In 2022, one smaller company emerged as one of the largest voices in the room. It was a company we couldn’t stop talking about all year, on almost every episode of every show we did. They were one of our highest anticipated trade show exhibitors for both Tobacco Plus Expo 2022 and the 2022 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show and Convention. A company who has quite the diverse portfolio thanks to its fearless leadership of Oliver Nivaud. And”not that this is the reason for this award, but this is also the company who won Cigar of the Year 2022 with the Alfonso Anejos #4 by Selected Tobacco. Look no further than United Cigars.
Based in Hudson, New Hampshire, United Cigars is a company who is always thinking outside the box. We saw them bring in the Terra Nova and Montosa brands from European cigar brand Arnold Andre. Then, we saw them bring in the YAYA brand from the Dominican Republic. Followed up with the Silver Bar project they did with Rocky Patel for the Fall. On top of all of this, we saw the company resurrect the oldest cigar brand in America with the Red Anchor which also placed on our list this year. That isn’t even mentioning the Big Papi and Bandolero firecrackers we saw for the annual Firecracker Limited Release.
With Selected Tobacco, we saw the addition of the Byron 1850 and the critically acclaimed Alfonso Anejos line named for nonother than the company’s founder, Nelson Alfonso. The Alfonso Anejos was the first cigar along with the Byron 1850 to feature French Oak in the aging rooms which provided a diverse new flavor profile. The Alfonso Anejos #4 went on to become our Cigar of the Year and performed extremely well in other publications as well, including a number one spot on the Halfwheel.com list for the #3 size and the Luxury Cigar of the Year on CigarDojo.com.
So far into 2023, United has hired Dan Davison as their Marketing Director and announced a new firecracker hat will be made by E.P. Carillo and based on their award-winning Pledge line. We are also expecting to see the “Nelson” line released this year, something we saw teased at PCA 2022 as well as an Atabey humidor with five of each vitola. It is still early, but we expect to see another big year from United Cigar. In terms of last year, there were many great companies who did great things such as Espinosa with their Knuckle Sandwich for Guy Fieri and the way Steve Saka dominated almost every list. But United seemed to have the full package with more than just great cigars. It was how they evolved their entire business together last year that stood out the most. Congratulations to United on this very special achievement.
