Reports and travelogues, interviews and insider knowledge, along with many other stories, await you in the second Cigar Journal issue of 2025.
Below you’ll get a little taste of more stories that will enrich your summer feeling with many good cigars.
Once again, you can listen to audio files of four stories from this issue of the print magazine via QR code; in the digital magazine, there’s a direct link to the audio. The “Listen” symbol indicates the stories that have been recorded. Enjoy listening!
If you’re looking for gifts for cigar lovers, we’d like to recommend a Cigar Journal gift subscription. Find more information here: shop.cigarjournal.com.
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COVER STORY – The West Tampa Tobacco Company: A Spectacular Father-Daughter Duo
Not a traditional enterprise but a project of the heart: Rick Rodriguez founded a company for the future with his daughter, Sara, in 2022. West Tampa Tobacco Company (WTTC) embodies these family business hallmarks, with a twist. Rather than being an established generational institution, WTTC was founded in 2022 by Rick Rodriguez and business partner Gus Martinez so Rick could fulfill a lifelong dream of working alongside his daughter, Sara, creating a business designed to potentially endure through her lifetime and beyond.
CIGAR KNOWLEDGE:
Terroir and Cigar Pairings: Nicaragua is known for its cigars, its coffee, and its rum. What plays a significant role in how they taste is the earth in which the cultivated plants are grown.
Watch out for Fakes!: Fake Cuban cigars are a growing problem. What measures are being taken to reliably protect consumers
PAIRING –Rosé & Cigars: Looking Through Rosé-Colored Glasses …
Does rosé go with a cigar? Our five-person pairing team comprehensively tested how spicy and cool things can get with a cigar.
CIGAR DESTINATIONS: Budapest and Alabama
Budapest: Historic sights, a revived cigar scene, and a number of shops and lounges make Budapest a veritable hotspot for pleasure and indulgence.
Alabama: The southern US state Alabama surprises cigar lovers with relaxed laws and smoky pleasure in pleasant lounges.
CIGAR KNOWLEDGE: The Deliberate Art of Wasting Time
How we consume says a great deal about our lifestyle. Our author Martin Feilhauer gets to the heart of associations with cigar smoking.
TASTED CIGARS
An international team of 96 cigar experts blind-tasted 60 cigars. Read the test results here, which include the cigar descriptions.
In this issue, one cigar again scored 93 points – the PADRÓN SERIE 1926 NO.9 MADURO. Six cigars received a rating of 92 points: the A. FUENTE MAGNUM R VITOLA 44, the CABALLEROS CONNECTICUT TORO, the DIAMOND CROWN MAXIMUS ROBUSTO NO.5, the GURKHA SPECIAL EDITION KINGDOM, the PERDOMO 20TH ANNIVERSARY CONNECTICUT CHURCHILL and the VILLA ZAMORANO DANLÍ ROBUSTO.
If you’re interested in cigars with a particularly good price-performance ratio, then you should look out for our Best Buy seal: Eleven cigars were bestowed with this distinction in the tastings.
Have fun tasting – and reading and listening!
