Photo: Isabella Petricek
Cigar Journal’s cigar ratings rely on the expertise of experienced smokers from a variety of countries. During our blind tastings featuring dozens of individual smokes, we remove cigar rings to limit clues to a cigar’s identity, and our testers use a standardized rating protocol. This ensures that as few external factors as possible influence the smoking experience. The rating that finally appears in the magazine is a summary of 15 individual evaluations provided by our tasting panelists.
The following panelists regularly take part in Cigar Journal blind tastings:
Ryota Amagai (JP)
Roland Ballner (AT)
Roko Bekavac (HR)
Javier Blanco Urgoiti (ES)
André Bornecrantz Dias (SE)
Reinhard Bösenkopf (AT)
Valerie Bradshaw (CA)
Alexander Brändle (DE)
Jan Braun (CZ)
Aniello Buonincontro (IT)
Ray Callejas (US)
Darren Cioffi (US)
Franca Comparetto (IT)
Jaime de Juana (ES)
Andres Diaz Cote (CO)
Frank Ehrlich (US)
Manuel Fröhlich (CH)
Johann Gallée (AT)
David Garofalo (US)
Peter Gaudenzi (AT)
Javier Gil (CH)
Katja Gnann (DE)
Enrico Gunde (DE)
Peter Hallwyler (CH)
Michael S. Hamilos (CH)
Nick Hammond (GB)
Ercan Hazar (AT)
Mikael Hellquist (SE)
Peter Hemmer (DE)
Richard Hemzal (AT)
Wolfram Höflinger (AT)
David Hörl (AT)
Didier Houvenaghel (SGP)
Klaus Hruby (AT)
Gino Iannillo (IT)
Mirko Ivanic (AT)
Peter Jekov (GB)
Mr. Jonathan (Barbeau) (US)
Philippe Juliam (BE)
Sari Juntunen (FIN)
Merja Juselius (SE)
Jozef Kalafus (SK)
Øystein Kleven (NO)
Roland Krammer (AT)
Reto Kuhn (CH)
Lucie Lorenzová (CZ)
Robert Lunak (AT)
Hugo Meeussen (BE)
Stella Motyka Schipany (SK)
Mase Murangi (GB)
Nobuhiro Nakamura (JP)
German Nunez (US)
André Odermatt (CH)
Patrick Ortner (AT)
John Paletta (US)
Dina Park-Matsas (US)
Petteri Patjas (FI)
Marc Peter (CH)
Heiko Poerz (DE)
Reinhard Pohorec (AT)
Ray Prodanov (GB)
Aldo Puncioni (IT)
Timo Rau (DE)
Ivo Rehberger (CZ)
Sam Reuter (LU)
Martin Socha (CZ)
Heinz Steltzer (AT)
Ed Sullivan (US)
Jorge Tapies (ES)
Francis Vandenheuvel (BE)
André Veiby (NO)
Jeff Verreyken (BE)
Ben Vinken (BE)
René Wagner (CH)
Oliver Walla (AT)
Felix Wallenhorst (DE)
Marco Weber (CH)
Stefan Weikamp (DE)
Steven Weinberg (US)
David Wells (US)
Reinhold Widmayer (AT)
Claudia Wiemer (DE)
Thomas Wimmer (AT)
Christian Winkler (AT)
