Cigar Aficionado Top 25, 2022 guesses

[helix]

Four Churchill's. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

1 hour ago, Puros Y Vino said:

From your initial guess list @Cigar Surgeon I've only smoked 1 Topes and 2 Galanes.  I would have no clue where to start on any NC candidates. If I were to pick a Cuban or two to make an appearance I would guess one of the 55th Cohibas, A Montecristo 1935 or  Punch DC.  Maybe even the E2. 

Those Galanes are legit IMO.

[Puros Y Vino]

29 minutes ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

Those Galanes are legit IMO.

Agreed. Hard to find so far.

[Carrie Nation]

Out of all the Cubans CA rated this year, Por Larrañaga Galanes is the most deserving of the no. 1 spot. La Corona did exceptional things with that cigar in 2022. 

 

For NC, I'd give it to Allegria. It had that whole understated power thing going on. As for what CA will do? Who knows. One thing is for sure...they don't care what people on social think. How about Ashton? They've never had COTY. Maybe this is their year.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

Agreed. Hard to find so far.

I like them as well. Very well done cigar.

They seem to pop in and out of stock. They're around, then gone for 3 months. Then back. I saw a few boxes in Cuba in June and in Oct none. 

[Bagman]

5 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

From your initial guess list @Cigar Surgeon I've only smoked 1 Topes and 2 Galanes.  I would have no clue where to start on any NC candidates. If I were to pick a Cuban or two to make an appearance I would guess one of the 55th Cohibas, A Montecristo 1935 or  Punch DC.  Maybe even the E2. 

Per their rules, the 1935 and punch DC can't qualify to be in the top 25.

[brutusthebuckeye]

Don Pepper Garcia will take the top spot. 
 

Gene Arganessssse may crack the top 10 this year. 
 

 

[Cigar Surgeon]

14 hours ago, Carrie Nation said:

Out of all the Cubans CA rated this year, Por Larrañaga Galanes is the most deserving of the no. 1 spot. La Corona did exceptional things with that cigar in 2022. 

 

For NC, I'd give it to Allegria. It had that whole understated power thing going on. As for what CA will do? Who knows. One thing is for sure...they don't care what people on social think. How about Ashton? They've never had COTY. Maybe this is their year.

This is why I'm surprised there isn't more discussion around CAs review of CCs. From their review page:

Box date is 2020, not 2022. When I go back several years I cannot find a single CC review release date that's remotely close to when it was reviewed.

[Cigar Surgeon]

2 - 4 posted this morning

The Davidoff Nicaragua Diadema is a strange one because the review hasn't even been published for 2022.

Edit: looks like a cigar insider review from November that hasn't been published to the review search yet.

 

[AirOne]

One CC so far, and its HdM Elegantes???  One of the worst LCDH imho.

[El Presidente]

5 hours ago, AirOne said:

One CC so far, and its HdM Elegantes???  One of the worst LCDH imho.

I was surprised as well but they noted the rating was based on 2022 production only.  I will try some again 

[SMELTZ]

Could it be? Box Date 2018

[Cigar Surgeon]

24 minutes ago, SMELTZ said:

Could it be? Box Date 2018

They re-purchase the cigars that are contenders for Top 25 and resmoke through them and rerank them. The boxes they purchased for the contenders were from 2022.

 

[Corylax18]

8 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

This is why I'm surprised there isn't more discussion around CAs review of CCs

Really? I'm surprised when I hear anyone discussing them.

They flat out tell you they only take a few puffs of each cigar for the regular reviews. And that those three puffs came minutes after three puffs of the 5 previous cigars they "tasted".

I read those reviews as entertainment, which is what they are. Its pandering, pretentious bullshit. Fluff to fill out the few pages that aren't ads. 

It takes more than three quick, hot puffs to determine you where tasting "Madagascan Vanilla Bean" as opposed to vanilla from anywhere else. More than 3 puffs to confirm it was "dried Chilean mango" opposed to any old mango on the grocery store shelf. 

I understand that they go much further with the cigars they choose to compete for the top 25, but the list is based on BS, so of course it consistently delivers a BS result. If the CA crew could rank the hot air coming out of their mouths I'm sure it would win all of the top 25 spots, every year. 

[NSXCIGAR]

16 hours ago, AirOne said:

One CC so far, and its HdM Elegantes???  One of the worst LCDH imho.

Well, at least it's not the Escogidos! 

Both are pretty uninspiring and I would agree, probably both are in the bottom three of LCDHs. Both could vanish tomorrow and I wouldn't shed a tear. The Epi DL is way better than both.

[La_Tigre]

22 hours ago, AirOne said:

One CC so far, and its HdM Elegantes???  One of the worst LCDH imho.

Yes, that lost us…completely. 

[Carrie Nation]

15 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

Really? I'm surprised when I hear anyone discussing them.

They flat out tell you they only take a few puffs of each cigar for the regular reviews. And that those three puffs came minutes after three puffs of the 5 previous cigars they "tasted".

I read those reviews as entertainment, which is what they are. Its pandering, pretentious bullshit. Fluff to fill out the few pages that aren't ads. 

It takes more than three quick, hot puffs to determine you where tasting "Madagascan Vanilla Bean" as opposed to vanilla from anywhere else. More than 3 puffs to confirm it was "dried Chilean mango" opposed to any old mango on the grocery store shelf. 

I understand that they go much further with the cigars they choose to compete for the top 25, but the list is based on BS, so of course it consistently delivers a BS result. If the CA crew could rank the hot air coming out of their mouths I'm sure it would win all of the top 25 spots, every year. 

Where do they say flat out that they only take a few puffs for their reviews? I've never seen them say that. Do you have a link? Here's what they said on a reddit AMA a few years back. 

 

"If a cigar is disagreeable for the first inch, it is scored accordingly and no more of the cigar is smoked. It doesn’t matter if it becomes the greatest cigar in the world afterward. Any cigar that requires anyone to smoke through a bad first inch is a seriously flawed cigar and will be rated accordingly. Normally, it takes ⅓ to ½ of the cigar to develop its natural flavors. That’s how much we generally smoke."

[wickettedge]

@SMELTZ you nailed it.

 

 

Putting a cuban in the top spot actually makes me feel better about CA. Issue after issue, Cubans get top scores, but the COTY always seems to end up in the hands of an advertiser. 

 

 

[Carrie Nation]

17 hours ago, SMELTZ said:

Could it be? Box Date 2018

Nailed it. You smoking for them?

[Bagman]

10 minutes ago, wickettedge said:

, but the COTY always seems to end up in the hands of an advertiser.

You mean to tell me that it is shocking that a company would advertise if they won cigar of the year?  The heck you say!  This advertising = higher rankings is a tired old sentiment with zero proof.  Every year people bring up this unproved "fact".    I guess if a Nudie became #1 you would get on Rob's case if he advertise that fact in CA.

[Corylax18]

19 minutes ago, Carrie Nation said:

Where do they say flat out that they only take a few puffs for their reviews? I've never seen them say that. Do you have a link? Here's what they said on a reddit AMA a few years back. 

 

"If a cigar is disagreeable for the first inch, it is scored accordingly and no more of the cigar is smoked. It doesn’t matter if it becomes the greatest cigar in the world afterward. Any cigar that requires anyone to smoke through a bad first inch is a seriously flawed cigar and will be rated accordingly. Normally, it takes ⅓ to ½ of the cigar to develop its natural flavors. That’s how much we generally smoke."

David Savona discusses the process in a video on their youtube channel from several years ago. They've since posted a lot more and I dont remember exactly which one it was, but I copied a link to their channel below. I've seen at least a handful of videos where they do exactly that, its not just talk. Shankin does it with some really old cigars in one video.

These guys smoke probably a thousand cigars a year, all of them cant be good, most of them probably aren't all that good. I wouldn't want to smoke 4 or 5 full cigars, that I didn't choose, 5 days a week. Their palettes would be even more fried then they get from the power smoking they have to do now. I'm sure different guys on the panel smoke different amounts of each cigar, but they aren't going anywhere near the nubs on 99% percent of the cigars you see in the regular tasting panel. The cigars that make it through the selection process for the first round of COTY supposedly get more scrutiny, I'm not talking about that process. I'm talking about the dozens of reviews that appear in the magazine each month. 

https://www.youtube.com/@cigaraficionado/featured

 

[Cigar Surgeon]

I do enjoy seeing jimmies rustled in the US cigar industry from people outraged they picked a Cuban at #1.

Some real "leopards ate my face" material.

 

[medzikone]

Got few left from BRE ABR 18. They are good but come on

[Cigar Surgeon]

16 minutes ago, medzikone said:

Got few left from BRE ABR 18. They are good but come on

I hear July 2022 is way,way better 🤷‍♂️🤣

[Carrie Nation]

45 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

David Savona discusses the process in a video on their youtube channel from several years ago. They've since posted a lot more and I dont remember exactly which one it was, but I copied a link to their channel below. I've seen at least a handful of videos where they do exactly that, its not just talk. Shankin does it with some really old cigars in one video.

These guys smoke probably a thousand cigars a year, all of them cant be good, most of them probably aren't all that good. I wouldn't want to smoke 4 or 5 full cigars, that I didn't choose, 5 days a week. Their palettes would be even more fried then they get from the power smoking they have to do now. I'm sure different guys on the panel smoke different amounts of each cigar, but they aren't going anywhere near the nubs on 99% percent of the cigars you see in the regular tasting panel. The cigars that make it through the selection process for the first round of COTY supposedly get more scrutiny, I'm not talking about that process. I'm talking about the dozens of reviews that appear in the magazine each month. 

https://www.youtube.com/@cigaraficionado/featured

 

You haven't shown me anything that supports your statement. On the other hand, I showed you a statement that contradicts what you said. Here's the link if you want to read it, straight from the horse's mouth.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/cigars/comments/3wt19a/ama_david_savona_executive_editor_of_cigar/

 

Again, show me something where a reviewer says he only takes a few puffs during the rating process. Because I've never seen or read this anywhere. Otherwise, this might be a case of The Mandela Effect, where you swear you heard and saw it...but really didn't.