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This is the first time a 601 cigar has appeared on our Top 25 list. The brand comes from United Tobacco, a small company founded in 2003 by old friends Erik Espinosa and Eddie Ortega. The two came to the cigar industry by different routes: Espinosa became enamored with cigars while delivering them via UPS in Miami; Ortega married (and later divorced) a cigarmaker's daughter. In August 2003 they formed their own cigar company, and after an unsuccessful start they found their way by having cigars made for them by José "Pepin" Garcia. While their brands remain small in quantity they have scored very well in Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider blind tastings, starting with scores in the high 80s and now with scores in the 90s. The 601 Box Press Maduro Toro is beautiful, with Garcia's trademark triple-seam cap construction. It's a smoke that has heavy, chewy, complex flavors loaded with notes of dark-roasted coffee, nuts and sweet cocoa. In short, the 601 Box Press Maduro Toro is both gorgeous and delicious.
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MADE BY: My Father Cigars Inc.
FACTORY LOCATION: Nicaragua
WRAPPER: Nicaragua
BINDER: Nicaragua
FILLER: Nicaragua
PRICE: $9.30
RING GAUGE: 54
LENGTH: 6 1/4"
RATING: 93
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The 1980s were lean years for the cigar industry in the United States, and for lovers of figurados, or shaped cigars, the situation was even more bleak. The perfecto, a classic shape with tapers on both ends of the cigar, had gone away. It was the 1983 revival of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway series of cigars that brought them back. Carlos Fuente Sr. found old cigar molds in an Ybor City, Florida, warehouse, brought them to Fuente's factory in the Dominican Republic and taught his master roller how to make the intricately shaped smoke. Even those completely ignorant about the difficulty of making a cigar by hand will recognize that the Hemingway Classic has a supermodel's curves. The sublime balance of ultra-thin and toothy Cameroon wrapper pairs exquisitely with Fuente's filler and binder blend, resulting in a complex smoke smacking of orange peel, cedar and coffee. If you've never smoked an Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic, you're missing out on one of the cigar world's premier smoking experiences.
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MADE BY: Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
FACTORY LOCATION: Dom. Rep.
WRAPPER: Cameroon
BINDER: Dom. Rep.
FILLER: Dom. Rep.
PRICE: $8.10
RING GAUGE: 48
LENGTH: 7"
RATING: 92
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Rocky Patel continues to improve the quality of the many cigars that bear his name, and the Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve Maduro Torpedo is a fine example. The thick cigar features a nontraditional wrapper leaf grown in Costa Rica around a core of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos, giving the cigar an earthy, leathery flavor with hints of coffee. Wrapper tobacco is key to Patel, who sells a wide variety of cigars. He begins with a wrapper style and builds his blend around it, making adjustments to the binder, then the filler. "I've spent a lot of time at the factory," says Patel. "I don't make a blend and give it to 10 people-I trust my palate and I know what I'm looking for." Rocky Patel has had several cigars in our Top 25 list, but this is the first time that one of his cigars has appeared in our Top 10.
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MADE BY: El Paraiso Factory
FACTORY LOCATION: Honduras
WRAPPER: Costa Rica
BINDER: Nicaragua
FILLER: Honduras
PRICE: $10.50
RING GAUGE: 54
LENGTH: 5"
RATING: 92
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Ashton Virgin Sun Grown cigars are the original powerhouse cigar. Made by Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. for Ashton Distributors Inc., the brand's hallmark is its dark, Sumatra-seed wrappers grown under the perpetually cloudy skies in Ecuador at the foothills of the Andes by one of the legendary names in the tobacco business, the Oliva Tobacco Co. of Tampa, Florida. Ashton VSGs, as they are known, consistently take some of the highest scores in Cigar Aficionado magazine and Cigar Insider newsletter. The Ashton VSG Torpedo is a hefty figurado that stood out in a Cigar Insider vertical brand tasting in April 2009. (The average score for the 10-size brand was an exceptional 90.1 points.) The Torpedo is not as strong as we remembered, but brims with sweet cedar and nutmeg flavors, with a creamy texture. Always dependable, always flavorful.
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MADE BY: Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
FACTORY LOCATION: Dom. Rep.
WRAPPER: Ecuador
BINDER: Dom. Rep.
FILLER: Dom. Rep.
PRICE: $11.25
RING GAUGE: 55
LENGTH: 6 1/2"
RATING: 92
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Partagas has a long history for making rich and wonderful cigars, but the pirámide, more popularly called a torpedo, has never been a mainstay shape for the brand. Most Partagas figurados have been machine made, although we once saw a box of handmade Partagas torpedos from the early 1960s sold in a Christie's auction in London. However, it wasn't until late 2000 that the marque made a pirámide commercially available with the launch of the Partagas Edición Limitada Pirámide. It took another five years for it to become a core shape. Made at the Partagas factory in Havana, the smoke has always delivered the benchmark rich, earthy, almost funky character that the facility is known for. The Partagas Serie P No. 2 was our favorite Cuban figurado in 2009. In its hip black-and-red tube, it's a great cigar to have in your pocket for one of those spontaneous moments that call for a big and juicy Habanos.
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MADE BY: Habanos S.A.
FACTORY LOCATION: Cuba
WRAPPER: Cuba
BINDER: Cuba
FILLER: Cuba
PRICE: £16.20
RING GAUGE: 52
LENGTH: 6 1/8"
RATING: 92
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