The Best Budget Cigars: Cheap Smokes That Don't Taste Cheap

Cigars have gotten expensive.

Walk into a decent cigar shop today and it isn't unusual to see $12, $15, or $20 attached to something you might have considered an ordinary everyday smoke not that long ago. There are certainly cigars worth that kind of money, but spending more doesn't automatically mean you're going to enjoy the cigar more.

And on the other end of the spectrum, cheap cigars are easy to find. Good cheap cigars are considerably harder.

That's the distinction I'm interested in.

I'm not looking for the absolute least expensive cigar that can physically be smoked. I'm looking for cigars inexpensive enough to smoke regularly that still deliver good tobacco, decent construction, and enough character that you aren't spending the entire cigar wishing you'd bought something better.

There are a few brands that establish the baseline for me.

The Budget-Cigar Baseline

Before getting into factory cuts, overruns, bundles, and some of Rocky Patel's less expensive offerings, there are three cigars worth mentioning because they demonstrate just how good an inexpensive premium cigar can be.

Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza is almost the definition of an underrated cigar.

It doesn't have the prestige attached to some of the bigger boutique brands, and it usually isn't the cigar someone proudly photographs next to a glass of bourbon. That's part of the appeal.

You're paying for the cigar rather than the hype.

The standard Sancho Panza lines tend to deliver the earth, cedar, spice, and heavier tobacco flavors I want from an everyday smoke without becoming harsh or one-dimensional. Construction is generally dependable, and most importantly, it tastes like a legitimate premium cigar.

At its price point, that's a surprisingly high bar.

La Aroma de Cuba

The standard La Aroma de Cuba is another cigar that makes bargain hunting difficult because it's already so good for the money.

This is a brand associated with Ashton and produced by My Father Cigars, and that pedigree shows up in the finished product. The standard line has the richer Nicaraguan character you'd expect: cocoa, earth, wood, pepper, and a little natural sweetness.

You can certainly spend much more within the La Aroma de Cuba family, but the basic cigar doesn't feel like an incomplete version of a more expensive product.

It feels finished.

That's important when judging budget cigars. A cheap cigar shouldn't merely make you say, "This is pretty good considering what I paid."

The better compliment is simply:

This is a good cigar.

HC Series

HC Series is another brand I think gets overlooked.

Depending on the blend, you'll find a range of profiles, but what makes HC interesting is the price-to-quality ratio. These are cigars that can frequently be found at everyday-smoking prices while still providing the complexity and construction expected from something sold as a premium handmade cigar.

HC, Sancho Panza, and La Aroma de Cuba therefore create my benchmark.

If a bargain cigar costs only a little less but tastes substantially worse, it isn't really a bargain.

But occasionally you find something significantly cheaper that gets surprisingly close.

That's where things get interesting.

Factory Cuts, Overruns and the Bargain Bin

Some of the most interesting values in cigars come from factory cuts, factory selects, seconds, overruns, and similar bundle-oriented cigars.

The terminology varies, and so does the explanation behind the cigar. Sometimes you're dealing with cosmetic imperfections. Sometimes it's tobacco left from another production run. Sometimes the cigar is simply produced and packaged specifically as a lower-cost offering.

I don't put too much weight on the story printed on the bundle.

I care about what's inside it.

The attraction here is obvious: remove the expensive box, ornate band, marketing campaign, and some of the cosmetic expectations surrounding a premium cigar, and theoretically you should be able to sell a lot of tobacco for considerably less money.

The best examples prove that theory.

You occasionally get a cigar with an ugly wrapper, slightly inconsistent color, or rustic appearance that nevertheless burns well and tastes remarkably similar to cigars costing two or three times as much.

There is usually a tradeoff.

The flavor may not evolve as much throughout the cigar. Construction can vary more from stick to stick. The tobacco may be a little rougher around the edges.

But as a garage cigar, yard-work cigar, fishing cigar, or something to smoke around a fire without thinking about the fact that you're burning a $15 bill, factory-style bundles can make a lot of sense.

Rocky Patel's Cheap Cigars Are Particularly Interesting

Rocky Patel occupies an unusual place in the cigar world because the company produces an enormous range of cigars.

There are expensive Rocky Patels, special releases, anniversary cigars, aged lines, and cigars intended to compete squarely in the premium category.

Then there is the other end of the catalog.

Rocky Patel has produced Factory Selects, Factory Overruns, Fumas, seconds, Cargo, Seed to Smoke and other inexpensive or bundle-oriented cigars over the years. There are also regular production cigars such as The Edge and several Vintage lines that can sometimes fall into budget territory depending on the format and how they're sold.

That makes Rocky Patel a particularly fun brand for bargain hunters.

Rocky Patel Factory Selects and Overruns

The Factory Select and Factory Overrun type of Rocky Patel is exactly the sort of cigar I think people should experiment with before assuming that an everyday cigar needs to cost $10.

They tend to be straightforward rather than enormously complex, but that's not necessarily criticism.

Sometimes I want leather, earth, pepper, wood, coffee and tobacco.

I don't necessarily need the cigar to take me through three acts and an intermission.

When one of these inexpensive Rocky Patel offerings is smoking correctly, the experience can be remarkably satisfying for the money.

Rocky Patel Cargo and Seed to Smoke

Go even farther down the price ladder and Rocky Patel has offered cigars such as Cargo and Seed to Smoke.

Now we're getting into genuinely inexpensive territory.

At this level I change my expectations somewhat. I'm not asking whether the cigar can compete with a $15 premium release. I'm asking whether it tastes good, burns reasonably well, and leaves me wanting to finish it.

If the answer to all three is yes, that's a successful budget cigar.

These are particularly attractive as utility cigars—the ones you don't mind lighting when you might only have 30 or 40 minutes or when there's a reasonable chance something will interrupt you halfway through.

The Rocky Patel Vintage Series

There's another category worth mentioning because sometimes the smartest budget buy isn't technically a budget cigar at all.

Rocky Patel's Vintage series has been around long enough that it doesn't generate the excitement of a new limited release, but that's exactly why it's worth watching.

The Vintage 1990, 1992, 1999 and other iterations regularly show up at prices considerably below what I'd expect for cigars of their quality.

When discounted appropriately, these are hard to beat.

The difference between a cheap bundle cigar and a heavily discounted premium cigar can sometimes be only a dollar or two. When that happens, I'll usually take the premium cigar.

The Edge: Another Value Sweet Spot

The Edge deserves separate mention because it occupies the territory between the bargain bundle and the traditional premium cigar.

The original concept behind The Edge was essentially to deliver a lot of cigar for the money, and it still frequently does exactly that.

These aren't necessarily gentle cigars. Depending on the wrapper and version, The Edge can be earthy, peppery, dark, leathery and fairly powerful.

But if that's the profile you're after, the price can be surprisingly reasonable.

It's a good example of why I don't think cigar shopping should be divided simply into "cheap" and "premium."

There's a huge middle ground where established manufacturers are selling legitimately good cigars for everyday-smoking money.

Seconds Can Be One of the Best Deals in Cigars

I also wouldn't dismiss cigars labeled as seconds.

A cigar is an agricultural, handmade product. Leaves vary. Wrappers develop blemishes. Colors don't always match perfectly. A cigar can fall outside a manufacturer's cosmetic standard while having very little wrong with it from a smoking standpoint.

If the discount is substantial enough, I couldn't care less if my cigar has a sunspot.

I'm planning to set it on fire.

Again, consistency becomes the tradeoff. One bundle might be excellent while the next is merely acceptable.

That's why I treat seconds and overruns differently from something like La Aroma de Cuba or Sancho Panza. With the standard production cigar, I'm paying partly for predictability.

With the factory bargain, I'm accepting a little uncertainty in exchange for a much lower price.

The Question That Matters: What Would I Buy Again?

This is ultimately how I evaluate budget cigars.

Forget ratings.

Forget elaborate tasting notes.

Forget whether somebody detected "Madagascar vanilla overtones followed by toasted cashew."

When the cigar is finished, ask yourself one question:

Would I buy another one?

Better yet:

Would I buy a bundle of them?

A $3 cigar that you don't want to smoke again wasn't a bargain.

A $5 cigar you keep reaching for instead of the $12 cigars in your humidor absolutely was.

That's why Sancho Panza, the standard La Aroma de Cuba, and HC Series remain so important to this discussion. They set an unusually high baseline. They prove that relatively inexpensive cigars don't have to taste inexpensive.

Below that level, factory cuts, overruns, seconds and Rocky Patel's bargain lines become interesting when the discount is large enough.

Above it, cigars have to start demonstrating exactly what the extra money is buying.

My Budget-Cigar Hierarchy

If I were stocking a humidor specifically around value, I'd think about it in three levels.

The dependable everyday cigar: Sancho Panza, La Aroma de Cuba and HC Series. These are the cigars I'd buy when I want consistency without paying luxury-cigar prices.

The bargain hunt: Rocky Patel Factory Selects, Factory Overruns, seconds and similar offerings. Less predictable, but potentially outstanding values.

The true utility cigar: Rocky Patel Cargo, Seed to Smoke, Fumas and comparable inexpensive bundle cigars. These aren't trying to be special-occasion smokes. They're cigars you can light without doing the mental calculation of how much money you're currently turning into ash.

And there's something refreshing about that.

The cigar business increasingly sells luxury: ornate boxes, limited editions, numbered releases, elaborate bands and ever-higher prices.

None of those things are inherently bad. I enjoy an expensive cigar too.

But tobacco doesn't know what the band says.

Every once in a while, an ugly little factory cigar reminds you of that.