2010 Holiday Cigar Gift Guide

We’re right smack in the middle of holiday season and I have to say, I am not looking forward to doing my shopping. Driving around a mall parking lot for 15 minutes to find a spot is not too much fun, and neither is dodging sugar-high unsupervised children or waiting on a line of 30 people to get a tie, or a sweater, or a candle that smells like cinnamon or “watermelon sunset,” whatever the hell that means.

Shopping in the mall is terrible, and besides, everybody knows that the best gifts for the holidays are cigars (which aren’t sold in any mall I’ve ever seen), so we’ve taken the time to pick out some of the best cigar gifts we could find. Here are a few gift ideas that are sure to put a smile on any smoker’s face as he or she tears off the wrapping paper like a rabid animal.

The Medici Gift Sampler is one of our personal favorites, and not just because it’s our very own. Medici is our exclusive brand, and was born in 2008 when BestCigarPrices collaborated with Alec Bradley. One of our loyal customers recently called Medici “an outstanding cigar with perfect balance, high complexity, and a smooth richness,” and we can’t help but agree! The cigars are very rich and spicy with notes of dark dried fruit and cocoa—definitely one of my desert island smokes. This gift set contains two of each of the following: Medici Botticelli, Medici Cosimo, Medici Lorenzo, and Medici Michelangelo.

Montecristo came out with a lot of gift items this year, like the Montecristo and Montecristo White 4-packs and the Montecristo Operation Hope Sampler. The 4-packs are available in either Churchill or Robusto Larga sizes, and would make the perfect introduction to one of the most well known cigar brands in the world. The Operation Hope Sampler was released in honor of Altadis’ charitable efforts in Honduras, and comes with four cigars—a Montecristo 75th Annviersary Edmundo, Montecristo White Label Toro, Montecristo #2 Torpedo, and a Montecristo Reserva Negra Belicoso—and a stainless steel Montecristo cutter. Either of these would make perfect gift for the Montecristo fan, or for the newbie cigar smoker who hasn’t tasted greatness yet.

Cohiba is another household name, and they came out with a truly badass sampler earlier this year. The Cohiba Corona Extra Jet Set Lighter Gift Sampler (as you may have guessed from its epic name) comes with three Cohiba Corona Extra cigars and a triple-torch lighter. For just under $25, you really can’t get much better than this. There are few better ways to introduce someone to cigar smoking than to give them three of the finest cigars in the world and a sweet, chrome, triple-torch lighter. All you need is a cutter and two buddies and you’ve got yourself some instant camaraderie.

Gurkha came out with a few samplers, and as you might expect, they are sitting proudly in the middle of high roller territory. The Gurhka Black Dragon Sampler comes in a nicely decorated tin with the black dragon logo on it. The cigars in this sampler are unavailable anywhere else—the sampler contains two Cameroon-wrapped Gurkha Black Dragon Torpedoes, two Cameroon-wrapped Gurkha Black Dragon Toros, and a pinstriped Torpedo with alternating Cameroon and natural wrappers. The Gurkha Crest Sampler also comes in a handsome metal tin and contains a smattering of some of their very best releases. Each sampler contains one of each of the following in a 6×50 Toro size: Gurkha Crest, Gurkha Black Beauty, Gurkha Vintage Shaggy, Gurkha Titan, and Gurkha Beast. These two samplers are a great way to get to know the best of the best of Gurkha’s lineup. Plus, you get to keep the cool tins after you’re—er, your friends are done smoking all of them.

Finally, our 12 Days of Blissmas is the best way to make sure that everybody has something to smoke this holiday season. For just under $200, you get 78 high quality cigars–twelve Perdomo Fresco Robusto Connecticut, eleven Rocky Patel Cameroon Especial Toro, ten Flor de Oliva Gold Double Corona, nine Occidental Connecticut Reserve Toro, eight CAO MX2 Robusto, seven Alec Bradley Family Blend VR1, six Prodigy by Rocky Patel Torpedo, five Perdomo Lot 23 Robusto Natural, four Romeo Y Julieta Reserva Real Robusto, three Arturo Fuente 858 Natural, two Don Pepin My Father JG Robusto, and a Star Insignia by Alec Bradley Churchill (in a pear tree). It’s also available in a 12-cigar version with one of each of the above cigars. Who knows, maybe whoever gets this as a gift will give you one (or ten).

Anyway, I hope this list makes it a bit easier to sift through the holiday mess and find gifts for your cigar smoking buddies. I, for one, would sooner hire someone to go do my shopping this year than go to the mall and fight the crowds. But thanks to steals like the ones above, I won’t have to go that far, and neither will you!