Top 25 Cigars 2020
We reviewed 273 different cigars over the course of 2020. Just 32 of those scored high enough and met the other qualifications that made them eligible to be considered one of the Top 25 cigars of 2020.
Our Process
As you can see above, this is a very different Top 25 cigars list from most.
At halfwheel, the 25 best cigars are the 25 best new cigars we reviewed during a particular year. Any cigar that was commercially available in 2020—past top finishers have included event exclusives, single store releases, Cuban cigars, and a $500 cigar—is eligible. There’s no attempt at trying to place as many companies on the list as possible. There’s no attempt at ensuring a certain number of cigars come from a particular country. There’s no limit about how many cigars a company or factory can have. As such, three factories are responsible for producing nearly half of the cigars that make up this list.
How that happens should be understandable. At any given point in time, some factories are just doing better than others. And, reviews are subjective. It is very likely the case that we prefer the types of cigar certain factories produce over others. That being said, this list contains cigars from five different countries. Just in the Top 5 itself there are cigars ranging in price from $4.75 to $40, and in sizes from 4 x 40 to 6 x 60. What all 25 cigars have in common is they went through the same process and they were evaluated independently of every other cigar considered.
We want you to know what we thought the 25 best new cigars were based on our reviews, even if that means that the top two cigars came from the same company.
The process is the same as it has been for many years. In order to be eligible, cigars must meet the following qualifications:
- Be reviewed in 2020.
- Debut in 2020 or the latter half of 2019.
- Score 91 points or greater in a full review.
Any cigar that met all three qualifications—there were 32—then went through the Top 25 process. We sent three more cigars to the other reviewers at halfwheel as well as Brian Burt. Those three individuals scored one cigar each and the scores were then averaged equally between the four people’s scores. The combined scores were tabulated in a spreadsheet that remained a secret to us until about two weeks ago, when the final Top 25 score came in.
