2015_Year_in_Review

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 break things down by brand. This is not meant to be necessarily an award, but a look at how scoring went, and what can we learn from it.

For 2017, 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 must have its score published during the 2015 Cigar Coop Cigar Year that ran from November 25, 2016 to November 23, 2017.
  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. We broke things down by brand as opposed to company. Thus AVO and Camacho were separated out as these brands met the five assessment minimum.
  5. While there were no ties, if there had been one, we would have had the manufacturer with more cigars assessed breaking the tie.
  6. To some extent with relied on logical groups. The only logical grouping used was Tabacalera USA, Altadis, and Boutique Blends (the latter is distributed by Altadis).
Rank

 Brand

 Score
1 Bombay Tobak (MBombay/Gaaja) (7) 92.00
2 Black Label Trading Co / Black Works Studio (5) 91.80
3 Padrón (5) 91.20
4 Drew Estate (6) 91.17
5 Tabacalera USA /Altadis USA/  Boutique Blends (6) 90.83
6 Quesada (5) 90.80
7 E.P. Carrillo (7) 90.58
8 Davidoff (13) 90.54
9 Viaje Cigars (12) 90.50
10 Tatuaje / L’Atelier Imports (6) 90.17
11 General Cigar (10) 89.9
12 Caldwell Cigar Company (6) 89.83
13 Camacho Cigars 89.67
14 Avo Cigars (5) 89.60
15 My Father (7) 89.43

 

Best Brand Performance 2016: Bombay Tobak

It was a very strong year for Bombay Tobak, the company that makes MBombay and Gaaja cigars. Gaaja was the workhorse that gave Bombay Tobak the top rating as Gaaja had three scores of 94 and one score of 92.

Black Label Trading Company and Black Works Studio took second place, but had the same average score as in 2016 (91.80).

Padrón Cigars took third place with 91.20, the highest position for Padrón since the performance ratings were introduced.

Other Observations

  1. For the 205 cigars assessed, the average was 90.84.  Statistically, this is the same as the 2016 average (90.80)
  2. There were only four brands which qualified for the Performance Ratings that averaged higher than the 90.84 mark. This is down from seven brands in 2016 that beat the 90.80.
  3. There were 16 brands that met the minimum five cigar rule. There are no quotas set for how many cigars per brand are reviewed – it just turns out like that.
  4. Davidoff was the top performing brand of 2016 with 92.63. There was a notable drop this year. In fact, Davidoff finished slightly below the 90.84 average.
  5. Drew Estate has the highest average (91.17) for a brand that did not have a cigar on the 2017 Top 30 Countdown.
  6. The Top Five brands only placed a total of four cigars on the 2017 Countdown.

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)
2017 Bombay Tobak (92.00)