Cigars come in a range of strengths, from mellow and mild to full-bodied. The middle road, as you might expect, is a solid medium. One misconception I commonly see about cigar strength is that it directly correlates with flavor. While full-bodied cigars do offer robust and unique flavor profiles, it’s not always true that they are the most flavorful. If you know where to look, you can find many mellow to medium smokes that are still flavor bombs. A perfect example of this is the Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged Connecticut . Yes, it’s a mild to medium blend, but the flavors are incredible, with a creamy buttery finish. Medium smokes are also what I would recommend to friends, family, and acquaintances who don’t like the toasty and smoky flavors of a stronger cigar like a Maduro. Without further ado, here are the best medium cigars I’ve tried and tested in 2024 and would recommend to everyone else.
Aganorsa Leaf Aniversario Connecticut
- Best Sizes: Robusto or Toro
- Box Count: 10 cigars
You’ll be captivated by this cigar’s elegant blue and white wrapping right away — the presentation is incredible. The cigar wrapper is an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade that’s oily, creamy, and delicious. You’ll also pick up cedar, milk chocolate, and vanilla hints.
Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story
- Best Sizes: Perfecto
- Box Count: 25 cigars
Don’t let the name fool you. While this cigar is indeed a short story in length, it offers a neat, smooth smoke that’s ridiculously memorable. Thanks to the Cameroon wrapper, expect a sweet aroma, rich, woodsy, earthy flavors, and a great time. If you only trust me enough to smoke one cigar on this list, let it be this one.
EP Carrillo La Historia E-III
- Best Sizes: Churchill
- Box Count: 20 cigars
EP Carrillo’s cigars are always well-constructed, but the La Historia E-III scored 95 during its first go-round in 2014 and 92 seven years later. That signifies that, while the blends may change over time, the La Historia is always a fantastic cigar. Expect dark flavors like coffee, wood, leather, earth, and spices like anise.
HVC Hot Cake
- Best Sizes: Laguito No 4 (Rothschild), Half Coronas, Laguito No 5 (Toro)
- Box Count: 25 cigars
Oddly, the HVC Hot Cake doesn’t taste like a hot cake, or what you might expect a hot cake flavor to be anyway, but it’s still absolutely delicious. The Mexican San Andres wrapper blends beautifully with the Corojo 99 and Corojo 98 binders to drop a flavor bomb of wood, chocolate, earth, pepper, sweetness, and dough.
La Aroma de Cuba
- Best Sizes: Robusto, El Jefe (Churchill), Immensa (Gordo)
- Box Count: 24 cigars
While the self-titled La Aroma de Cuba line is a bit stronger than dead center medium, the increase in strength is warranted and makes for an incredible cigar. Featuring a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, you can expect notes of earth, spice, cedar, molasses, and cocoa. It’s a classic.
La Hacienda by Warped
- Best Sizes: First Growth (Rothschild), Superiores (Corona)
- Box Count: 25 cigars
It’s difficult to describe the experience awaiting you after lighting up La Hacienda by Warped Cigars, but I’ll do my best. Primary flavors include citrus, dried fruit, nuttiness, floral undertones, and earth. Meanwhile, subtle flavors like cocoa and cream sneak their way in. The takeaway is that you need to try one of these whenever you can.
Padron Natural
- Best Sizes: 3000 (Robusto), 4000 (Toro)
- Box Count: 26 cigars
If you have any interest in cigars, you already know it’s a safe bet that Padron will feature somewhere on the list — well, here it is. Rich, heady flavors will hit your taste buds after lighting one of these. Just to name a few notables, you’ll taste spice, roasted coffee, nuttiness, and plenty of cream.
Plasencia Alma del Campo
- Best Sizes: Tribu (Robusto), Guajiro (Double Robusto), Sendero (Double Toro)
- Box Count: 10 cigars
Imagine a perfect blend of coffee, nuttiness, cream, milk chocolate, and a tad spice to give it a little kick. That’s precisely what you’ll get with a Plasencia Alma del Campo. As a 91-rated cigar, it’s well worth the cost. The only downside is that a box only comes with ten cigars, which is way too few — you’ll smoke them all quickly like I do.
San Cristobal Revelation
- Best Sizes: Prophet (Robusto), Legend (Toro), Odyssey (Gordo)
- Box Count: 24 cigars
The Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper lends most of the flavor to this stunning cigar, aptly named Revelation. Vibrant flavors of milk chocolate, almond, cedar, cocoa, cinnamon, cream, black pepper, and spice will embolden your palate.
Sobremesa Brulee
- Best Sizes: Robusto, Toro, Double Corona
- Box Count: 13 cigars
Surprisingly complex, the Subremesa Brulee from Dunbarton Tobacco and blender Steve Saka has a lot going for it. The profile may be mellow to mild and relaxing, but the flavors are anything but. Cedar, nuttiness, cream, leather and gentle spice will tickle your senses and have you puffing like a wild person.
Get to know our expert
I smoke cigars all the time, and I have many recommendations and plenty of advice to share with others. But none of those things qualify me as an expert. Really, it’s the years of experience, the time I’ve invested in the world of cigars, the excellent connections I’ve made with cigar makers and sellers, and the vast wealth of knowledge I’ve gained during that time. I know what goes into a good cigar, and I’ve certainly earned the right to recommend some to others, whether you’re a beginner and this is your first time smoking or have your own cabinet humidor stocked and maintained. Instead of waxing poetic, I’d rather let my recommendations and advice columns speak for me.
