Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the Year 2012 – Flor de las Antillas Toro

It seems like yesterday that Cigar Aficionado announced that the Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill was the cigar of the year 2011, and now it’s time to announce the cigar of the year 2012.

The prestigious award this year goes to the Flor de las Antillas Toro.

The Flor de Las Antillas brand was launched in May 2012, using a variety of Nicaraguan tobaccos, their trademark double binder and a wrapper leaf grown in the open sunlight. They named the brand for Cuba, the largest of the Antilles Islands, which are called Antillas in their native Spanish.

flor-de-las-antillas-toro-Cigar of the Year 2012

According to Cigar Aficionado, The standout of the four-size brand is the Toro, which has a gentle, rounded box press and a beautiful and evenly colored wrapper. The smokes are delicious from the first puff, with notes of nutmeg, white pepper and just enough strength without being overpowering. They are hard to put down. They are classics, 96-point smokes on our 100-point scale.

Their cigars have made numerous appearances on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list, but this is the first time they have won Cigar of the Year.

We haven’t had the chance to try this as being a UK resident its actually quite hard to track down new world cigars, and the ones you can find are more expensive than Cuban, however CTC will be picking some of these up on the annual Las Vegas Trip this May so watch this space.

Here are the specs:
Country: Nicaragua
Size: 6 Inches
Ring Gauge: 52

While we all rush to get the Flor de las Antillas Toro, let’s not forget the other cigars that made it to Cigar Aficionado’s cigars of the year. They are:

2nd Cohiba 1966 Edición Limitada 2011
3rd Romeo by Romeo y Julieta Piramide
4th Padrón Family Reserve 85 Years (Natural)
5th Arturo Fuente Rosado Sungrown Magnum R Vitola Forty-Four
6th H. Upmann Royal Robusto
7th Ashton Heritage Puro Sol Belicoso No. 2
8th Rocky Patel Fifty Robusto
9th Tatuaje Cojonu 2012 Sumatra
10th Nat Sherman Timeless Collection No. 2

This also acts as our Christmas list for 2013 if anyone is feeling generous 🙂