Cigar & Tobacco Books
Check out my page devoted to cigar and tobacco books. It includes information about the books, including links to many public domain books you can enjoy for free.
Cigar Information Sites
- The Cigar History Museum contains a ton of information about cigar history, including lots of photographs and interesting anecdotes. Tony Hyman, who runs the Museum, has one of the largest collections of cigar-related objects and has been researching and writing about cigars for a very long time.
- The New York Public Library’s George Arents Collection has an incredible volume of digitized works on the history of tobacco.
- Tobacconist University offers free educational resources and also certifications of knowledge levels.
- The World of the Habano’s Habanos Academy teaches about cigars with a Cuban focus; it is a section of the Habanos S.A. site.
Cigar Videos
- Hand Rolled: A Film about Cigars is a wonderful documentary about cigars and cigar culture
- Foundation Cigars made a 1-minute video of the tobacco process from Seed to Cigar
- Bespoke Unit and Davidoff Cigars made an excellent From Seed To Smoke video about how cigar tobacco is grown and cigars are made
- Modern Marvels on the History Channel did an episode on How Tobacco Is Made. It starts with cigarettes, but there is a ton of cigar content – the Fuente operation, along with Carlito Fuente, are included.
Cigar News
‘Cigar news’ can mean information about new releases, significant changes to cigar company staff, new cigar company announcements, information about smoking regulations, and coverage of trade shows. Stay in the know by visiting these sites for updates several times per week.
- halfwheel reports all the cigar news, and has excellent information about FDA regulations
- cigar-coop reports cigar news
- Cigar Aficionado has a news section of their website
- Cigar Journal prints cigar news of all kinds
Cigar Reviews
I think about reviewers like this: find reviewers whose opinions generally match yours for cigars you’ve smoked, then stick with those reviewers. Your palate is probably like theirs, so what they recommend will be more impactful for you. There are tons of cigar reviewers out there. Some are great, some less so. The list below includes some of the more popular reviewers I enjoy – making a full and comprehensive list of all of the cigar review sites and YouTube channels wouldn’t be practical, and nobody would look through them all. These are my favorites, and they’re reviewers I generally find credible.
- halfwheel reviews cigars and accessories. They also run the Consensus List each year, which combines a number of ‘top cigars of the year’ lists into one Consensus List.
- cigar-coop reviews cigars pretty fairly, in my opinion
- Cigar Aficionado has rated a huge number of cigars. Their Top 25 list is most market-moving industry list each year.
- Cigar Journal rates cigars, though not many of their ratings are available online. They have a Top 25 list each year, and they award the Cigar Trophy awards each year
- Cigar Dojo reviews many cigars
- Developing Palates rates cigars on a scale of their own devising, not the standard 100-point scale
- Small Batch Cigar does weekly blind reviews
- Andre Dias is a Swedish reviewer with a good palate; I enjoy reading his reviews
Cigar Podcasts
There are a lot of cigar podcasts. These are some that I have found educational or interesting, in no particular order:
- Cigar Sense podcast is a deep dive into sensory experiences. It is incredibly informational.
- Around The World in 80 Cigars is a podcast by Nick Hammond, who wrote a book of the same name. A light-hearted but informational podcast with interesting guests from the cigar world.
- KMA Talk Radio is a deeply informational weekly broadcast with all kinds of characters from the world of cigars, and also notable people from other industries.
- Cigar Coop Prime Time Show includes interviews and slices of life from people in the cigar industry.
- The Lounge Experience offers information and perspectives about the cigar industry. They host cigar-related guests and non-cigar-related guests.
- Box Press Podcast is created by Boveda (they make the humidifying packets), and is an interview-style podcast with notable and interesting people in the cigar industry.