What is interesting is that there is a spread of
Cuban and New World cigars across the table
but our reviewers clearly enjoy a Partagas with
three of the top 5 coming from the Historic Cuban
Marque and with our latest review (the D4)
heading the table by quite a margin.
However, if you take the top half of the table, 50%
are Cuban and 50% New World.
The Dunhill Signed Robusto is the top new world
cigar with a very high 8.38. The Oliva Series O
Tubo is just outside the top 5 with a score of
8.10. I had some trouble when we got the scores
back from the Oliva. I had sent the cigar to one
reviewer, who shall remain nameless. When he
was told what the cigar was, I got a very angry call
because he had scored the cigar very highly but
apparently “he doesn’t like non Cuban cigars” and
refused to believe that the cigar was not Cuban.
Interestingly the testing also proves that some
of our favourite cigars can get a bit of a pasting
at the hands of our reviewers. Finding the
Ramon Allones Specially Selected at 17 and the
Diplomatico No 2 at 27 is something of a surprise.
It’s clear that our reviewers were no fans of
the Anejados line with the two we have tested
languishing at 25 & 26 in the list.
Our regime for testing is the same as it’s been
from the start. Three of the same cigar are sent
out at random to reviewers from our panel.
Having smoked, and we hope enjoyed the cigars,
the reviewers complete an online form which
transmits all the results back to our office where
we collate the results. We never adjust the figures
and we only use cigar lovers, no one involved in
the industry.
We hope that this makes our reviews honest and
totally unbiased.
During June we plan to add this table to our web
site and keep it updated each month as we add
two more cigars. We hope that this will help you
identify new cigars to try and also allow you to
rate them against our blind tasters and make your
own minds up as to your favourites.
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