St. Patrick’s weekend. Dublin was alive. Not far from the Guinness Storehouse, the streets moved with noise and color.

I will review the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story cigar, sent by GQ Tobacco, a family-run UK online business specializing in premium smokes and tobacco products.

Cigar pricing rarely changes quietly. Yet the early signals for 2026 suggest something intriguingly different: not a universal sticker-shock explosion, but a recalibration—uneven by country, brand, and business model, and therefore far more strategic for both retailers and smokers.

That No. 1 for 2025 was the Padrón 60th Anniversary Perfecto, scoring 97 points.  Its backstory reads like a compressed history of modern premium cigar.

Every January in the cigar world, two forces collide. One is curation: lists, awards, “best of” roundups that crown winners and shape what people think they should smoke. The other is scarcity: limited releases, allocation games, and “blink and it’s gone” drops that shape what people can actually smoke. In 2026, that collision is getting louder—and more consequential.

The maple syrup echoes the cigar’s woody sweetness. Strawberries lift the aroma with a bright, slightly tangy perfume that keeps the palate awake.