2024 Cigar Insider Retailer Survey: Top Brands In America
We wanted to know the hottest cigar brands on the market, and retailers across the country didn’t hesitate to tell us. Cigar Insider—the twice monthly newsletter from Cigar Aficionado—polled 66 tobacconists representing 394 stores around the United States, and according to their , the hottest brand in America comes from Arturo Fuente Cigar Co.: the Fuente Fuente OpusX. It’s a repeat of last year, as retailers in 2023 told us the same thing—OpusX is the hottest cigar in their humidors. Our survey, however, didn’t stop there. We also asked tobacconists about their best-selling brands by volume.
Tobacconists spanning the 50 states were asked to name three brands as their hottest—the cigar brands requested most often by consumers. Hot brands, however, are not necessarily best sellers, as they aren’t always in stock, so this represents consumer demand, rather than sales volume. The winner was the Fuente Fuente OpusX, which isn’t a surprise given the storied history of the brand. Furthermore, an OpusX is Cigar Aficionado’s 2023 Cigar of the Year.
There’s no denying the mystique and unique characteristics of the phenomenon that is OpusX. Its scarcity and sporadic release dates throughout the year might sometimes frustrate retailers and consumers alike, but the OpusX remains in high demand despite being on the market for nearly 30 years. It was named a hot brand by 39.4 percent of retailers.
The cigar has been prized since it debuted in 1995. It’s positioned (and priced) as a luxury product and presented as the magnum opus of Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr., who defied the odds by growing Dominican wrappers after conventional wisdom dictated that it couldn’t be done. The Cuban-seed wrappers on OpusX are grown at Chateau de la Fuente in the Dominican Republic, and this all-Dominican cigar touted a full-bodied blend before strong cigars were popular.
They remain difficult to obtain and are highly allocated much in the vein of high-end Burgundy wines or cult California Cabernets. To help meet demand, Fuente has since expanded the OpusX series with additional blends, so they are a bit more accessible than they were in the ’90s and 2000s. Nevertheless, they still occupy a special space on humidor shelves and are regarded as one of the finest brands in the world—and our ratings the hype. Two cigars in the OpusX line have been named cigar of the year, including the Churchill-sized Reserva d’ Chateau, Cigar Aficionado’s reigning No. 1 cigar, with a rating of 97 points.
Padrón was named as the second hottest brand in America (37.9 percent). The brand includes such cigars as the core “brown label” and Serie 1926. With its well-aged, sun-grown Nicaraguan tobaccos, the Serie 1926 is by no means inexpensive, but one of the stronger cigars in the portfolio. It was created in honor of the company founder’s birthday in 2002. The brown label has always offered tremendous value, as it’s indicative of Nicaragua’s rich soils while offering a good balance of rusticity and refinement without being too pricey.
The third hottest brand was another one from Fuente, the company’s core Arturo Fuente line, which is made in the Dominican Republic, like the Fuente Fuente OpusX. This encomes brands such as the Rare Pink Vintage 1960’s Series, all of which have appeared on Cigar Aficionado top 25 lists over the years.
The Perdomo brand, made by Tabacalera Perdomo S.A., ranked fourth. Made in Estelí, the cigar capital of Nicaragua, Perdomo cigars come in a variety of strength levels and styles, all distinctly Nicaraguan, as the operation is vertically integrated. Cigars like the Champagne series have had a loyal fan base for years on of its mild character, but the recent addition of Perdomo 30th Anniversary Sungrown series ushered in an era of high scores for the company, with ratings in Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider as high as 93 points.
Two cigars tied for fifth place. Liga Privada from Drew Estate has a cult following with its strong blend and near-black Connecticut broadleaf wrapper. It tied with the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series as the fifth hottest brand in America. The Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Torpedo was Cigar Aficionado’s 2021 Cigar of the Year. It’s been on the market for 30 years; was the first Padrón cigar to incorporate more aged tobacco; and is credited for normalizing the box-pressed format in the industry. Both were named by 13.6 percent of retailers as one of their hottest brands.
My Father Cigars claimed the No. 7 spot on our survey, with 12.1 percent of polled retailers naming this Nicaraguan brand as one of the hottest in the humidor. Cigars made by this family-owned company range from the namesake My Father, to all its offshoots such as My Father Le Bijou 1922, My Father The Judge and My Father La Gran Oferta. The family grows most of its own tobacco across Nicaragua.
Tying for the No. 8 spot were La Flor Dominicana and Oliva, named by 10.6 percent of retailers as the eighth hottest cigar brand. La Flor Dominicana cigars are made in the Dominican Republic and defined by the strong fillers grown by Litto Gomez at his La Canela farm. This plot of land is located in an arid zone of the country and produces powerful, concentrated tobacco. Oliva Cigar Co. has been expanding slowly, acquiring more fields and building more factories in Nicaragua to answer demand for its popular—and consistently excellent—brands like the Serie V and Serie V Melanio (the Figurado was the Cigar of the Year in 2014).
Davidoff and Rocky Patel came in tenth, rounding out the list of hottest brands in the United States.
Best-selling brands are, quite simply, the brands that retailers move the most of by volume, and this year, nothing made the cash s go “ka-ching” as much as Padrón. Like last year, more retailers named this Nicaraguan manufacturer as a best seller than any other: 53 percent.
One of the industry’s blue-chip Nicaraguan cigars, Padróns consist of tobaccos grown out in the open sunlight without any cheese-cloth netting to filter the sun’s rays. This results in heavier, stronger leaves, but Padrón isn’t just about power. The Dámaso line leans mild; the core line offers value; and brands like the 1964 Anniversary Series and Family Reserve are richly elegant with their blends of aged tobacco.
Fuente ranked second at 39.4 percent. Fuente and Padrón have battled it out at the top of our Cigar Insider ranking for years.
The third place brand really isn’t a brand at all. Drew Estate was named by 24.2 percent of our retailers. While there’s no Drew Estate brand per se, the company makes brands such as Liga Privada No. 9, Undercrown and Herrera Esteli. The company clearly has an identity that goes beyond its brands with our surveyed retailers.
Oliva and Perdomo tied for the No. 4 position with 21.2 percent of retailers naming these as their best-selling brands. My Father ranked sixth; Davidoff ranked seventh and Ashton, Rocky Patel and A.J. Fernandez came in at No. 8, 9 and 10, respectively.
Although the rankings for the best-selling cigars and hottest cigars are different, you’ll notice that they include many of the same companies, and this is not unusual. These manufacturers have been making cigars for decades and operate at the highest levels from agricultural cultivation on the farms to tobacco fermentation to quality control. Yearly visits to their factories and tobacco fields by Cigar Aficionado only affirm this statement.
To see the Cigar Insider retailer survey on what cigar retailers had to say, click here.
To see the Cigar Insider retailer survey on best-selling sizes, click here.
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