Last week I began a very ambitious project of cataloguing all non-cuban cigar brands out there in a Google Spreadsheets document. In the beginning it was thought as a good way for me to track how many cigars from a brand I’ve tried, but as time went on I realized this tool would be very handy for more people as I started to see how lacklust some cigar brands websites where of vital information about their products. As a cigar reviewer but also as a consumer of cigars to see the lack of transparency brands show towards the consumers of their products was shocking to see. Either the brands don’t update their websites for when they release new products or they do it but way to late for when the product has been out there in the world for far to long and there is no indication for when a product really hit the market.

I know some brands aren’t fully complete as information is hard to come by, not all is available on a brands website, so I have to dig the internet to find it and it can take a long time to find everything. I will update and correct the lists if more information from the brands come to me directly.

What I look for when doing my reviews are these criteras:

• Brand Name (Company)
• Line or Series
• Name of the cigar (If special name of the vitola)
• Vitola (Actual format of the cigar, without their own naming)
• Size (Measurements preferably in inches as it’s the standard, but I’m okey with EU standard of mm for length)
• Origin (Where the cigar was produced)
• Blend of Wrapper, Binder & Filler (Doesn’t have to be a specific but at least a country would do)
• Packaging like Box, Bundle, Tin or Coffin (And the amount, feels like this is often forgotten)
• Factory (If the brand feels like it should be public information of course)
• Blender (If the brand feels like it should be public information of course)
• Production (Regular Production, Limited Yearly Production or Limited Release)
• Launch Date (By giving a year when a product was launched to market)

I know all this might be a bit much for a regular consumer and they might look for these points:

• Smoking time (A general amount of time it would take smoke the cigar)
• Strength & Body intensity (Example medium to full bodied to full strength)
• Flavour profile (Some flavour notes the consumers can recognise in the cigar when enjoying it)
• Suggested pairings (Both non-alcoholic and alcoholic pairings & hot and cold for a wider reach)

So this project will be ongoing for a while but I still have managed to complete (or near complete) some cigar brands full portfolios in my collection of world cigar brands, that you are able to see here if you want. If you decide to use the information in the document please give me some credit at least, thanks.

The goal is to one day make a website similar to Cuban Cigar Website but for cigars from all over the world, since Alex Groom has done such a great accessible tool for Cuban cigar aficionados and I have used the site many many times to look up information about sizes and names. If you are a Cuban cigar enjoyer I highly recommend you visiting his site!

If you are part of a brand and want to help me out feel free to contact me!

Hope you find the document come in handy and let’s hope cigar brands and cigar shops take it to hearth to give us consumers as much information as we need.

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/ Cigar Reviewer, André B. Dias