The Performance Rankings were introduced in 2012 as a statistical analysis based on the average numerical score of all cigars assessed on Cigar Coop. Today we slice this data by Country of Origin. This 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 205 (down from 243 in 2016) cigars were considered for this analysis. The average score for these cigars was 90.84. (Statistically, this was almost equivalent to 2016 when the average was 90.80).

We used the following criteria to implement this:

1. The cigar review must have published during the 2016 Cigar Coop Cigar Year that ran from November 25, 2015 to November 23, 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. The majority of the cigars smoked are from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua. As a result, these three countries have a significantly larger sample set than other cigar-producing countries. As a result, the sampling data has been divided into two groups – small and large. A large sampling group had 20 or more cigars assessed.
4. Countries where there was not a country of origin specified are not included.

Large Sampling Data > 20 Cigars

Rank	Country	Avg Score # of Cigars (2016)	Avg Score # of Cigars (2016)	Avg Score # of Cigars (2015)	Difference (2017 vs. 2016)
1	Nicaragua	91.07 (83)	90.62 (115)	90.73 (100)	0.45
2	Dominican Republic	90.85 (70)	91.44 (83)	91.27 (93)	-0.59
3	Honduras	90.23 (22)	90.3 (21)	90.29 (28)	-0.07

Small Sampling Data <= 20 Cigars

Rank	Country	Avg Score # of Cigars (2017)	Avg Score # of Cigars (2016)	Avg Score # of Cigars (2015)	Difference  (2017 vs 2016)
1	Costa Rica	91.75 (8)	91.55 (11)	91.43 (7)	0.20
2	United States	88.75 (3)	91.25 (8)	91.75 (8)	-2.50
3	Mexico	—-	91 (1)	—-	—
4	Brazil	—–	90.0 (1)	87.0 (1)	—

 

Assessing the Results

1. There was a decrease in the sample set for 2017 as we increased our Feature Story and IPCPR coverage, thus reducing days we reviewed.
2. The Dominican Republic and Nicaragua continue to be the two dominant countries (not including Cuba) in terms of cigars reviewed. This is very much reflective of what is coming into the marketplace.
3. For the past two years, the Dominican Republic had outperformed Nicaragua. This year the tables turned and Nicaragua had the edge.
4. Technically Costa Rica was the winner of the average score, but 11 cigars is still ultimately too small a set. Much of Costa Rica’s strength was because Bombay Tobak (who makes its cigars in Costa Rica) had a very strong year on Cigar Coop.
5. Honduras remained statistically flat for 2017.