[BlackIrish]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Cuban cigar companies cannot pay Cigar Afflictionado for advertising. Therefore, the Casa Magna is the greatest cigar ever made.

When some say, "The Casa Magna is a great $4 smoke", remember....Cigar Afflictionado doesn't consider price in their rankings...they are saying the Casa Magna is the best current production cigar in the World right now at any price. Gimmie a break.

I have my doubts about this ranking, too, but it looks like Cigar Aficionado acutally is taking price into account, at least this year. Here's what Gordon Mott has to say on this blog:

Casa Magna! I know you’re all surprised. We were too after our initial round of Top 25 tastings. And, then, that cigar just kept holding its spot among the top five cigars. In the end, the other factors—price, availability, intangibles—that we consider when making our final choice proved to be the tipping points in favor of the Casa Magna Colorado Robusto.

Let me respond to some of your questions and comments. Everyone has noticed that certain cigars in the Top 25 have higher scores than cigars ranked higher in the final list. There’s no mystery or mistake there. We do not base the final selection for the Top 25 on scores alone. If we did that, then we wouldn’t even bother to hold a special tasting for it; we’d just go down the scores given during the year and rank the cigars from one to 25. But gee, what fun would that be? We really do consider everything from price to country of origin to production quantities and that word intangibles, which boils down to whether or not we find something unique about the cigar that sets it apart from other products in the market today. . . .

Why Casa Magna? Well, first of all, the price point is an absolutely unavoidable and appealing factor. In one of the worst economic downturns in most of our lifetimes, a $5.25 suggested retail price is worth noting and rewarding. It is also a full-flavored, wonderfully constructed cigar. Trust me. We didn’t know it was one of the lowest priced cigars in the entire selection when we were smoking. It stood out on its own.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar...95,346,00.html