Are $100 Cigars Worth It?

Premium cigars are similar to fine wine. You can find a great bottle of wine for $25, $50, or $500. A bigger budget doesn’t automatically make wine better, but you’re probably investing in an experience that’s rarer and more exclusive when you go up in price. Most seasoned cigar lovers admit there isn’t a massive difference in the quality or taste of a cigar that costs $25, $50, or $100. So why spend $100? Are $100 cigars worth it, and what makes them so expensive? Here are the factors that can drive the price of a cigar up to $100 for perspective when you’re deciding whether to splurge on one.

Status Symbol vs. Taste

Some cigar brands, such as Fuente Fuente Opus X, Padrón 1964 Anniversary, Ashton ESG, and Davidoff, have always been expensive status symbols, like Mercedes-Benz. The quality and consistency of expensive cigars appeal to aficionados who believe you get what you pay for. Premium cigars aren’t just for the rich, though, if you think costly cigars are automatically better.

There’s no question, you’re indulging in a top-tier cigar blended from the finest tobaccos when you fire up an elite cigar, but not all expensive cigars are created equal. Trust your taste buds. If you’re buying cigars in the $100 range, try one before you invest in a whole box. If the cigar doesn’t exceed your expectations at that price, don’t pressure yourself to buy more.

Rarity of the Blend

For many, a rare cigar is worth every penny. Like works of art or bottles of vintage Bordeaux, there are only so many rare cigars to go around. The cigar industry is well known for limited-edition blends. Some cigars are blended from tobaccos grown during an ideal crop year, when the weather was perfect, and the soil’s nutrients encouraged the plants to thrive to their full potential. The best blenders set these crops aside after harvest to age them and reserve them for a special milestone release.

When world-renowned cigarmakers Carlito Fuente and Jorge Padrón collaborated to produce Fuente y Padrón Legends cigars in honor of their fathers, they released a limited number of boxes nationwide. The cigars come in an elaborate 40-count box that retails for $7,115, or $178 per cigar. That may seem exorbitant, but you can bet these collectable cigars will be worth more once they are officially sold out.  

Age of the Cigar

The tobacco used in the top Padrón cigars, such as the Family Reserve blends, is aged for at least ten years. Tobacco matured that long is incredibly smooth and rich. When you smoke a cigar that’s already ten years old, the flavor and aroma are highly refined. At the Ashton Cigar Bar in downtown Philadelphia, you can find an exclusive $100 Ashton VSG from 1999, making it over 25 years old. Storing and aging cigars at the correct humidity and temperature for decades costs money. Many aficionados age their cigars to enhance the taste, but when the cigarmaker has done the waiting before the cigar leaves the factory, it’s reflected in the price. For serious connoisseurs who collect cigars, $100 is not too much to spend on a cigar that’s two decades old.

Artisanal Craftsmanship

In addition to impacting a cigar’s intensity, duration, and taste, a cigar’s shape and size also influence its price. Complicated sizes, like Perfectos, Figurados, and Torpedos, are handmade by the most experienced rollers in the rolling gallery, who are also paid the most. These rollers often have decades of proven experience, making them the best candidates to bunch and roll cigars from a cigarmaker’s oldest and rarest tobacco.

Fuente Fuente Opus X BBMF and Ashton ESG 24-Year cigars offer the highest levels of craftsmanship. Both of these rare cigars require advanced skills to assemble, and they perform flawlessly because they are crafted exclusively by rollers with decades of experience. Today’s top cigarmakers insist on rolling cigars using the traditional entubado method and finishing every cigar with a Cuban-style triple cap. The craftsmanship required to master these methods takes years of practice and results in cigars of flawless, uncompromising quality.

Packaging & Presentation

Cigarmakers spare no expense on the bands and boxes for $100 cigars. Packaging is built into a cigar’s price, but that doesn’t mean that’s all you’re paying for when you spend more. When a cigarmaker releases an expensive cigar, they’re likely to invest more money designing elaborate cigar bands and boxes, both as a matter of pride and to call attention to the cigar on a store shelf.

Padrón 60th Anniversary cigars come in individual gold coffins, each slotted inside an ornate box of 10 with a high-gloss finish. The critics at Cigar Aficionado just rated the blend 97 points and ranked it as the ‘Cigar of the Year’ for 2025. These intricate Perfectos retail for $75 apiece and offer a luxurious profile from start to finish. Nonetheless, the cost of the box is part of the price, and we still recommend relying on your taste buds over the packaging when evaluating an expensive cigar. A pretty box doesn’t make a bad cigar taste good.