Top Cigars of 2024

A Personal List Of The Best Ranking Cigars For 2024

Part 1 of 2

Will Egbert - September 2024

As a cigar lounge owner, having access to a wonderfully stocked humidor, the one-and-done list is totally unrealistic, and the So, I thought it would be a great idea to separate my list into two different lists from similar perspectives to help new cigar enthusiasts find their way. The first list will cover what cigars I still enjoy in 2024 divided into a Mild, a Medium, and a Full selection. The second list (Part 2) is a selection of new cigars I discovered and started enjoying here in 2024. This list is meant to cover cigars that are in readily available and a benchmark, not a holy grail list.

Personally, I enjoy more complex flavors in a cigar, and I rarely go truly heavy. In other words, my everyday top would be a medium-full-body cigar with complex nuances and very little spice or pepper. Secondly, I enjoy the cigar more when the blend is linear in taste, developing its flavors slowly, with the beginning starting off pleasant and only transitioning, say 25%, from there till the end. I am a modern man living in the modern age, which means I don’t have enough time to do what I want, and I get “beat up” daily running a business and raising a family, so I enjoy falling in love from the get-go and not have to put in a lot of work along the way.

Personal Top Cigars Still Valid In 2024

MILD

Romeo Y Julieta 1875 Connecticut Nicaragua Cigar

The first cigar is a full-flavored mild offering that I can enjoy while doing tasks or have first thing in the morning with a pour-over coffee as I get into my office grind. The Romeo Y Julieta 1875 Connecticut Nicaraguan in toro size, is my go-to, still after all these years. While there are other blends that I covet, this is my pick for a complex and leathery mild smoke that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Construction is what you would expect from a true legacy line, more consistent than not, and burns with little to no touchup. Linear in profile and gentle enough for the novice smoker while offering solid leather and nutty flavors that keep you interested.

MEDIUM

Timeless Prestige Cigar (by Fero Tego)

A medium-bodied cigar has to have that complexity I referred to above, with mild and, again, little to no spice. This is most likely the most smoked cigar profile I lean to. I fell in love with the Timeless brand years ago, and its relaunch by Fero Tego has the Presitige back in the saddle, this time in a belicoso vitola. I call this my “holy trinity,” an excellent selection of Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Dominican tobaccos that hits the mark with a ‘’timeless’’ profile of a Partagas Signature Series long since passed. Light woody flavor with toasted almond and cashew notes with a rich smokey wood tone.

FULL

The Joya De Nicaragua Antano Gran Reserva cigar.

The Full or Medium-Full body selection, for me, is another relaunched brand that always had a special spot in my heart, as this was the cigar my father would smoke on summers in Montana on the ranch. The Joya De Nicaragua Antano Gran Reserva hits well above the mark in my mind. Possibly due to the nostalgic band of my memories, could it be the sophisticated or mature flavors, or due to this being one of only a handful of cigars I smoke to a nub. This cigar contains rich and creamy espresso notes and toasted marshmallow, cashew, and leather flavors that round out any great adventure. Which brings me to a quick side thought…

Should I Smoke A Cigar Past The Band?

Jon from Crowned Heads Cigars smoking the band on a Coronetta Habano cigar.

This is a shared and frequently asked question in the humidor and the lounge by newer customers. As a true connoisseur, I can only answer very frankly - Yes and No. LOL! I look at this topic as a question of pure enjoyment and not on posterity. “If you like a girl enough to date her for a while, why not marry her? ‘Cause she is downright nuts!” A cigar is no different from that analogy. If you enjoy the first two-thirds, but when the cigar changes and you no longer find the allure - then stop! There is no shame in smoking your cigar the way you like to unless you dunk your ‘stogie’ in tequila and say fuck ‘ur freedoms, then you should look long and hard in the mirror… Sorry, Arnold, I think you went too far with that one.

I’m currently working on part 2 of this, but I have a few more cigars to get into again and test my theories. While at this point, I have a definite winner for the full category, you will have to wait until next week for the final results.

See you in the lounge,

Will-