Why You Should Smoke World Cigars

Cigars are one of life’s great pleasures but choosing your next smoke can be difficult due to the massive variety. Cuban cigars are the most famous, but over the years many quality brands have been created in countries in other parts of the region. World, or New World, cigars are from tobacco growing countries such as the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico and the USA. Today there are countless brands from boutique to world famous, so why should you give some of these cigars a try over the more renowned Cuban brands?

Variety of Flavours

World cigars are not restricted to tobacco from one country. Although Cuba can experiment with different areas and techniques which can create quite a bouquet of flavours, using tobacco from countries which can have very different soils and climates will create a greater portfolio of tastes to choose from when creating exciting new blends. For example, Nicaraguan soil which is rich in volcanic nutrients and at times nearly black in colour, gives the cigars a distinct flavour. The taste is often spicy and with a big, bold earthy body. Whereas Dominican tobacco is traditionally creamier and smoother. Connecticut shad tobacco wrapper leaves tend to give the cigar a distinct tanginess to the cigars, giving an interesting start and finish to the flavour profile, it’s a bit of a “love it or hate it” type of taste, but one that needs to be tried. It can be used in a few different ways, either to contrast or compliment the filler.

Habanos cigars only use one type of seed for their cigars. “Every leaf in a Habano is Tabaco Negro Cubano  – native Cuban Black Tobacco – directly descended from the plants that Columbus first discovered here more than five hundred years ago.” Whilst this is superb heritage and tradition, World cigars have branched out. Some brands do use “Habanos Seed” tobacco, which is said to be seeds smuggled out of Cuba in the pockets of Cuban citizens leaving the country. But they will also use other strains and even experiment with crossing their own unique plants to create hybrids which have a carefully refined flavour profile. Such as the 702 line from Davidoff, which uses an Ecuadorian wrapper created from the hybrid of three Cuban seeds and is said to be named so as the wrapper leaf is the 702nd plant hybrid they created.

Ratings

Cuban cigars are always delightful, but how do World cigars rate against them? Well looking at Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year from 2004 – 2018, Cuba only win the award 3 out of 15 times, you can see the table of results here. And if we look at the most recent year’s full list (2022), Cuba only features 3 times in the list of 25 best cigars of the year. So, World cigars definitely rate as high as the illustrious Cuban’s, and it’s not necessarily the luxury World brands like Davidoff and Fuente, you will often see more “everyday” brands like AJ Fernandez, Oliva, and Rocky Patel scoring in the 90s.

Quality Control

This is a big one for those who’ve been, *pardon the pun*, burnt by Cuban cigars too many times. Cuban cigars do have a bit of a reputation for having less than acceptable levels of quality control for some. Whether it is burn or draw issues, or inconsistencies in the blends, or just general sloppy packaging at times. The final straw can be getting a box of Cuban cigars and only half of them smoking properly. This is very rare, and there are plenty of things you can do to help prevent a cigar that won’t smoke, you can read our article on it here. Most World brands have exceptional quality control, as they are fighting an uphill battle against the alure of Cuban cigars. World brands will often put the cigar on a draw test machine before adding the cap to seal it up. They will then do random spot checks again to ensure there are no issues. A draw test machine simulates sucking on the cigar, and ensures it is not too loose or not too tight. Furthermore, due to the larger quantity of tobacco available to World brands, it is easier for them to reject cigars, or wrapper leaves that don’t meet the standard. Cuba will often experience shortages of those exquisite wrappers, leaving some of the lower end cigars to get what is left.

Price

Cuban cigars have a special allure to them, which keeps them in high demand, they are the “Champagne” of the cigar world. They are restricted to using only Cuban tobacco, from what is a relatively small area in which the best tobaccos are grown, when Cuba has issues such as economic, environmental, or political, it affects the supply, which in turn causes the price to go up. World cigars use tobaccos grown all over the world, so can choose for more cost-effective options, or have a greater supply of the finest leaves. World cigar brands must be more competitive with their pricing to compete against each other in what can be quite a crowded market, this also helps to keep their smoker’s wallets a bit fuller.

Availability

If you are in the US, Cuban cigars are harder to get due the embargo with Cuba, making it harder to buy them, or bring them back, and less available in shops and lounges.

For everyone else, they are becoming just as hard to find. Cuban cigar shortages can happen due to factors previously mentioned, and we are currently (2022) going through one of the worst ever. Photos of empty humidors in shops and airports duty free can be found across the internet. Online shops often have almost no stock of Cohiba, Trinidad, and other high-end cigars. So sometimes it can be almost impossible to find your favourite Cuban.

Limited Edition Cuban cigars, or new releases can often sell out straight away, so if you’re not quick to act, you may miss out altogether.

World cigars are much more available across the board, so keeping good stock of what you like, and trying plenty of exciting new releases is much easier. You don’t have to treat your cigar shopping like a Black Friday rush to the till.

Top Brands

Aging Room
AJ Fernandez
Arturo Fuente
Davidoff
Drew Estate
Oliva
Rocky Patel