NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2025
Science of Smoke: Jeremy Yoder / Award Winning TX Barbecue / Holiday Gift Guide
features NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2025
14 LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
16 FEEDBACK
18 WHAT’S BURNIN’
45 RATINGS
68 SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB 20 YEARS OF INTIMACY
82 X SCOREBOARD
84 INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD
86 EVENTS 86 TAMPA CIGAR BASH 88 DAVIDOFF PAIRING EXPERIENCE AT DAVIDOFF HARD ROCK 90 CIGAR SMOKING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 92 INTERTABAC GETTOGETHER PARTY 94 TOBACCONIST OF GREENWICH OPUS EXODUS EVENT 96 CIGAR COUNTRY GRAND OPENING 98 BARTOLO CIGAR & WINE RENAMING CELEBRATION
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The speed and scale of AI's adoption are among the most impressive developments of our lifetimes. Within two months of its November 2022 launch, ChatGPT went from zero to 100 million users. That’s faster than anything we’ve ever experienced, even TikTok, which blazed onto mobile phones seemingly overnight and took around nine months to reach 100 million users. Now, only three years after we first heard of AI outside a science fiction movie — looking at you, Terminator — it is impossible to estimate the extent of AI’s proliferation. In some professions, including law and software development, its impact reminds me of how spreadsheets eliminated the armies of low-level bookkeepers needed to manually keep corporate books. Accounting firms that didn’t adopt spreadsheets could not keep up with those that had. In no time, accounting firms that moved away from tedious manual data entry could spend more time analyzing their clients’ businesses, in turn providing more value and helping them grow. Job loss became very real for those reluctant to adapt, but it was a life-changing windfall for leaders willing to take the leap. In the end, spreadsheets created more high-paying jobs and, in many respects, paved the way for the modern consulting firm. I believe that in education, the use of AI should be avoided as much as possible, especially in elementary and middle school. Children must learn to think and problem-solve without an external brain spitting out fully formed ideas - or book reports - at every turn. That’s my opinion. Call me old school, but I love how AI-resistant premium cigars are. In a world that feels like it is speeding towards the future in ways that pull us away from everything that makes us human, cigars provide a meaningful link to our roots. It’s not just the way that cigars bring us together and facilitate conversation; the human element is essential in every step of the cigar-making process. Cigar tobacco is not harvested by the large, robotic combine harvesters you see throughout the Midwest harvesting grain; it is harvested by hand at the exact moment when the leaf will yield the best flavor, aroma, and combustion. Something that a machine can’t determine. The fermentation step has guidelines that could be programmed into a system, and some cigar factories are using technology to alert them of certain thresholds. But it is the human touch, through experience and the senses, that determines when the tobacco is ready to be turned. Then there is the most sensory-intensive step, blending. I’ve often referred to the production of premium cigars as the perfect intersection of art and science. Nowhere is this more evident than in the blending of a premium cigar. The practice of combining leaves, previously selected for their aroma, flavor, strength, and combustion rate, is a gross oversimplification. There are relationships that form between leaves in a blend that defy scientific explanation; it takes the knowledge and wisdom of a human being who has dedicated his or her life to interpreting tobacco’s ancient language to make it all come together. As technology advances again threaten to eliminate careers and change the way we live and interact, gather with friends and strangers to celebrate the wondrous combination of senses, brainpower, and ancient
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wisdom that makes us human by lighting up your favorite premium cigar. *** Our final issue of 2025 is here, and it is a smoky one. We expanded our interest beyond cigar smoke and brought in a barbecue expert to help guide us through the science behind smoking meats. Jeremy Yoder, also known as Mad Scientist BBQ on YouTube, shared his story of perseverance and passion with me over cigars. The story was meant for the Cigar Snob Podcast, but I decided it was too good not to share on these pages, starting on p. 63. If you want to listen to the entire interview, check out the Cigar Snob Podcast on your favorite podcast player. In the spirit of smoked meats, we sent our senior editor, Steve Miller, to Houston in search of award-winning barbecue and cigar lounges for a piece titled, "Where There’s Smoke" on p. 37. And since we are coming up on our 20th year in print, we thought we’d look back at some of our hottest, intimate photo shoots while doling out praise to the teams that have made that magic happen all these years. That section, which we called 20 Years of Intimacy, starts on p. 68. Enjoy the issue and smoke great cigars with your favorite humans. Keep ‘em lit,
Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE
Photo credit: Andrey / Adobe Stock
FIRING UP NORTH HOUSTON'S BARBECUE AND CIGAR SCENE
BY STEVE MILLER
48 CIGARS Custom cutting board and ashtray by Nicolás Antonio Jiménez
THE
SCIENCE OF SMOKE BY ERIK CALVIÑO / PHOTOGRAPHY BY MUTHOS MEDIA
FROM AMISH ROOTS TO BARBECUE FAME, JEREMY YODER BUILT A MASSIVE FOLLOWING BY TREATING BRISKET LIKE BIOCHEMISTRY. NOW HE'S BRINGING THAT SAME CURIOSITY TO THE WORLD OF PREMIUM CIGARS.