Hype, Scarcity, and Frustration; The Vortex of the 2025 Top Cigar Lists

Every December, the premium tobacco industry enters a cycle that is no longer surprising, but is certainly exhausting: the mass publication of “Top Cigars of the Year” lists. For the smoker, they appear to be guides; for many retailers, they are triggers for frustration; and for those of us who operate lounges and shops with direct access to virtually every brand and portfolio, they are a clear X-ray of how hype has displaced discernment.

Read in the magazine (rotate your device for a better reading experience):

Cándido Alfonso(*)

From behind the humidor, the phenomenon looks different. I have smoked those cigars before they were trends, during their peak, and after they disappeared from the market. The cigar rarely changes. What changes is the narrative, amplified by rankings that do not always consider –or do not want to consider– the reality of production and distribution.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: many lists include cigars whose availability is limited on purpose. Controlled productions, selective allocations, and releases directed only to certain markets or a small group of retailers. The result is predictable: an artificial hype is created that the consumer cannot satisfy and the retailer cannot resolve.

The smoker walks into the lounge looking for “Number X” of the year. They don’t want an experience; they want validation. When they can’t find it, they are not just disappointed; they are frustrated. They assume the product “doesn’t exist,” that the retailer “couldn’t get it,” or that someone else has privileged access. The conversation stops being about flavor and starts being about exclusion.

For the retailer, the blow is twofold. On one hand, we are expected to respond to a demand that was created without considering the supply chain. On the other, customer trust is eroded when the product is simply not available, nor will it be. Not because we don’t want to sell it, but because it was never allocated to us.

This dynamic is not accidental. Controlled scarcity sells narrative, not necessarily experience. It elevates the perception of luxury but sacrifices accessibility, and when combined with high-profile rankings, the result is an inflated expectation that no humidor can sustain.

I have seen excellent cigars go unnoticed because they didn’t make a list, just as I have seen extraordinary cigars generate more frustration than pleasure due to the impossibility of acquiring them. This imbalance does not benefit the smoker or the retailer; it only benefits the myth.

The lists are not the problem. The problem is when they are published without context, transparency, or responsibility toward the ecosystem they support. When it is not made clear that “Top” does not mean “available,” nor does it mean “the best for everyone” or “repeatable.”

From my position, the call is clear: less engineered hype and more real education. Fewer rankings that create anxiety and more conversations that build discernment, because the true value of a premium cigar is not in its exclusivity, but in how memorable it is when it is actually smoked.

Because a cigar that cannot be obtained may generate desire, but a cigar that can be enjoyed generates loyalty.

(*) Founding Partner of Entre Humos: Lounges, Online, Retail, Puerto Rico.

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