Our final performance category for 2015 is a new one. This one incorporates the viola-specific theme we adopted on Cigar Coop and Stogie Geeks (i.e. “Size Matters”).

The Performance Rankings were introduced in 2012 as a statistical analysis based on the average numerical score of all cigars assessed on Cigar Coop. This has been broken down by brand for the past four years. This year, we added two new ones – vitola performance and country of origin.

For 2015, a total of 247 (down from 257 in 2014) cigars were considered for this analysis. This is not meant to be necessarily an award, but a look at how scoring went, and what can we learn from it.

We used the following criteria to implement this:

1. The cigar must have its scored published during the 2015 Cigar Coop Cigar Year that ran from November 28, 2014 to November 26, 2015.
2. All cigars scored were eligible regardless of release date. The goal here is to see how the brand performed during the Cigar Coop Cigar Year.
3. For this analysis, sampling Data was broken up into three sets: Small (5 Cigars or Less), Medium (6 to 20 Cigars), Large (Greater than 20 Cigars)
4. We stayed close to the definitions of vitolas specified by Tobacconist University.
5. Robusto and Toro was split into Robusto Grande and Toro Grande – with the Grande size having a 54 to 56 greater ring gauge.
6. Samples where the size was a one-off (i.e. unusual vitola, other unique size) – it was not included in the sample sets.
7. Regardless of ring gauge or length, all sizes of torpedo / belicoso (i.e. a tapered tip on the head of the cigar) were grouped into a single category – belicoso.
8. Box Pressed cigars were not separated out.

Large Sample Sets

Rank	Brand	Score
1	Robusto (45)	91.04
2	Toro (51)	90.75

Medium Sample Sets

Rank	Brand	Score
1	Short Churchill (7)	92.43
2	Perfecto (12)	91.75
3	Corona (8)	91.63
4	Salomon (7)	91.43
5	Lancero (6)	91.33
6	Double Corona (12)	91.25
7	Belicoso (19)	91.00
	Corona Gorda (19)	91.00
9	Robusto Grande (11)	90.64
10	Toro Grande (19)	90.53
11	Gordo (9)	89.56

Small Sample Sets

Rank	Brand	Score
1	Lonsdale (3)	92.00
2	Petite Lancero (4)	90.75
3	Petite Corona (3)	90.67
4	Petite Salomon (2)	90.50
5	Churchill (3)	90.00
6	Rothschild (5)	89.60

 

Assessing the Results

1. It’s no surprise that Robusto and Toro were the two big sample sets of vitolas.  Robusto had the edge over Toro by an average of 0.29.  In the “Grande” category, while it had a smaller sampling set, the result was the same with Robusto Grande having an edge by 0.11.
2. Large ring gauge cigars are something I’ve embraced, but under the quantitative analysis, they were the bottom three in the medium sampling set category.
3. With Lancero, it wasn’t the standout vitola, it finished 5th in the medium sampling set with an average of 91.33.
4. The Smaller Sampling Set was included more for reference. The sample set is too small to make any significant trend conclusions, however I was still shocked to see Rothschild at the bottom – considering how well Robusto did.
5. Short Churchill was a surprise winner in the medium sampling set, yet I was still surprised the Churchill size was lower – even though it was in the small sampling set category.
6. As confirmed in the other performance categories, our attempts to bring down scoring failed over the past year.