Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars

A NEW NO. 1

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Plus: OFAC busy with fines for buying Cuban cigars!

Los Angeles, August 11 – It’s summer, so it’s time for our semiannual ranking of international cigar retailers selling Havana cigars. And for the fourth time in five rankings, we have a new leader: Esplendido Cigars of Switzerland.

Our second rankings in 2008, for the use of our international readership (purchases of Cuban cigars are prohibited by the U.S. government), are based on a straight pricing average on the same three ultra-popular Havana cigars surveyed in January: standard boxes of 25 of the Cohiba Robusto (4 7/8 inches by 50 ring), the classic Montecristo No. 1 (6 1/2 x 42) and the Romeo y Julieta Churchill (7 x 47, non-tube). We surveyed 110 international online retailers on August 5 and found 55 sites with prices shown for all three of these cigars.

Of these, the top ten sites which appeared (as we have no way to check, being in the United States) to have authentic Havana cigars for sale from an appropriate distributor included:

(1) Esplendido Cigars (Switzerland), with its third top-ten ranking, up from ninth in January;

(2) Puro Express (Spain), fifth top-ten ranking (first in January);

(3) Puro Rey Cigars (Cayman Islands), fourth top-ten ranking (second in January);

(4) 1001 Cuban Cigars (Canada), fourth top-ten ranking (fifth in January);

(5) Cigar Terminal (Switzerland), first appearance in our rankings;

(6) Cigars of Habanos (Hong Kong), fourth top-ten ranking (third in January);

(7) Perfect Cuban Cigars (Switzerland), first appearance in our rankings;

(8) Cuban Cigars 2U (Switzerland), second top-ten ranking (sixth in January);

(9) Cubanlous.com (Canada), fourth top-ten ranking (fourth in January);

(10) Finest Cuban Cigars (Hong Kong), third top-ten ranking (seventh in January).

As usual, Swiss merchants dominated the rankings, with four rankings in the top 10, seven in the top 15 and 11 of the top 25. Hong Kong and Canada both had two retailers in the top 10 and Canadian merchants made up four of the top 16, second to Switzerland.

The entire survey is available by clicking here..

Esplendido Cigars derailed Spain’s Puro Express, which had won the last two rankings and came in second this time, just 38 cents behind! The previous rankings winners have included:

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Did you know?

“Because Fonseca Port is so well known, some 1920s Fonseca cigars came in canisters shaped like bottles of Port!