The Cigar Sampler Guide: How to Try Five Cigars Without Buying Five Boxes
Cigar 101 · Buying Guide
Five cigars you have never tried cost less than one box of a cigar you might not like. This is how to use that.
A cigar sampler is a small, mixed pack of cigars sold together, usually four to six sticks, and it exists to solve the most expensive problem in this hobby: buying twenty of something before you know whether you like it. If you are new, it is the honest place to start. If you have been at this for years, it is still the cheapest way to meet a house you have been curious about. You can see the ones we assemble ourselves in our sampler bundles, and the factory-sealed packs in cigar samplers.
Those two collections look similar from the outside and they are not the same thing at all. The difference matters more than most people expect, and it changes what you should buy depending on what you are actually trying to do.
Sampler bundles and factory samplers are two different products
A factory sampler is put together by the manufacturer and sealed at the factory. It is almost always one brand showing you its own range, which is exactly what you want when you have decided you are interested in Plasencia or Ashton or AVO and you want to meet the lines side by side. A sampler bundle is assembled by hand, here in Woodland Hills, out of our own single sticks. Because we are choosing from the whole floor rather than one maker's shelf, a bundle can cross houses in a way no factory pack ever can.
| Sampler bundle | Factory sampler | |
|---|---|---|
| Who assembles it | We do, by hand, from our own singles | The manufacturer, sealed at the factory |
| Brands inside | Usually several, chosen to sit together | Almost always one house |
| Best for | Comparing across makers, gifting, exploring an idea | Going deep on one brand you already like |
| Typical size | Four or five sticks | Four to six, occasionally more |
Where most people start
Six packs under a hundred dollars, mixing both kinds, that reward a first try without asking for a commitment.
How we build a bundle, and why it is not a grab bag
The temptation with an assortment is to throw together whatever is interesting and call it variety. We do the opposite. Almost every bundle we make is built around one thing the cigars have in common: they are all rolled in the same country, or they all share a filler origin, or they are all the same shape, or they all sit at the same strength. The variety sits on top of that shared spine.
There is a practical reason for it. If you smoke four cigars that differ in every possible way, you learn very little, because you cannot tell what caused what. If you smoke four Toros that differ only in who made them, you learn a great deal in an afternoon. That is why a set like the Full Measure Toro Sampler is one vitola across four houses, and why the origin sets keep the country fixed and let the makers argue. It is also why we will not put two sizes of the same line in one pack. Seeing the same blend twice in different lengths teaches you almost nothing and takes a slot that could have taught you something.
The same discipline applies to the name. If a pack carries a brand's name, every cigar in it is from that brand. If it is mixed, it gets a name of its own. Nobody should have to read the small print to find out what is in the box.
What a cigar sampler is good for, beyond being new
Most writing on this subject assumes samplers are a beginner product. Across our own customers, that is not what we see. The people who buy them most consistently are the ones who already know what they like and are bored of it. A pack of four is how a committed Connecticut smoker finds out whether they have been wrong about Maduro for a decade. It is how someone who buys the same Robusto every month discovers that a Churchill changes the whole evening.
They also solve a specific and slightly awkward problem: buying for somebody whose taste you do not know. A box is a strong opinion about someone else's palate. A well-chosen assortment is a question rather than a statement, and it is much harder to get wrong. If you want the reasoning on gifting more broadly, our guide to cigar gift sets covers what goes in one and what does not.
If you are genuinely starting out
Start milder than you think you should, and start shorter. A four stick pack of approachable cigars will tell you more in two weeks than a box of something ambitious will tell you in six months, because you will actually finish them. Our mild cigars are the right neighborhood, and the sequence we recommend to first time buyers is laid out in your first five cigars, in order. If you would rather answer a few questions than read, the Cigar Finder narrows five hundred cigars down to a handful.
One practical note for beginners specifically. Some factory packs arrive with a lighter included, which removes a genuine barrier at the start. The Nub sampler with an electric lighter is the clearest example we stock, and it is a reasonable way to own the ritual and the tools at the same time.
Choosing one as a gift, at the top of the range
When the occasion is serious, an assortment can still be the right answer, but the bar moves. A four stick pack from the luxury houses is a different object from a four stick pack you are using to experiment with, and it should read that way in the hand. The Costa Rican and Dominican sets we build around El Septimo, Alfonso, Byron and Ashton are the ones we reach for when somebody is marking a retirement, a closing, or a birthday with a zero in it.
The El Septimo depth is the part we can offer that almost nobody else can. We hold more of the house than any other retailer we know of, which means a bundle anchored on it is not a token inclusion. For the full range, the El Septimo collection is the place to look, and the El Septimo gift boxes take the same idea further when an assortment is not enough.
The gifting tier
Assortments and accessories that stand on their own as a gift, with nothing in them that needs explaining away.
If the gift is going out in the next few months, the seasonal sets are worth a look before the range thins out. The holiday cigar gift bundles are the same construction with the occasion built in.
What to buy alongside it
An assortment creates two small problems that a box does not. The first is cutting. Four cigars from four houses will not share a head shape, and a cutter that handles a 52 ring comfortably may struggle with a 60. A decent guillotine with a wide enough aperture solves it permanently, and our guide to cutters and lighters explains what the money actually buys. The range itself is in cigar cutters.
The second is storage. Most people smoke a sampler over weeks rather than days, which means the last two cigars need somewhere to live. A single tube is enough if you are taking one out with you, and the travel cases and tubes cover that. If you are starting to keep more than a handful at home, choosing a humidor is the next thing to read, and all humidors is where to shop it.
One thing worth doing. Smoke the pack in order of strength, mildest first, over separate sittings, and write one line about each before you forget. Four notes on a phone will change what you buy for years. Most people skip this and then cannot remember which of the four was the one they liked.
Every sampler bundle we currently hold
These are assembled by hand from our own singles and they change as the floor changes. If something here is not obviously for you, that is fine. The point of the collection is that one of them will be.
Questions we get asked
What is a cigar sampler?
It is a small pack of different cigars sold together, most often four to six sticks, so you can try several without buying a box of any one of them. Some are assembled by the manufacturer from its own lines, and some are put together by a retailer from individual cigars.
What is the difference between a sampler bundle and a cigar sampler?
A sampler bundle is assembled by hand by us from our own single cigars, so it can cross several houses. A factory sampler is sealed by the manufacturer and is almost always one brand. Use a bundle to compare makers, and a factory pack to go deep on a brand you already like.
How many cigars are in a sampler?
Usually four to six. Ours are built at four or five sticks, which is enough to tell the cigars apart without leaving half the pack sitting unsmoked for a year.
How many cigars in a box?
A full box is most commonly twenty or twenty five cigars, though ten and twenty are both common in premium lines and some limited editions come in fives. That gap is the whole argument for an assortment: a box is a commitment of twenty five, and a sampler is a commitment of four.
Are samplers good for beginners?
Yes, and for a reason beyond price. A beginner does not yet know whether they prefer a mild Connecticut or a rich Maduro, and no amount of reading settles it. Smoking four different cigars settles it in a fortnight.
Is a sampler cheaper than buying the cigars separately?
Our bundles are priced below the total of the singles inside them, and each product page shows both figures so you can see the difference yourself. We would rather you checked the numbers than took our word for it.
What is a Nub sampler?
Nub is a short, thick format from Oliva built so that the cigar starts in its best section rather than working up to it. A Nub sampler collects several of those in one pack, and the version we stock includes an electric lighter.
Can I ask you to build a custom pack?
Yes. Tell us the budget, the number of sticks and anything you know about the person, and we will put one together. Call 1 818-719-9885 or email Info@Cigarinc.com.
Do the cigars in a sampler need a humidor straight away?
Not immediately. If you will finish the pack within a couple of weeks, leaving it sealed is fine. Beyond that, a small humidor or a tube with a humidity pack will keep the last cigars in the same condition as the first.
Which sampler should I buy as a gift if I know nothing about cigars?
Choose one built around a single origin or a single shape rather than a mixed assortment, and pick from the luxury houses if the occasion is a significant one. It reads as considered rather than random, and it gives the recipient something to compare.
Are sampler bundles a good way to try a brand I have never had?
They are the best way we know. Four cigars from one country or one shape will show you how a house thinks far more clearly than one cigar bought on its own, because you have something to measure it against.
Do you ship samplers outside California?
We ship nationwide to adults 21 and over. Orders are checked at delivery.
What should I buy alongside a sampler?
A cutter that handles a wide ring gauge, and something to store the cigars you have not smoked yet. Those two cover almost every practical problem an assortment creates.
Start with four, not twenty five
Browse the assortments we build by hand, or tell us who it is for and we will put one together.
Cigar Inc.
21900 Burbank Blvd UNIT 265, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
1 818-719-9885 · Info@Cigarinc.com
For adults 21+. Please enjoy responsibly.