From the thousands of nominations of outstanding cigars, accessories and lounges that were sent to us this year, our readers selected the best via online voting. In September, the winners of the public votes were announced and the Cigar Trophy Awards were thus awarded for the sixteenth time since 1998. Not all of the nomination categories made it through to the voting period. Due to the lack of nominations, this year, no prizes were awarded for the countries of origin Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Europe.
In total, 15 categories were voted on. Four awards were not decided by the public but by a jury. These included the Ambassador prize, which went to the Cigar Authority, the Charity & Community award for charitable projects (Plasencia Cigars), as well as the award for Lifetime Achievement, which was given to Manuel Quesada.
The Ambassador Award is given annually to people or organizations that have earned it through their special achievements in the promotion of cigar culture. This year, the jury chose The Cigar Authority, a weekly American online podcast that reaches more than 100,000 viewers and listeners each month.
In the six years since the first broadcast in 2010, the announcers, David Garofalo, Mr. Jonathan, Barry Stein, and Chuck Morrison have aired more than 330 shows, which, in an entertaining way, inform the community about cigars, current developments and topics from the cigar world. What makes the podcast special is that the presenters don’t linger on lifestyle subjects but devote themselves exclusively to the cigar. For us, that makes it the perfect winner of the Ambassador Award 2016.
This article was published in the Cigar Journal Winter Edition 2016. Read more
