2023 Reviews in Reviews

As has become tradition, we start our awards week by looking back at the previous year’s worth of reviews. This is the fifth year of Reviews in Reviews, a statistical analysis of halfwheel’s reviews.

This year, we used this data to help determine the nominations for Company of the Year and Factory of the Year, but we’ll explain that more when those awards get announced later this week. The point of this post is to compile the data and see if anything stands out. For better and worse, not much really stands out to me. That said, it’s still a healthy exercise, and I enjoyed looking at the numbers.

Here are links to the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 versions of this article.

TOPLINE NUMBERS

There were 228 total cigar reviews in 2023, they produced an average score of 87.36. For comparison’s sake:

• 2019 — 87.32
• 2020 — 87.22
• 2021 — 86.27
• 2022 — 86.79
• 2023 — 87.36

I tend to find the total review stats to be less interesting because it’s a mixed pool of data.

There are three types of cigar reviews:

• Regular Reviews — Tuesday-Sunday, we review cigars in a consistent manner. A single reviewer smokes three cigars for the review. These cigars tend to be new cigars and there’s much more detail about how the cigars performed.
• Redux Reviews — On most Mondays, we publish something called a redux review, where a single reviewer smokes one cigar, usually an aged cigar for a review that they’ve previously published. Sometimes, that ends up being a rerelease of a cigar that they previously reviewed, but again, it’s just one cigar being smoked.
• Holy Grail Week — There’s also holy grail week, which takes place the first week in January and can range from a single reviewer smoking one to three cigars. Furthermore, the holy grail cigars are not normal and usually not new cigars.

Here are the average scores for those three categories of reviews:

• Regular Reviews: 87.32 (87.09 last year)
• Redux Reviews: 87.37 (86.33)
• Holy Grail Week Reviews: 91.4 (82.33)

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Because of all that, I find the regular review scores to be a greater indication of how a country, factory or company performed. As such, the rest of this article is going to mostly be about those numbers. I’ll make an explicit note when it’s not.

90+ Scores

There were 196 regular reviews (197 in 2022) published in 2023, 43 of them scored 90 or above.

• 90 Ratings: 17 (22 in 2022)
• 91 Ratings: 19 (19)
• 92 Ratings: 6 (7)
• 93 Ratings: 1 (2)

As for who those scores came from:

• Brooks: 9 91+ Regular Reviews
• Charlie: 7 91+ Regular Reviews
• Patrick: 10 91+ Regular Reviews

The numbers above don’t take into account the redux scores, but I feel I should point out that both the highest-scoring (95) and lowest-scoring (68) reviews were redux reviews. This is not surprising given that redux reviews are just one score, whereas regular reviews are an average of three scores. Because of this, it’s easier for a redux review to produce scores on the ends of the range.

Excluding redux and Holy Grail Week reviews, Patrick was once again responsible for the highest score (93). He was also responsible for reviewing the lowest-scoring cigar (71).

As a reminder, none of us know what the scores will be as we are reviewing the cigars. Those numbers aren’t calculated until the reviews are turned in and right before they are published.

Last year’s data showed a real aberration when it came to who was responsible for awarding high scores. Brooks published 31.8 percent of the total regular reviews in 2022 but was responsible for half of the reviews that resulted in a rating of 91+. This year, the distributions of high scores mimic the frequency of reviews pretty well. For example, Brooks was responsible for 34.18 percent of the reviews and 34.6 percent of the 91+ scores. If anything, I was the outlier, but just barely.

REVIEWERS BY NUMBERS

Here are the scores each reviewer produced:

• Brooks — 87.72 Average (67 Reviews)
• Charlie — 86.73 Average (59 Reviews)
• Patrick — 87.37 Average (71 Reviews)

For context, last year’s numbers are as follows:

• Brooks — 87.81 Average (63 Reviews)
• Charlie — 85.58 Average (64 Reviews)
• Patrick — 87.78 Average (71 Reviews)

Country	Count	Average
Bahamas	1	71.00
Costa Rica	3	79.33
Cuba	2	86.50
Dominican Republic	50	87.04
Honduras	30	87.8
Nicaragua	100	87.57
U.S.A.	5	88.40
Undisclosed	6	88.33

By Country

Last year, I wrote:

That said, this has certainly become a weakness again and I suspect we will review many more Cuban cigars in 2023 than the lone full review of 2022.

Nope.

New Cuban cigars remain incredibly difficult for us to procure, but despite the absolute miss from last year’s prediction, I feel confident we will have more in 2024. For the second year in a row, the U.S. has the highest average score by country, excluding countries that only got one review.

Company	Count	Average Score
AGANORSA Leaf	5	88.60
AJ Fernandez	1	88.00
Altadis U.S.A.	6	85.50
Artesano del tobacco	1	87.00
Arturo Fuente	2	89.50
Ashton	1	89.00
ATL	1	86.00
Bellatto Premium Cigars	1	90.00
Black Label Trading Co.	3	87.00
Black Star Line	1	88.00
Bocock Brothers	1	87.00
Caldwell	3	89.00
Casdagli	1	87.00
Cavalier Genève	3	89.00
CLE	4	89.25
Crowned Heads	4	86.75
Dalay	1	90.00
Dapper	2	87.50
Davidoff of Geneva USA	7	89.29
De Los Reyes	1	89.00
Deadwood Tobacco Co.	1	84.00
Dissident	1	89.00
Drew Estate	4	88.50
Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust	4	89.00
E.P. Carrillo	3	83.67
El Mago	1	85.00
El Septimo	1	80.00
Espinosa Premium Cigars	2	89.00
Esteban Carreras	1	89.00
Ferio Tego	1	86.00
Fosforo	1	84.00
Foundation	3	89.00
Fratello	1	90.00
Freud	2	87.50
General Cigar Co.	18	86.78
Gran Habano	1	88.00
Graycliff	1	71.00
Gurkha	1	87.00
Habanos S.A.	1	86.00
HVC	4	88.25
Illusione	2	86.50
J.C. Newman	3	88.67
Joya de Nicaragua	2	89.00
JRE Tobacco Co.	4	87.75
Karen Berger	1	86.00
Knuckle Sandwich	3	86.33
Kristoff	6	87.50
La Flor Dominicana	4	85.75
La Galera	1	84.00
La Palina	2	87.50
Lost&Found	1	88.00
Luciano	1	89.00
Matilde	1	86.00
Meerapfel	2	91.50
Miami Cigar & Co.	2	80.00
Micallef	3	88.00
My Father	6	88.17
Oliva	2	88.00
Oscar Valladres Tobacco & Co.	5	87.00
Ozgener Family Cigars	1	89.00
Padrón	2	90.00
Plasencia	2	91.00
Powstanie	3	88.67
Rocky Patel	5	87.00
Rojas	1	86.00
RoMa Craft Tobac	3	90.33
Selected Tobacco S.A.	2	79.00
Somm	2	87.50
Southern Draw	1	89.00
Stolen Throne	2	89.00
Tatuaje	7	87.43
Topper	1	88.00
Viaje	4	85.00
Villiger Cigars North America	2	86.50
Warped	4	83.50
West Tampa Tobacco Co.	2	86.50
Wildfire	1	88.00

By Company

We reviewed just two cigars from Meerapfel Cigar in 2023, the cigars received a 91 and a 92. Plasencia also got two reviews, both scoring 91.

I’m a big believe that consistency is the toughest thing in cigarmaking. No company has made it onto the list for three years in a row, but this is the second year in a row that RoMa Craft Tobac has averaged at least 90.

Excluding companies that we only reviewed one cigar, there were six companies that averaged more than 89 points.

• Meerapfel — 91.5
• Plasencia — 91
• RoMa Craft Tobac — 90.33
• Padrón — 90
• Arturo Fuente — 89.5
• CLE — 89.25

Bellatto Premium Cigars, Dalay and Fratello each had one cigar score 90 points.

Factory	Count	Average Score
ABAM Cigars S.R.L.	1	85.00
Aganorsa	10	85.80
Cigars Davidoff	4	90.75
De Los Reyes	2	88.50
Diadema Cigars de Honduras S.A.	3	87.33
El Maestro	3	89.33
El Paraiso	1	89.00
El Reloj	1	91.00
El Septimo	1	80.00
El Titan de Bronze	4	87.75
Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A.	5	88.40
Fábrica de Puros Aladino at Las Lomas Jamastran	5	88.00
Fábrica de Tabacos HVC S.A. de Reinier Lorenzo	3	88.33
Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua S.A.	5	89.00
Fábrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A.	5	89.20
Fábrica Oveja Negra	5	87.60
G.R. Tabacaleras Unidas S.A.	1	88.00
Garmendia Cigars Co.	3	85.67
General Cigar Dominicana	5	87.00
Graycliff Cigar Factory	1	71.00
J.C. Newman PENSA	2	87.50
Kelner Boutique Factory	2	87.50
La Aurora Cigar Factory	2	80.00
La Gran Fábrica Drew Estate	4	88.50
La Zona Cigar Factory	1	88.00
Luciano Tabacos S.A.	3	88.33
Manufactura Rivas	1	89.00
MGE Cigars Factory	1	85.00
Micallef Cigars S.A.	3	88.00
My Father Cigars S.A.	14	87.57
NACSA	5	87.40
Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co.	5	87.80
PDR Cigars	1	87.00
Plasencia Cigars S.A.	3	89.33
Raíces Cubanas	1	87.00
Rojas Cigar Factory	3	88.00
San Lotano Factory	8	87.50
STG Danlí	3	86.33
STG Estelí	3	84.00
Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia	2	89.50
Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.	9	87.78
Tabacalera Carreras	1	89.00
Tabacalera de García	3	85.00
Tabacalera Diaz Cabrera	2	87.50
Tabacalera La Alianza S.A.	5	85.80
Tabacalera La Flor S.A.	4	85.75
Tabacalera La Isla	2	86.50
Tabacalera Palma	2	85.00
Tabacalera von Eicken S.R.L.	6	87.50
Tabacalera William Ventura	1	88.00
Tabacos Cubanica S.A.	2	90.00
Tabacos de Costa Rica	2	79.00
Tabacos de Oriente	1	87.00
TABADEX	1	86.00
TABOLISA	4	88.00
TAVICUSA	4	86.50
The CLE Factory	5	88.20
Undisclosed	7	88.00

By Factory

Cigars Davidoff, the company’s flagship factory in the Dominican Republic that makes the eponymous Davidoff white label cigars, took home the top spot. If you don’t recognize “Tabacos Cubanica S.A.” that would be Padrón’s factory in Nicaragua.

Excluding factories that we only reviewed one cigar:

• Cigars Davidoff — 90.75
• Tabacos Cubanica S.A. — 90
• Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia — 89.5
• El Maestro — 89.33
• Plasencia Cigars S.A. — 89.33
• Fábrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A. — 89.2

J.C. Newman’s El Reloj factory had one score 91 points.

Advertisers versus non-Advertisers

In the spirit of Cigar Coop, here’s a breakdown of how reviews from advertisers performed versus reviews of cigars from non-advertisers.

The following companies were advertisers with halfwheel in 2023:

• AGANORSA Leaf
• Arturo Fuente
• Atlantic Cigar Co.
• Boveda
• Cavalier Genève
• Cigar Chief
• Cigar Hustler (shares ownership with Powstanie)
• Cigarplace.biz
• Cigars Direct
• Cigora
• Corona Cigar Co.
• Davidoff
• Drew Estate
• Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
• Famous Smoke Shop
• Fratello
• General Cigar Co.
• Gotham Cigars
• Illusione
• J.C. Newman
• Joya de Nicaragua
• JR Cigar (shares ownership with Altadis U.S.A. and, to some extent, Habanos S.A.)
• La Aurora
• La Galera
• LM Cigars
• Miami Cigar & Co.
• Plasencia 1865
• Rocky Patel
• Smoking Pipes
• Toscano
• TPE (shares ownership with Kretek)
• Villiger

These numbers include all reviews:

• We reviewed 74 cigars from the companies that advertised, those cigars averaged 87.55.
• We also reviewed 15 cigars from Altadis U.S.A, Habanos S.A. and Powstanie (sister companies to companies that advertised), they averaged 86.87.
• That leaves 139 cigars that were reviewed from companies that did not advertise. The average score was slightly lower (than the first group) at 87.31.

I think our track record proves that advertising is not what makes a difference in halfwheel reviews. There’s a bit of randomness, but it’s based on the cigars that we are smoking.

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For those wondering about awards week, here is the schedule for awards week:

• Jan. 15, 2024 (Monday) — Readers’ Choice Award(s) 2023
• Jan. 16, 2024 (Tuesday) — Factory of the Year
• Jan. 17, 2024 (Wednesday) — Company of the Year
• Jan. 18, 2024 (Thursday) 12 p.m. CST — Packaging Awards
• Jan. 19, 2024 (Friday) 12 p.m. CST — Top 25 Cigars
• Jan. 22, 2024 (Monday) 12 p.m. CST — The Consensus 2023

You can download the full data here.