Best year and box code for Cuban Cigars?

[Havanaaddict]

What do you think was the best year and box code for Cuban Cigars?

Some of the tops for me have to be MUR 2013. Every brand that had the code was outstanding!

I have to also put up  AMO, UAO, MAR for Cohiba!

And for the older stuff 80' 90's FPG, EL, BM

98' had some great cigars even if sometimes there were some tight one in the batch, but no where as many as the 2000 boxes!

95, 96, 97 were also stand out years!

85' never had one that I didn't love!

[JohnS]

Yes, I would agree with MUR 13 and the AMO, UAO, MAR Cohiba codes. I have also found the LUB 14 H.Upmann codes outstanding.

[MC4]

A few of many excellent boxes I had through the years.  Many more but this is what I could find for now:

MUR 13 for RASS
RBS 23 for Regios
EGT 21 for HOYO DC
ULA 14 for Bolivar
BTO 13 for Cohiba
MUO 14,15 for Cohiba
BMU 12 for Cohiba
USE 08 for Cohiba
MUR 12 for Cohiba
PLM 11 for Conni 1
RUM 18 for JL2
ATE 18 for JL2
BRS 13 for Dbl Edmundo
TGP 08 for Monte 1
BUM 14 for Monte 4
PUM 12 for Presidente
OPG 14 for Partagas Shorts
ULA 14 for QdO Imperiales
EAG 14 for RASS
POS 06 for Estupendos

[HDGSN]

Been smoking Cubans since 2008 and the two that spring to mind without trouble are PLM 11 and MUR 13. 

[GP012]

ECA 02, LRE 09, MUR & BTO 12/13, LUB 14 all come to mind.

[KCCubano]

FPG, OSU 02, POS 06, TEB 07, USE 08, MEL 08 LRE 09, MUR 13

[westg]

POU DEC 12 Montecristo 2 and 4

LUB MAY 14 Petit Coronas. No 2 

ULA MAY 15 Bolivar Belicosos 

LUB ABR 15 UPMANN Connie A

TUA from memory 21 or 22 R&J Wide Churchill consistently impressive. 

POS O6 Partagas

BTO MAY 13 Cohiba Siglo VI the cigars the Cuban Cigar Gods smoke.

[zeedubbya]

Some great runs which spring to mind are.

BUM 2014 Monte 1 and 4, as has been mentioned before.  

MUR AND ULA QDO and LGC, some of the last runs of MDO2, old band Coronas Claro and Imperiales, and they went out with a bang from Partagas.  

EML/TOS 2015 Diplomaticos 2, these have to be from the Bushidos run, they were so good, and are now so gone.  La Corona seems to get its fair share of 109s, follow the 109 seams for other great cigars.  

ARG 2014/2015 Winnies-  I just said a couple days back to some friends this may be the best cigar run ever IMO.  ARG code Siglo 6 and Espys were around as well, I only smoked small anmounts of Cohiba, but Winnies stood out— all were great.  

RAE (Especially JUNE 2015) or SOM ANYTHING.. to me this factory code, Villa Clara Baez (home of Pepin Garcia), has always produced some great runs of cigars. RASS, Cohiba, 898s, I (and others) hunted this code for quite some time.  RAE or SOM 2016 Punch Punch 50 Cabs, so so so good.  
 
POS 2006/2007 Bolivar and Upmann, some great tobacco coming out of Partagas factory during this time.  BCE and Monarchs are great.  

LUB coded Upmann -  mother factory goodness.  Have smoked some glorious 2s, As, PCs, and even a lucky box of CORO.  *this is no secret though, 2013-2015 LUB, great run.  

MOB and MAE  Hoyo De Monterrey.  Never been a huge fan of Hoyo but these codes produced some spectacular cigars.  The MAE stamp looks fake sometimes.  

Any Partagas or RYJ rolled at El Laguito.  I’ve owned couple boxes of D4, E2, some RyJ Churchills, and a VERY strange box of D5 (total outlier), and they’ve been outstanding. 

[joeypots]

5 hours ago, zeedubbya said:

 RAE or SOM 2016 Punch Punch 50 Cabs, so so so good.

No doubt.

[Chas.Alpha]

Whatever was happening at La Corona MSU 2019 was magical, especially the Boli PC and RC’s. I’ve waded in on the ‘21 TUA but the magic so far hasn’t shown up.

Another shoutout to @LizardGizmo for the comprehensive list. Who knew? 😀

[teamrandr]

Any 03 Cohiba

[zeedubbya]

18 hours ago, Chas.Alpha said:

Whatever was happening at La Corona MSU 2019 was magical, especially the Boli PC and RC’s. I’ve waded in on the ‘21 TUA but the magic so far hasn’t shown up.

Another shoutout to @LizardGizmo for the comprehensive list. Who knew? 😀

It is interesting you mention this @Chas.Alpha. I was trying to think of some newer cigar runs I recall and MSU 2019 was one of them — the P2 and D4 also being excellent from this code and year. I believe this was Partagas factory and if I recall correctly the Ramon Allones Phoenicia 40 humidor release was from the fall of 2019 from Partagas factory. I become more and more convinced it’s possible some of the leaf for these ultra special releases “leaks over” into other Marca. Indeed a big thank you to @LizardGizmo for getting the code list.  

Maybe, if a person wanted to chase good runs of tobacco it would pay to look toward boxes which match up to the time of these super rare releases? Just a hunch.  

[gojira]

I agree that most MUR 13 cigars are outstanding. Two other codes that come very close are ULA 14 (of course) and BRE 18.

[Chas.Alpha]

@zeedubbya you are correct. MSU/ TUA were from the Partagas factory, according to @LizardGizmo ‘s fine compilation. I had printed it on an 11x17, but as with everything else in this house if it isn’t epoxied to the cat it gets lost in the shuffle! I have 9 sticks left from a box of P2 and half a 50 cab of RASS from MSU 19. All magical.

CAH

[REesq]

16 hours ago, zeedubbya said:

It is interesting you mention this @Chas.Alpha. I was trying to think of some newer cigar runs I recall and MSU 2019 was one of them — the P2 and D4 also being excellent from this code and year. I believe this was Partagas factory and if I recall correctly the Ramon Allones Phoenicia 40 humidor release was from the fall of 2019 from Partagas factory. I become more and more convinced it’s possible some of the leaf for these ultra special releases “leaks over” into other Marca. Indeed a big thank you to @LizardGizmo for getting the code list.  

Maybe, if a person wanted to chase good runs of tobacco it would pay to look toward boxes which match up to the time of these super rare releases? Just a hunch.  

Agreed, I picked up 6 or 7 boxes of the MSU 2019 Boliva Libertadors and they have all been particularly good. 

[Chitmo]

There’s OCPD research happening that could probably use this thread/behaviour as a case study 😂 

[gormag38]

On 12/28/2024 at 3:43 AM, zeedubbya said:

SOM ANYTHING.. to me this factory code, Villa Clara Baez (home of Pepin Garcia), has always produced some great runs of cigars. RASS, Cohiba, 898s, I (and others) hunted this code for quite some time.  RAE or SOM 2016 Punch Punch 50 Cabs, so so so good.  

I purchased a SOM 15/16 898 box a couple years ago. Those suckers knocked me on my ass when I first smoked one. Huge flavors/strength still. I was shocked to tell you the truth. 

Hard to put them in from of some LUB HU2s though (albeit totally different cigars). 

[zeedubbya]

On 12/29/2024 at 6:39 PM, Chitmo said:

There’s OCPD research happening that could probably use this thread/behaviour as a case study 😂 

Yep, Obsessive Cigar Purchasing Disorder for sure 🤪 

[zeedubbya]

Check this out 

 

[gormag38]

7 hours ago, zeedubbya said:

Check this out

Yeah looks like RAE was a fan favorite according to a link inside the one you attached.  I'm assuming RAE-->SOM in 2016. Tried searching for a 2016 Top 25 code list but couldn't find it. Also I've heard SOOO many folks say good things about ULA Boli. (think I have some tubo 1s from that time/code but haven't tried em yet).

[zeedubbya]

5 hours ago, gormag38 said:

Yeah looks like RAE was a fan favorite according to a link inside the one you attached.  I'm assuming RAE-->SOM in 2016. Tried searching for a 2016 Top 25 code list but couldn't find it.  Also I've heard SOOO many folks say good things about ULA Boli. (think I have some tubo 1s from that time/code but haven't tried em yet).

Yes RAE and SOM same. Before @LizardGizmo magically obtained the code list, we would figure out VC Baez (GUT, RAE, SOM, UBM) by where the 898s were rolled. Was very rare to have a box of 898 rolled anywhere else (not impossible though). At some point, and I can’t find it now, probably was controversial, someone pointed out that some of El Laguito’s cigars were being packaged/boxed at provincials, as per a letter from head honchos at Phoenicia. Been quite a lot of box-code controversy over the years…probably more than is necessary really.  

[yuppie]

Is it true that the last two years have seen a lot better QC coming out of some/most brands?