The 25 Best Cigars of 2011

The taste tests are over, and the final puffs of smoke have dissipated from the New York offices of Cigar Aficionado. We have our 25 best cigars of the year.

Choosing this group of superb cigars was a comprehensive and exhaustive task. We tasted more than 700 cigars during the year for the reviews printed in Cigar Aficionado magazine and Cigar Insider newsletter. From that we culled a list of top-scoring cigars, selecting more than 60 to taste again. All had achieved outstanding scores (90 points or more in our 100-point scale). Our tasting coordinator went to cigar shops and bought the cigars once again. He removed their identifying bands and gave each a new code before passing them out to the senior tasters. Each cigar was resmoked and scored, and the best made our Top 25.

To find the Cigar of the Year, however, we selected a dozen of the best from that group of 60, banded them one more time and smoked them blind once more to determine the winner.

The cigars that made this list have undergone a most thorough assessment, rising to the top only after being tested repeatedly. These cigars have proved their consistent excellence, and each is a fine and rewarding smoke.