I'm a fairly new subsciber to CA and around October or November I received an insert poster of the Top 50 cigars. Two months later the Top 25 cigars were released. I noticed that there are cigars on the Top 50 that are not on the Top 25 and vis versa. Even some of the scores vary from review to review. I know that the CA testers are not the god's of cigars, but I do rely on their opinions often. Can you tell me how these changes in the Top Cigars happen?

Certainly. The Top 50 Cigars insert is simply a compendium of the highest-rated cigars from a given period in time in the magazine. The Top 25 Cigars of the Year is our most important cigar rating of the year--we gather the best cigars that have been rated during the year in both Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider, retest them (blind, of course), get a list of the 10 best and retest those 10 yet again to determine a winner. It's a very comprehensive testing process to determine the very best cigars of the year.

Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to pass it along to some friends who were curious about the process too.