My 2023 Top 24 CCs

[hrs1]

It's been a blur of a year.   I feel like I just pulled together my 2022 Top 25 yesterday. But here I am almost 12 months later and I haven't managed to review a cigar since. When life is moving at the speed of light, it's all too easy to lose touch with things we enjoy. It's easy to lose perspective. Just hang on and ride the bull.

This is my cue to take bull by the horns. The prospect of early 24:24 access is also nice  

Time to fire up the spreadsheet again 🤓 

I knew my Cuban cigar consumption was down in 2023. But, I never would have guessed that it was down almost 50% (163 vs 303 last year). Sure, cigarmageddon played a role and I smoked more NCs and Nudies/MoFOHs. However, my young kids, wife, family, work and a mad, mad, mad, mad world just made it tougher to find the time.

While time was tight and cigars were fewer and further between, I kept my smoking diversified. I had 58 different cigars spread across 22 brands. I added in some Juan Lopez thanks to @jakebarnes and @SMELTZ (🙏). I snuck in some ERDM, Fonseca, RG, SP, SLR and VR as well. Variety is indeed the spice of life.

My general brand preference remained pretty much the same year-over-year:

I still have a preference for Cohiba. Punch were just tougher to find this year. LGC was easier (note to self: buy all the Turquinos!).

A few more notes on my 2023 cigar sample & ranking:

• My inventory consists largely of 2019-2022 regular production cigars
• I do not have a rigorous scoring methodology.  I make a few notes and jot down a score after smoking.  I then stack rank.
• If I didn't smoke a cigar three or more times, I excluded it from the ranking
  • This knocked out some high scoring smokes that I'd enthusiastically recommend
• The following rankings are only indicative of what smoked well to my palate in 2023 from (mostly) 2019-2022 regular production boxes in my inventory that I smoked 3 or more times

Without further adieu, my top 24 Cuban cigars from 2023:

Looking forward to 2024, I'm still hoping that CC supply goes up and prices come down. While I'm more optimistic about these prospects in 2024 than I was in 2023, I'm not holding my breath for the return to the pre-cigarmageddon days.I'm still looking forward to more Nudies & MoFOHs. Regardless of how the future unfolds, I'll take the bull by the horns, find more time for the things I enjoy and smoke more cigars in 2024.

Carpe diem!

Wishing everyone a happy holidays and even better new year 🥂 

[SMELTZ]

Great Job once again !

[Russell]

The ocd part of me is so satisfied with this. I became a big fan of Juan Lopez this year as well 🤙🏼 Cheers and happy holidays!

[GoodStix]

Thanks very much.  All the best to you and yours as well 🥂

[coug28]

Poor Sir Winnie…

Always the Bridesmaid & never the Bride  

Great read & beyond impressive record keeping. Bravo 

[gormag38]

Awesome job compiling the list. Fun to see what others are smoking and what they think is smoking well right now. 

The thing that stands out to me most after looking at your list is the Siglo III. Couldn't agree more with the Siglo III being a top 3 smoke. I've got a RAT 20 cab and some cardboard GRM 20 sleeves that are freaking fantastic right now. Glad to see I'm not the only one loving them. 

[Glass Half Full]

Okay hrs1 -- Really enjoy your annual lists and hoping that's a tradition going forward!...But now you've piqued my interest about the 48 NC's that make up the balance of your 2023!    

How did the NC's fare? Not that I'm asking for the same level of work. You're kind to provide as much insight as you already have. Just curious if there were NC standouts.  

Thanks for considering sharing your thoughts on a top five of those!  All the best, - Cliff

[hrs1]

Thanks all!  Rob, Ken, JohnS and all the FOH members reviews & nuggets of wisdom scattered across the forum were super helpful to me as I went down the rabbit hole and built up some inventory. Hope there are a few nuggets in here that can help someone else  

@coug28 - the HUSW playing second fiddle again gave me a laugh. This box (EOS OCT 18) is one of the most consistent I have.  I'm almost halfway through it and it's always produced a 94-96pt smoke. Feel like that alone should make me bump it up to the No.1 spot  

@gormag38 - the Sig III was a surprise for me this year when I ran the numbers. I've been in love with Sig 5 for a bit and will naturally gravitate toward that over a Sig III. But, I picked up a few aged 5 packs (SRO&LAT 17) from 24:24 and they've been outperforming my Sig Vs from 2018 recently. Have a few boxes of Sig IIIs from 2020 squirreled away - think I'm going to have to crack 'em open soon 🥂 

@Glass Half Full - The 48 smokes are the CCs I smoked less than 3 times that didn't make the list above. Some notable callouts here were the ERDM Tainos ER, CCE, CoLa, Punch DC & HU 2.  As far as NCs went, the 21 N1 Lancero Maduro was in regular rotation for me as well as a smattering of Padrons. Only had a handful of other NCs this year - AF Rare Pink, some EP Carillos & Montecristo 1935 Anniversary stick out from memory. Might be time to start exploring & documenting some NCs in 2024