructure and tobacco reserves, so you’re less likely to get a completely dud product.
Same old names: Year after year it’s Padrón, Fuente, Oliva, Rocky Patel, My Father, Montecristo, Cohiba—rinse and repeat. If you’re looking for true discovery, you won’t find it here. Factory swaps and restocks: Once a cigar is crowned, demand explodes. Factories scramble to keep boxes on shelves, often substituting tobaccos or tweaking blends. That means what you buy after the hype may not taste like what was reviewed. No love for boutiques: Craft makers, small factories, and micro-brands that put out incredible cigars rarely make the cut. They don’t advertise, so they don’t get reviewed. Period. Bias toward advertisers: The magazine is an ad-driven business. If you’re not spending on full-page spreads, your chances of getting into the Top 25 are slim. Like Netflix judging the Oscars: Imagine one movie house deciding what the winning movies of the year are. It's kind of like that when they have been kept in business by the same brands year after year.Cons
