The 10 Best Cigars, From Ferio Tego to El Septimo’s Vartan the Dragon

This cigar was made with Spanish tobacco—a rarity in the industry—which piqued our curiosity. We were pleasantly surprised from the very first puff. Macanudo’s Emissary España uses a harmonious five-country blend highlighted by 10-year-old Spanish Havana tobacco grown near the town of Riolobos. The thick, oily leaves are joined by Dominican, Colombian, and Nicaraguan tobaccos, a Nicaraguan binder, and an American Broadleaf Claro wrapper to produce a campfire-rich, medium-bodied flavor. If this were a paella, it would be slightly spicy. Four sizes are offered, with the robusto being our top pick. From $14.99 

The long, slender lancero is one of the most difficult shapes to make, due to its small ring size and the multiple filler tobaccos that must be uniformly bunched throughout its narrow length. Cohiba’s 7 x 38 lancero, the newest addition to its Riviera line, meets this challenge, incorporating Honduran Jamastran and La Entrada tobaccos with Nicaraguan Condega and Estelí leaf inside a Honduran-grown Connecticut binder and San Andrés wrapper. With a multilayered meatiness reminiscent of a filet mignon with peppercorn sauce, this elegant smoke is worthy of an equally refined Singleton 40 Year Old single-malt whisky. $14.99 

Although this brand, which was established in 1875, made some of Winston Churchill’s favorite Cuban cigars, its anniversary edition is made in the Dominican Republic from tobaccos selected by a group of highly acclaimed growers: AJ Fernandez, Alberto and Alejandro Turrent, the Plasencias, and José Mendez & Co. With its deep-brown Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, San Andrés binder, and Dominican, Honduran, and Peruvian filler, its cappuccino and leather-tinged flavor drifts into a sweet nuttiness halfway, making this a perfect after-dinner cigar. Three shapes are offered, but our favorite is the 7 x 50 Crescendo. From $25 

Churchill was not only Britain’s two-time prime minister, but he was also an accomplished artist who used his canvas to escape the rigors of the day. Need your own getaway? Try this 7 x 48 Churchill, the style named in the politician’s honor. With its Ecuadorian wrapper, Mexican binder, and Nicaraguan and Dominican filler, it produces flavors of milk chocolate, cedar, and lemongrass at medium-strength creaminess. Only 6,800 boxes of 10 cigars were available in the United States—understandable when you consider that each golden-hinged container, designed to look like a paint box, has a reproduction of Churchill’s Cork Trees Near Mimizan inside the lid. $49, or $490 for a box of 10 

On September 8, 1964, the late José Orlando Padrón launched his now-legendary cigar brand. To celebrate the family-owned company’s 60th anniversary last year, it produced a cigar it had never done before—a 6 1⁄2 x 56 Salomon. Basically an elongated perfecto that thickens before tapering into a pointed foot, this difficult-to-roll vitola is made by just one highly skilled torcedor, limiting availability. In this Nicaraguan puro, both natural and maduro wrappers are offered, but our favorite is the espresso-brown maduro, with its thick, herbal sweetness and peppery spice. $75 

Inspired by the Armenian military leader Vartan Mamikonian, renowned for his courage during the Battle of Avarayr in 451 C.E., this is a big, bold, and meaty cigar, in which all the tobaccos are aged for 15 years. It is made in only one size: a 6 3⁄4 x 58 Presidente. With a unique closed foot that provides the full impact of its Ecuadorian Habano Rosado wrapper (along with its Dominican binder and Costa Rican, Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Dominican filler), it has a burnt-cedar, dried-mustard, and coffee-nut flavor with a hint of raw sugar that pairs well with a Brugal Maestro Reserva rum. $98 

With its imposing 7 3⁄4 x 62 figurado shape and seriously dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper surrounding a high priming filler of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos, this is a full-bodied cigar to be reckoned with. Each one bears a secondary band sporting the signature of one of 20 highly skilled torcedores who made it, which only adds to the prestige of this muscular figurado. With intertwining flavors of saddle leather, toffee, and bittersweet chocolate, this is a smoke that you should not enjoy on an empty stomach. $14.99 

You will have to search to find another cigar like this—and not just because the company made only 137 boxes, each containing 10 of these little gems. This 4 1⁄2 x 38/60 figurado (which swells and then culminates in a “wild” foot of untrimmed tobacco) will elicit double takes from those watching you light up. The 14-year-old dark Nicaraguan wrapper and binder encapsulate a filler of Pennsylvania, Dominican, and Nicaraguan leaf, all tightly bound with a spiraling brownish-black cord of San Andrés tobacco. The sixth edition of master blender Manuel Inoa’s limited-edition series, the flavor is full-bodied, sweet, and earthy. $16.50 

Most of the Montecristo cigars made by AJ Fernandez tend to be fuller-bodied. However, as wrappers contribute to the majority of a cigar’s strength, the decision to enclose this newest iteration in a silky 20-year-old Ecuadorian-grown Golden Connecticut shade leaf has created a remarkable flavor profile when combined with the Nicaraguan binder and filler. Indeed, this is the yin and yang of cigar blending, as the flawless wrapper adds to the aroma of newly mown hay with a gentle smoothness, while the Nicaraguan tobaccos bring a soft earthiness to the smoke. This medium-strength masterpiece is available in four vitolas, but the 6 x 52 toro is the one you want on the beach or the deck of your yacht. $32

Joining the four previous vitolas, this is the newest size of Ferio Tego’s flagship Summa blend. The Ferio Tego name itself comes from a loose translation of “Strike and Defend.” (The image on the band depicts Hercules slaying the Lernaean Hydra, protecting the villagers whom it had once terrorized.) But this medium-bodied smoke is more laid-back than that suggests, as its Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and Nicaraguan and Dominican filler produce gentle nuances of lemongrass, white pepper, and delicate spices. It’s a perfect late-afternoon companion to a Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut Edition 14 gin martini. $19.50