In Major League Baseball, the month of September holds special significance as teams rally for a spot to make the post-season.  This has become known in MLB culture as “pennant races”.   Here at Cigar Coop, a similar analogy can be made of the month of November.   Thanksgiving occurs in 2012 on November 22nd.  It is on that day where the “regular season” ends for the 2012 cigar year on Cigar Coop.  This allows us to use the month of December to celebrate the best cigars of the year and do our annual Cigar of the Year countdown.  The countdown launches on December 1st. 2012.

The month of November becomes a very busy time here.   We still will have daily articles reviewing cigars, previewing upcoming releases, and news.  Simultaneously behind the scenes, we start our own pennant race as we consider cigars that will make our Top 30 for 2012.   Not only is it interesting to see where the cigars will slot, but it even becomes a more difficult task of determining who is in – and who is out.  It’s our version of a pennant race.

While we introduced a numerical scoring system for 2012, this does not automatically determine who is in, and the position of the cigars.  For one thing, we rate the line of the cigars across all vitals – and then select our recommended vitola from the line.   Therefore, scores while a good barometer for how the cigar does will not not a driving factor.  Consistency plays a key role as well.

And the Cigar World does not shutdown on Cigar Coop during December.  Our 2013 cigar year begins the day after Thanksgiving – November 23rd.

We will have more details about around the mechanics of the 2012 Cigar of the Year countdown in the December edition of “Editor’s Corner”.