Quorum cigars mean to be the ideal everyday cigars. They are 100% hand-rolled like any respectable premium cigar and made with at least mostly long-leaf Nicaraguan tobacco–and their price is more than affordable. Quorum cigars are perfect for a smoker who wants to have a cigar every day that he or she can feel proud to hold and be seen with, but who don’t have executive-caliber budgets.
They even taste good enough that a smoker who does have an executive-caliber budget may freely choose one of these from time to time. Do not let the low price fool you–Quorum cigars are candidates to be any puffer’s favorite everyday smoke.
According to jrcigars.com, Quorum cigars were “immensely popular” in the early 1990s before inexplicably disappearing for 20-or-so years. The folks at jrcigars.com are excited to see them returning to the market, and they proudly stock all three lines of Quorum cigars. Absolutecigars.com calls them the world’s best-selling handmade bundled cigar. In this sense, Quorum cigars really provide a best-of-both-worlds scenario for their fans.
As alluded to above, there are three lines of Quorum cigars: the Classic, the Shade and the Maduro. They all use the same filler tobacco, but each uses a different wrapper tobacco–a testament to the massive impact a wrapper can have on a good cigar. The wrapper on the Classic line is an Ecuadorian sun-grown tobacco, the Shade has an Ecuador Connecticut Shade wrapper, and of course, the Maduro has a Maduro wrapper. We’ll discuss what Maduros are, shortly.
Ecuador is one of the most desirable places to grow tobacco (or any crop) because of its climate and volcano-nourished soil. Home to some 32 volcanoes, the ash the volcanoes produce falls on the soil and provides nutrients in quantities that simply are not available naturally in most countries.
Quorum’s Classic and Shade wrappers both come from Ecuador. The Classic’s wrapper grows with nothing but space and clouds between the tobacco plants and the sun. All this direct sunlight causes the plants to produce a darker, thicker leaf that tends to yield richer and spicier flavors. This is perfect for cigars that have a milder filler tobacco, but sometimes can be too much for other, bolder cigars whose filler tobaccos provide an abundance of their own rich flavors. Of course, this is a rule of thumb, not a law of the universe. Any premium cigar maker who knows what he or she is doing will sometimes find a heavy filler blend that works well with a bold wrapper, and a mild filler blend that works with a lighter wrapper.
The Ecuador Connecticut Shade method used to grow the Shade’s wrapper produces plants with features that are generally much lighter than those of the sun-grown plants. The leaf is thinner and more delicate, and its color and flavors also tend to be lighter and more delicate. Like any wrapper tobacco, a shade-grown one is neither good nor bad inherently. As mentioned above, it has its contexts. All of Quorum’s cigars use medium-bodied Nicaraguan filler tobacco, which sort of straddles the line between bold and light, leaving the question of which wrapper is best left open to debate. Insightfully, Quorum wraps its cigars with both types of tobacco so that their customers can experiment and decide for themselves.
Interestingly, Quorum has also entered the Maduro market. The word “Maduro” means “ripe” or “mature” in Spanish. This wrapper tobacco is called such because it is left to ripen for much longer than the others before it’s harvested. Then, once it’s harvested, its processing also takes longer and requires more care. This extra meticulous process makes this wrapper highly distinctive and intently sought after by its fans. Maduro wrappers are dark, sometimes even black (the black Maduros are called “oscura,” which means “dark” in Spanish). This will often scare new smokers away, as they think the cigars they wrap will be too bold, heavy and rich.
But in reality, the characteristics of Maduro wrappers are as disparate and dependent on their respective cigars as any other wrapper tobacco. In the case of Quorum, we know each stick is filled with the same Nicaraguan medium-bodied tobacco, so the ceiling on just how bold they can be made to taste is lower than it could be. Far from being a disappointment, this merely means the Quorum Maduros should be experimented with by everyone just as freely as Quorum’s two other lines.
Pricing
As alluded to above, Quorum cigars are priced for the masses. In fact, at less than $3 per stick, their price can be a false signal of a poorly made, perhaps even a machine-made cigar. Instead, Quorum cigars are a pleasant surprise for the richness and complexity of the flavors that are found behind their prices.
Being sold only in bulk helps keep the price tag down. Quorum cigars almost always sell 20 to a bundle, though their Little Q model comes in boxes of 50 sticks and their Tres Petit Corona is sold in 30s.
Quorum cigars are harder to find than their peers–CigarAficionado.com doesn’t even seem to know they exist–but thanks to the internet, their scarcity shouldn’t be a real problem for any smoker who really wants some. Besides jrcigars.com, a shopper can find Quorum cigars at many online retailers including absolutecigars.com, cigarsinternational.com, cigar.com, mikescigars.com, thompsoncigar.com, and bestcigarprices.com.
How It Compares
We picked several similar products available on the market to see how they compare.
Quorum Sun-Grown ChurchillH. Upmann Legacy ChurchillArturo Fuente Churchill
Partagas Heritage Churchill Honduran
Smooth, spicy, and nutty. Mild and pleasant. The flavor is more than exceptional for the price. For perspective, it’s no Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark–but that one is more of a special occasion cigar and goes for at least six times the price.
Appearance
Using an Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper, the Quorum Sun-Grown Churchills are light in appearance, but not as light as their shade-grown counterparts. Mild-looking enough to attract a new smoker, they still pack enough character to get any cigar smoker’s mouth to water.
You always get what you pay for, at least to some extent. We know Quorums offer a practically unheard-of value, but staying realistic, they’re no special occasion cigar for an aficionado. Once he or she gets used to them, even a new smoker might find themselves wanting something a bit more advanced for special occasions.
- Huge value for the price
- Enough options to explore and experiment, but not enough to overwhelm a new smoker
- Possibly not enough variety for more seasoned smokers
- A bit harder to find than other brands; not even mentioned on its parent company’s website or CigarAficionado.com
H. Upmann Legacy Churchill
One of the oldest cigar brands in operation, H. Upmann began in 1844. The H. Upmann Legacy Churchill is encased in an Indonesian wrapper, with Dominican filler and binder.
Sweet, woody, and fruity. A tangy finish, perhaps like a gingersnap cookie.
Appearance
A fairly dark, Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper encloses this thick cigar.
You do not stay in business for nearly 200 years by making flimsy cigars. H. Upmann makes special-occasion cigars for aficionados, so the Legacy Churchill is certainly not their finest–but it’s nothing to dismiss. If a $2 Quorum weren’t available, the H. Upmann Legacy Churchill might be our top choice for a solid, enjoyable everyday cigar. But at roughly $7 a stick, it does look undeniably less tempting than a Quorum Classic Churchill.
- A classic name in the cigar world, Upmann is always easy to find
- Many more options than Quorum; at least five Churchills to Quorum’s three
- Not going to temporarily disappear like Quorum did
- Sold in smaller quantities, so experimenting with them is less of a commitment
- Of course the price–three times that of Quorum
- If you like Upmann for your everyday smoke, the smaller quantities can be a con; they definitely keep the price up
Another economically priced everyday cigar, the Arturo Fuente Churchill is a direct competitor to Quorum cigars. This one sports a wrapper from Cameroon and Dominican filler and binder.
Dark chocolate and licorice. A base of almonds and wood.
Appearance
Again, the sun-grown wrapper gives this cigar a dark-of-center appearance. And the beautiful Arturo Fuente band with its iconic logo can’t be ignored.
All four cigars in this article are 100% premium, solidly constructed, everyday smoking cigars, made by old, well-respected companies (JR Newman in Quorum’s case). The Arturo Fuente Churchill is no exception.
- Generally less expensive than H. Upmann
- Like H. Upmann, Arturo Fuente cigars are much easier to find than Quorum cigars
- Also, like H. Upmann, they have more cigars, Churchills included, to choose from
- A unique Arturo Fuente perk: In 2001, they started the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, a community that the UN has called a “model community,” in the Dominican Republic. It has a school, medical clinics, community kitchen, and an organic farm, among other amenities. So supporting the Arturo Fuente brand is supporting that, which feels good
- This is the only cigar on the list with a component from Cameroon
- Again, the price is more normal than Quorum, which is to say that it’s two to three times higher
- Unless a smoker really, seriously prefers some aspect of these smokes, there is no need to stray from his or her Quorums
Partagas Heritage Churchill Honduran
This is the most distinctive cigar on our list. It sports a Honduran wrapper that was actually “developed exclusively for this cigar,” according to the company’s website. The binder is Connecticut Broadleaf, and the filler is a mix of Mexican, Dominican and Honduran long-leaf tobaccos.
Smooth and sweet. Notes of earth, oak, and pepper.
Appearance
The most interesting-looking cigar that we discuss in this article, the Partagas Heritage Churchill Honduran sports a reddish Honduran wrapper which nicely compliments its understated, red-and-gold, sophisticated-looking band.
Again, all four of the cigars on our list are well-made. The reason this one gets a fifth star for quality is simply because it seems to get more individualized attention than the others, which always supports and helps to improve quality. While H. Upmann and Arturo Fuente make cigars good for everyday use, and sometimes excellent cigars, Partagas seems especially proud of this, their take on the everyday Churchill.
- It sports a proprietary wrapper that was developed just for this cigar
- Elegant and beautiful appearance
- An especially complex blend of filler tobaccos, from three countries (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Honduras)
- The only cigar on the list that contains Mexican tobacco
- Once again, the price is significantly higher than Quorum cigars
- While Partagas has many cigars that have received Cigar Aficionado ratings in the upper 80s–a highly respectable score–it has just one which has scored over 90, and none that have scored over 91. Perhaps that has something to do with the attention they give to their everyday sticks
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Quorum Sun-Grown Churchill |
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Smooth, spicy, and nutty. Mild and pleasant. The flavor is more than exceptional for the price. For perspective, it’s no Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark–but that one is more of a special occasion cigar and goes for at least six times the price. |
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H. Upmann Legacy Churchill |
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Sweet, woody, and fruity. A tangy finish, perhaps like a gingersnap cookie. |
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Dark chocolate and licorice. A base of almonds and wood. |
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Partagas Heritage Churchill Honduran |
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Smooth and sweet. Notes of earth, oak, and pepper. |
All else being equal–and much of it is equal–Quorum cigars offer by far the best value for the smoker looking for his or her favorite everyday smoking cigars. They taste great and come in bulk which is helpful, both for keeping convenience up and for keeping the price down. The first cigar on our list besides that one, is the Partagas Heritage Churchill Honduran.
It is easily the most distinctive and interesting. After that, we suggest going for an Arturo Fuente Churchill, if just because they’re connected to such noble charity work in the Dominican Republic. Finally, it’s true that H. Upmann never disappoints. It is the least exciting cigar on our list, but certainly not a bad one. And because it ultimately all comes down to an individual smoker’s taste, the H. Upmann Legacy Churchill could easily turn out to be any smoker’s favorite everyday cigar.