Episode 199 Recap: Cheap vs. Expensive Cigars, What Are You Actually Paying For?
Is a $50 cigar really worth four times a $12 one? That’s the question behind Episode 199 of The Cigar Guys Podcast, tackled with a price-guessing game, a ranking of what justifies a premium price, a blind-tasting debate and a Halloween version of Overrated or Underrated called Trick or Treat.
Here’s everything you need to know about Episode 199: “Cheap vs. Expensive Cigars: What Are You Actually Paying For?”, which premiered on YouTube on Saturday, October 31, 2026.
Episode 199 at a Glance
- Episode: 199, “Cheap vs. Expensive Cigars: What Are You Actually Paying For?”
- Released: Saturday, October 31, 2026
- Length: About 46 minutes
- Cigars smoked: Brick House Bricktoberfest 2026 (Churchill) and a Dominican puro from Davidoff
- Guests: None this week, just the crew
What the Guys Are Smoking
Since it was the last day of October, one host lit up the Brick House Bricktoberfest 2026 limited edition in the Churchill size from J.C. Newman. His honest verdict: a good cigar at a fair price with great length (he lit it before the show and it was still going), but not one that blows him away. Across the table was a Dominican puro from Davidoff.
Remembering Marvin Shanken
Before the main topic, the crew paused to remember Marvin Shanken, the founder of Cigar Aficionado, who died at 83. As the guys put it, he “paved the way for cigar media to actually be a thing,” from the magazine’s launch in the early ’90s to the celebrity interviews that put cigars in the spotlight. They raised a sip of Hooten Young 12-year in his honor. For more on his life and legacy, read our tribute, Remembering the Publisher Who Sparked the Cigar Boom.
The Price Is Right: Cigar Edition
The heart of the episode is a guessing game: one host reads a new release’s specs, and the other guesses the suggested price. The misses are half the fun.
- Brick House Beginnings Ciento por Ciento: a five-year-aged Nicaraguan puro from J.C. Newman, with only 800 boxes made for TAA shops. The real price came in lower than the guess, a surprise for that much age.
- Arturo Fuente Black Pink: going nationwide with four new perfecto sizes. That sparked a debate about the original Rare Pink, which one host has smoked twice and thinks is overhyped, even though it sells out constantly.
- Davidoff City Edition New York and Las Vegas: sold only at Davidoff’s flagship stores, three in New York and one in Las Vegas, with a darker Ecuadorian wrapper for New York and a lighter one for Las Vegas.
- Quai d’Orsay Concordia Edición Limitada 2026: the Cuban limited edition unveiled at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid, with at least two extra years of aging on its leaves. It turned out to be the priciest of the bunch.
Want the full specs? Catch up with our coverage of this week’s TAA exclusives, from Fuente’s Black Pink to Brick House, and our look at Davidoff’s City Edition flagship exclusives. Habanos has the details on the Concordia in its official announcement.
Would You Travel Just for a Cigar?
The Davidoff City Editions raised a fun question: would you plan a trip around a one-city cigar? Yes, but not for a single stick. The plan would be a multi-stop trip hitting shops in several cities.
What Makes a $50 Cigar Worth It?
Next, the guys ranked five things that might justify a premium price: the age of the cigar, its rarity, the brand, the box presentation and the story behind it. One host put rarity first, the other led with age, and both put brand third because it means trust and consistency. The box landed near the bottom: it might make the first sale, but it won’t save a cigar that doesn’t deliver. The story? Nice to have, but it can’t fix a bad product.
Could You Tell a $12 Cigar From a $50 One Blind?
Take the bands off, and could you tell the difference? Both guys think they could pick out the more expensive cigar, but guessing the brand is a lot harder. One host said Nicaraguan versus Dominican tobacco is easy, while Honduran and Costa Rican leaf gets trickier. For value cigars that compete with premiums, they named some of Steve Saka’s work and Foundation Cigars, and compared a Party Favor Connecticut from Blend and Barrel with a Macanudo Connecticut. They last ran a blind test about four years ago, and both want to do it again.
Trick or Treat: Luxury Edition
For Halloween, Overrated or Underrated became Trick or Treat. A $2.8 million bottle of Macallan? Trick, because past a certain age your palate stops keeping up. A Rolex as an investment? Treat, as long as you maintain it. Infused cigars? Trick. A $2,500 VIP festival package? Trick. Ultra-thin luxury lighters didn’t win them over either.
Then came rapid fire on the cigars themselves:
- Treats: Bentley Green, Oliva Serie V Melanio, Davidoff Millennium, Besa Maduro, Foundation Tabernacle, Sans Pareil Gold Jeddo and AJ Fernandez New World
- Tricks: Bentley White (Jared’s pick, simply because it isn’t strong enough for him), Acid Blondie, Rocky Patel Emerald, Gurkha Ghost and Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne (also a little too light for him)
Curious about that Besa Maduro? Besa is our own brand, and you can find it at BesaCigars.com, where the code cigarguys takes 10% off your order. For more on the Jeddo, see how Sans Pareil redesigned its Gold Line with the Super Lancero and Jeddo.
Lounge Court: Etiquette, Tricks and Pet Peeves
The last segment put lounge etiquette on trial. Speakerphone calls, crushing out a cigar like a cigarette, punch-cutting a torpedo and saving a seat in a packed lounge for a buddy who’s an hour late all got the trick. Photographing every cigar before lighting it? Fine.
Relighting a cigar that’s been dead for an hour usually gets a trick, but there was a fun exception. During a tasting of three Sans Pareil cigars, one host smoked each one halfway, set it down and came back about an hour later. All three tasted exactly the same on the relight.
The pet peeves will sound familiar to any lounge regular: feet on the furniture, ash all over the table, abandoned glasses, walking out on a tab, loud music and yelling at the TV, plus maintenance problems like a leaky AC that never get fixed.
Bring Your Own? It Depends
The episode closes on bringing your own cigars and drinks to a lounge. The general take: respect the lounge’s rules, and if you do bring your own, support the business in some way, even if it’s just buying a coffee or tipping on a soda. Bringing your own liquor usually isn’t allowed, though some lounges hold a license for it and some states work differently. Regulars get a little more leeway, because the staff knows they support the shop.
Where to Listen
Catch Episode 199 wherever you get your podcasts:
Missed last week? Read our Episode 198 recap, and tell us in the YouTube comments: what’s the most you’ve ever paid for a single cigar? Subscribe on YouTube and hit the notification bell so you never miss a Saturday episode. We’ll see you next week.
