A Quest for the Best
Our first issue of 2026 is one that can keep you busy for a long time, even if you only look at our cover story. Our Top 25 is a perennial favorite for a simple reason: it’s the result of an exhaustive, extensive process aimed to find the very best cigars on the market.
Every Top 25 cigar survives multiple blind taste tests by our editors. If you’re unfamiliar with a blind tasting, that means the people who are judging do so without prejudicial information. Our tasting coordinator buys cigars at retail (yes, we spend an enormous amount of money on cigars), removes the identifying band or bands, replaces them with generic, coded bands and passes the cigars out to the judges who smoke and rate the cigars. When an editor rates a cigar, he doesn’t know where it was made or who made it, the tobacco blend or how much the cigar costs. It’s how we’ve done it since 1992.
To be considered for our Top 25, a cigar has to have scored very well in one of our regular tastings during the year. Then it must perform exceptionally well again in yet another blind tasting. We call it a tournament of champions in which we find out which cigars deserve the special recognition of promotion to our Top 25. And the one that performs the very best is named No. 1. It’s a heck of a list, one that makes a very handy buying guide. You can check out all the winners starting on page 34. (And don’t miss our look at the Best Buys of the Year, high-scoring cigars that retail for $7 or less apiece. You can find that list on page 47.)
Of course, there’s much more to this issue than great cigars. Our resident whisky expert, senior features editor Jack Bettridge, shows us the world of extra-old Bourbons and ryes (think 20 years and even older), which can be exceptional to drink. That delicious coverage begins on page 69. We show you what it’s like (and what planning it takes) to see the Masters in person. It’s a trip that should be on every bucket list. Check it out on page 52.
Furthermore, we take a shocking look at the darker side of sports betting, a multimillion-dollar scandal exposed only a few weeks ago by the FBI. According to prosecutors, current and former professional athletes in the NBA and Major League Baseball and a coach were not only conspiring to manipulate games (by leaving the court early or throwing a certain pitch) to rig proposition bets, some players also served as lures in private poker games. The scheme served to cheat normally savvy bettors when their guards were down. That feature story begins on page 61.
And don’t miss the ever-popular My Favorite Cigar (page 76), which stars sports personality Charissa Thompson, who has enjoyed great cigars for years.
As we enter our 34th year of publication, our mission to you, the reader, remains unchanged. We will strive to bring you the very best in cigars, stories and pursuits.
From the both of us to all of you: Happy New Year.
