My favorite non-Cubans are the high end Fuente products and the Padron Anniversario series. Back in the early days of he cigar explosion in the early 90's. a goodly number of companies hit the market with new lines and really scoured their warehouses for the absolute best tobacco they had hidden away. This was definately the case with the very early Davidoff cigars from the DR. I had a "one off" Churchill sized Davidoff and a small "tubo" panatela type cigar that tasted like they had just switched the bands on some of their old Cuban cigars. After a year of two, the cigars started tasting like a typical Dominican/Connecticut Shade stick and the thrill was gone. The original Cuba Aliados literally tasted like they were from Cuba. So did some of the Miami made La Glorias, but when they became the next big thing, production got shipped to the DR and they were different. Fuente seems to have maintained consistency in their high end products for the longest tiem, although I will say that the first batch of the Don Carlos Robustos and coronas were AMAZING,whereas nowadays, they are merely very good. To my taste, the Diamond Crown line, while good, was a bit of a disappointment, perhaps because the Ct. Shade wrapper just can't compare to the shade grown rosado wrapper on the Opus X line. That is supposed to be the major difference between the two lines.
My favorite Cubans are NOT traditional Cohibas like the Esplendido or Robusto as they are not as good as they were 15 years ago with the notable exception of the Siglo line, especially the Siglo VI. This is assuming you can find a real one. (FYI, if you are in someplace like Mexico,and you see a Cohiba in a glass tube, it is a fake.) The Siglos are made in a different factory and the scuttlebutt is that when Davidoff pulled out of Cuba, Cubatabaco eventually started making the old smaller sizes of the Davidoff line with some slight changes in the fermentation process and stuck a Cohiba label on them. This was not a bad thing, mind you. What goes for the Esplendidos also goes for the former king of the double coronas, the Hoyo De Monterry. They went from a 99 rating to no better than cigars like the Partagas Lusitania, which also isn't as good as it was in the early 90's. The Montecristo No. 2 seems to have slipped a bit too. My old Cuban standbys are Punch Punch, Partagas Serie D robustos, Romeo Y Julleta Churchills in the tube, Partagas 898's, and if I want to pay way too much for a "super exotic" the Trinidad panatela sized cigar, the Cohiba Siglo VI or the humongous Montecristo A. If you want a corona sized cigar, the best that I have ever had were the Fuente Opus X, the original Fuente Don Carlos, the Cohiba Siglo III ( I think that is the one) and the Romeo Y Julieta Cedros Deluxe series. The Cuban H. Upmann is pretty good too. IMO, the Montecristo No.3, which is the best selling corona coming out of Cuba, is a bit overrated.
In case you guys want to know, the best place that I have been to other than Cuba to buy Cuban cigars in a regular shop is in Luxemburg. they cost about half of what they do in London and maybe 75% of the Paris prices. I miss thheady days of 1998-2000 when we couldbget a box of 25 Punch Punch at the Marina in havana, which was one of the pricier stores, for $107. When my dad started fishing down there in like 94-95, you could have gotten them for around $70 a box along with a fifth of 7 year old Havana Club rum for around $5!!!!!
But my favorite is the triple Maduro from Camacho. Good stuff :thumbup:
