The Performance Rankings were introduced in 2012 as a statistical analysis based on the average numerical score of all cigars assessed on Cigar Coop. It is meant to serve as a barometer in terms of how the cigars were assessed.
Today we slice this data by cigar company, a category we have ranked since 2012. This is not meant to be an award, but a look at how scoring went, and what can we learn from it.
We have returned to using the adjusted cigar year method that fits our site – namely November 1, 2019, through October 31, 2020. For the 2020 year, a total of 172 (down from 174 in 2019) cigars were considered for this analysis. The average score for the entire set of 172 cigars was 89.45. (Statistically, this was down 0.54 points from 2019 when the average was 89.99)
We used the following criteria to implement this:
- The cigar must have its score published between November 1, 2019, and October 31, 2020.
- Rankings are done by companies. Prior to 2019, rankings were based on brands and also combined companies that distributed other companies.
- All cigars scored were eligible regardless of release date. The goal here is to see how a vitola performed during the Cigar Coop Cigar Year.
- A company must have five scored cigars to be eligible.
- While there were no ties, if there had been one, we would have had the manufacturer with more cigars assessed breaking the tie.
| Company | Count | Average | |
| 1 | Joya de Nicaragua | 6 | 90.00 |
| 2 | EP Carrillo | 5 | 90.00 |
| JRE Tobacco Co | 5 | 90.00 | |
| 4 | Alec Bradley | 5 | 89.80 |
| 5 | Altadis | 9 | 89.67 |
| 6 | Tatuaje | 7 | 89.29 |
| 7 | JC Newman | 10 | 88.90 |
| 8 | Davidoff | 7 | 88.86 |
| 9 | Drew Estate | 7 | 88.57 |
| 10 | General | 13 | 88.23 |
There were five companies that fell one cigar short of the 5 cigar minimum. We include them here for reference.
| Company | Count | Average | |
| 1 | Perdomo | 4 | 91.50 |
| 2 | La FLor Dominicana | 4 | 90.75 |
| Southern Draw | 4 | 90.75 | |
| 4 | Crowned Heads | 4 | 90.00 |
| 5 | Protocol Cigars | 4 | 89.00 |
Assessing the Results
- A total of 64 different companies had cigars assessed on Cigar Coop during the assessment period.
- There was a three-way tie among Joya de Nicaragua, E.P. Carrillo, and JRE Tobacco Company for the highest average with the five cigar minimum. Each of these three companies averaged 90.0 in scoring. Joya de Nicaragua wins the performance rankings because, under the tiebreaker, the company with the most cigars assessed wins (in this case Joya had six while E.P. Carrillo and JRE had five each).
- For the first time since the inception of the Performance Ratings this category, the top performer over the five cigar minimum did not exceed a 90.0 average This is the lowest performance ranking for the overall first-place finisher of the year to date. This is not a negative, but more indicative of our overall strategy of making it more difficult to get high scores. The days of a company getting nearly a 94 point average (La Palina in 2013) are long gone.
- There were 10 companies that met the minimum five cigar rule. There are no quotas set for how many cigars per company are reviewed. The tenth place doesn’t mean worst company, it just is the lowest average of those brands that met the minimum criteria.
- Since five companies had four cigars reviewed, just below the minimum, they are listed above for reference.
- Altadis, Davidoff, Drew Estate, and General Cigar are the “Big Four” companies that withdrew from the 2020 PCA Trade Show. These four companies all met the minimum five cigar rule for the 2020 Performance Rankings. This accounted for 33 cigars assessed in 2020 or 20.93%. What this shows is these four companies release a lot of cigars assessed on this website.
- At the same time, cigars from the Big Four averaged 88.78. This is -0.67 from the average of 89.45
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)
2018 Crux Cigars (91.80)
2019 Crux Cigars (90.60)
2020: Joya de Nicaragua (90.00) * (via tiebreaker w/ EP Carrillo and JRE Tobacco)
Other Averages
Those cigars that had less than four cigars assessed are included here for reference here.
| Company | Count | Average | |
| Esteban Carreras | 1 | 92.00 | |
| HVC | 1 | 92.00 | |
| IndianHead Cigars | 1 | 92.00 | |
| Espinosa | 2 | 91.00 | |
| Powstanie | 2 | 91.00 | |
| De Los Reyes Cigars | 1 | 91.00 | |
| Plasencia | 1 | 91.00 | |
| Quesada | 1 | 91.00 | |
| CLE Cigar Company | 3 | 90.67 | |
| ACE Prime | 2 | 90.50 | |
| Casa Cuevas | 2 | 90.50 | |
| AJ Fernandez | 3 | 90.00 | |
| My Father | 3 | 90.00 | |
| La Aurora | 2 | 90.00 | |
| Nat Sherman | 2 | 90.00 | |
| Rocky Patel Premium Cigars | 2 | 90.00 | |
| RoMa Craft Tobac | 2 | 90.00 | |
| Room101 Cigars | 2 | 90.00 | |
| Selected Tobacco | 2 | 90.00 | |
| Arturo Fuente | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Crux Cigars | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Global Premium Cigars | 1 | 90.00 | |
| JSK Cigars | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Kristoff Cigars | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Pure Aroma Cigars | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Vintage Rock-A-Feller Cigar Group | 1 | 90.00 | |
| Las Cumbres Tabaco | 4 | 89.75 | |
| Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust | 3 | 89.67 | |
| Habanos SA | 2 | 89.50 | |
| Micallef Cigars | 2 | 89.50 | |
| Mombacho Cigars | 2 | 89.50 | |
| Villiger | 2 | 89.50 | |
| Tabacalera SLU | 3 | 89.33 | |
| 7-20-4 Cigars | 2 | 89.00 | |
| Cavalier Geneve | 1 | 89.00 | |
| Miami Cigar & Company | 1 | 89.00 | |
| Warped Cigars | 1 | 89.00 | |
| Aganorsa Leaf | 2 | 88.50 | |
| Gran Habano | 2 | 88.50 | |
| Lars Tetens | 2 | 88.00 | |
| Foundation Cigar Company | 1 | 88.00 | |
| Maya Selva Cigars | 1 | 88.00 | |
| Boston Jimmie | 1 | 87.00 | |
| Royal Agio Cigars | 1 | 87.00 | |
| Toscano Cigars | 1 | 87.00 | |
| Fratello Cigars | 1 | 86.00 | |
| Viaje | 2 | 85.00 | |
| United Cigar | 1 | 82.00 |
