The 10 Best Cigars, From Cohiba to El Septimo
The Big Idea: The World Keeps Moving
It has been a good 12 months for what are euphemistically termed New World cigar producers—that is, those makers based outside Cuba.
During the past year, it has been almost as difficult to obtain a Cuban cigar in many parts of the globe as it has been in the U.S., where sales of Cuban products have been illegal since the 1962 embargo. Many stores, most notably in Europe (traditionally the biggest market for “Habanos,” or cigars made entirely from Cuban tobacco), have been largely devoid of Havana’s finest, as Cuba hasn’t been able to produce enough due to a concatenation of events, not least the ravages of Hurricane Ian last September, which destroyed a substantial number of Cuba’s tobacco barns and wiped out more than half the tobacco harvest from Pinar del Río, the country’s legendary mecca for wrappers and fillers.
But another significant factor intensifying Cuba’s cigar shortage is that much of its inventory is now being diverted to China, which has emerged as Havana’s biggest market despite its complex tobacco-monopoly system. Given the massive size of the world’s most populous country, China’s ascension to the top-ranking position is hardly surprising, as the majority of its premium-cigar smokers are not overly concerned about per-stick costs. It’s more about the prestige of the Cuban brands. But there’s another—less obvious—reason for Habanos’ newfound prominence there.
In 2017, the CNTC (China National Tobacco Corporation) announced an agreement to boost the sale of Cuban cigars in China. Three years later, as reported by Radio Free Asia and Reuters, the Franco-Spanish tobacco giant Altadis, a subsidiary of the British multinational tobacco consortium Imperial Brands, sold its 50 percent ownership of Habanos S.A. to an undisclosed alliance of Chinese investors for a reported $1.3 billion.
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This semi-secretive sale had gone largely unnoticed but has opened a void in the European cigar market that’s now being filled by those New World cigars, from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Long enjoyed in the United States, many of these brands—such as Padrón, Fuente, Ashton, and Davidoff—had also established their reputations alongside Cuban cigars in Europe and elsewhere but were often subjected to a bit of snobbery. Not any longer.
“The European market is making a huge move towards New World cigars,” says Zaya Younan, chairman and CEO of El Septimo, a Geneva-based cigar company established in 2000 that hand-rolls its smokes in Costa Rica and has 45 different cigar blends. “At the same time, their quality dropped significantly and they couldn’t meet market demand,” Younan adds, “so the market was forced to start considering New World cigars, and when they did, they found out some of those cigars were better than Havanas—and less expensive.”
Sathya Levin, president and CEO of Ashton Distributors, says, “We see the European market continuing to expand for our brands and for non-Cuban cigars in general. But we’ve been projecting growth internationally, so we’ve increased factory production.”
Even before the embargo, the United States was the biggest market for New World cigars. Consequently, it continues to attract the foremost premium brands, as evidenced by this year’s Best of the Best winners.
