Cigar Intel 2015 Cigar of the Year

Since 2013, we’ve been posting our choice for Cigar of the Year.

Our selections are typically a highly sought after rare cigar that you can only get by traveling from cigar lounge to cigar lounge, searching the back rooms and upper shelfs towards the back. You might have to pass a little cash into the cigar lounge staff sweaty hand to get one of our rare selections. But it’ll be worth it, we promise.

OK, not really!

Unlike other websites and publications our Cigar of the Year is simply based on which cigar c.gar and I smoked the most of that year.  Plain and simple. Other publications base their selection on taste, quality, burn, flame, ash, windage, star positioning, blah blah blah.  That’s great and all, but if you can’t afford to smoke more than one every three years what’s the point? Not us, my smoking friends.  If we smoked more Swisher Sweets than any other cigar that year, that’s the winner.  However, don’t worry.  Unless our dad gets to pick the Cigar of the Year that’s never going to happen.

Typically c.gar and I have a very long deep drawn out conversation about which cigar we smoked the most of that year.  Hours of Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint pie charts later we’ll emerge from the Kill Room with a winner.  And if it’s a tie we just flip a coin.  I know, I know. Here at Cigar Intel, we’ve refined a highly technical selection processes. This year, due to unforeseen circumstances I’ve smoked way more cigars than c.gar so this year I’m left on my own.

I feel sorry for you poor readers.  If I was you, I’d leave right now and never look back. But, if you’re still with me let’s get rolling.  (See what I did there?)

Drum roll please.

Without further adieu, the Cigar Intel 2015 Cigar of the Year is the JM’s Nicaraguan Sumatra.

The what? You’ve never heard of JM’s cigars? You’ve never heard of the JM’s Nicaraguan Sumatra? Shame on you my fellow herfers.

I had a vendor who introduced me to these wonderful cigars by putting a handful in my hand and saying “Try These *(&(*&(# head”. He carries around a Groovy Groomsmen Battle Tough Humidor, aka an Ammodor, in his car trunk.  Not a fancy one with cedar lining. No, no, no.  It’s an ammo can  he bought at a gun show for $10.00 and then put cigars in. Can’t get more simpler than that. You can buy one at Amazon.

Being who I am I’ll try anything once. Well almost anything. So I tried one.  Then I tried another and then another and then I bought my own box.  Then I bought another box. At less than $2.00 a stick they are a cheap and easy smoke that don’t make me want to throw up.

Are they a 95+ rated smoke?  Nope. But they are good enough to smoke 5-10 times a week. And when you smoke as many cigars as I do you’re always looking for an average smoke at a cheap price.  Because you can’t smoke 20-30 $5.00-$10.00 cigars a week without watching your retirement account slowly drain away.

As an aside, I was hooked on the 777 Corojo but J. Fuego apparently doesn’t make them anymore.  He makes the 777 Zero which is like smoking warm air.  (J. Fuego, if you read this.  WTF dude? I feel like a crack addict who can’t buy crack anymore.)

Here’s the details on the JM’s Nicaragua Sumatra.

They are hand rolled in Nicaragua but I’m not sure where.

Sizes: Corona (5.5×42), Robusto (5×50), Toro (6×50), Churchill (6.75×50), Belicoso (6×52), Gordo (6.5×62), and Gordo Grande (6.752)
Wrapper: Sumatra
Binder Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Nicaraguan Mixed Filler (Cuban Sandwich)

These babies come 50 to a box and typically run $90-$100 a box.  You can pick them up over at your local tobacconist or online at Famous Smoke, Nice Ash, Cigars International, and others.

Famous Smoke has the following to say about JM’s Nicaraguan Sumatra. “JM’s Nicaraguan cigars-the only cigar I’ve ever seen where the manufacturer practically GIVES you the cigar. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen here. These stogies are stuffed with Nicaraguan tobaccos, bound in a Connecticut broadleaf, and wrapped in a rich maduro leaf. Now, you could buy a box of 24 Gordos, but you can supersize it to a box of 50 in any other size for as little as $13 extra. For under $2 a stick, you’re getting prizefighting flavor from this underdog. Get yours now!”

2015 Cigar Intel Cigar of the Year Runner-Up:

This year I discovered a new cigar.  It’s not really new to the cigar world but it’s new to me.

The 2015 Cigar Intel Cigar of the Year Runner-Up is the Rocky Patel Decade Cameroon. (UPDATE 11/28/17: It appears the Rocky Patel Decade Cameroon is discontinued!)

I’ve only recently discovered these and have been burning through them like Boy Scouts burning through fire wood at a camp out.  I’m not sure why c.gar never mentioned these to me that jerk.

If I could find these for around $2 a stick it would have been the Cigar of the Year. (Rocky, want to win next year?  Make me a deal.)

Until next year.

Smokey Butts