2015_Year_in_Review

Our 2016 Year in Review coverage continues with a look at how the various cigar brands did on Cigar Coop for 2016. This is a statistical analysis based on the average numerical score of all cigars assessed on Cigar Coop. It is not meant to be necessarily an award, but a look at how scoring went, and what can we learn from it. For 2016, a total of 243 (down from 247 in 2015) cigars were considered for this analysis.We used the

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 27, 2015 to November 24, 2016.
  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. A brand or brand grouping must have 5 scored cigars to be eligible.
  4. Ties were broken with the manufacturer with more cigars assessed breaking the tie.
  5. This year we relied less on logical groups. The only logical groupings used were CLE /Asylum and Black Label Trading Company / Black Works Studio.

Best Brand Performance 2016: Davidoff

Davidoff led all brands and companies with an average score of 92.63. This year Davidoff just didn’t win, it dominated. Five of the eight cigars assessed in the brand scored 93 or higher. In fact, the brand dominated our 2016 Cigar of the Year Countdown with a record setting four entries in the top 20.

Crux Cigar Company finished second averaging an even 92.0 based on having the minimum of five reviews. Crux’s strong placement was on the strength of having the #1 Cigar of the Year for 2016 that scored a 95.

A surprise third place was Black Label Trading Company / Black Works Studio, the brands of Fabrica Oveja Negra finishing with a 91.80 average.

The following are the 15 brands that met the criteria above to qualify for this list.

Rank

 Brand

 Score
1 Davidoff Cigars (8) 92.63
2 Crux Cigar Company (5) 92.00
3 Black Label Trading Co / Black Works Studio (5) 91.80
4 Bombay Tobak (7) * 91.71
5 MoyaRuiz Cigars (5) 91.60
6 Espinosa Cigars (6) 91.33
7 La Flor Dominicana (6) 91.17
8 CLE / Asylum (6) 90.5
9 Rocky Patel Premium Cigars (7) * 90.43
10 Viaje Cigars (10) 90.20
11 General Cigar (5) * 90.20
12 E.P. Carrillo (10) 90.10
14 Nomad Cigar Company (5) 90.00
15 Atladis USA (5) 89.80
16 Tatuaje Cigars (14) 89.79

Average: 90.80

* Current Sponsor of Cigar Coop and Stogie Geeks during 2016

Other Observations

  1. For the 243 cigars assessed, the average was 90.80.  There were only seven brands which qualified for the Performance Ratings that averaged higher than the 90.80 mark.
  2. There were 15 brands that met the minimum five cigar rule – the same as last year.  There are no quotas set for how many cigars per brand are reviewed – it just turns out like that.
  3. Tatuaje’s lower numbers were primarily due to 11 of the 14 cigars being a part of the Skinny Monsters Series / Monsters Series which did score lower this year on Cigar Coop than most Tatuajes. The three Tatuaje cigars that did not fall into this category still averaged 91.67.
  4. Davidoff’s 92.63 score was only 0.03 higher than the 2015’s Performance leader Debonaire Cigars had (92.60). Debonaire Cigars did not have the five cigars to qualify for the 2016 Performance Ratings.
  5. CLE / Asylum has the highest average (90.5) for a brand that did not have a cigar on the 2016 Top 30 Countdown.
  6. Looking at these rankings over the past few years, I do question whether or not Cigar Coop spends too much time on reviewing boutiques – and in particular the newer boutiques. This isn’t a knock, but  the larger companies still produce more in quantity – and I wonder whether more assessments are needed to better represent a powerful segment of the market.

Previous Brand Performance Ratings #1 by Year

2012 E.P. Carrillo (93.00)
2013 La Palina (93.80)
2014 Regius Cigars (93.40)
2015 Debonaire (92.60)
2016 Davidoff (92.63)