Coming 2026 on Amazon KDP

The Kaufmann
World Encyclopedia
of Premium Cigars

A Global Reference Guide to Tobacco, Terroir, Brands, Pairings, Tasting and Collecting

The most comprehensive cigar reference being published in the modern era. Every premium tobacco-producing country, every major marca, the full KCS v2.1 methodology and calibration sample, vintage notes, pairing tables, and the practice of cigar smoking documented in encyclopedic depth.

Author: Radim Kaufmann · Format: KDP Paperback 8.5 × 11 in. · Pages: 590 · Language: English (US)

Coming Soon on Amazon → Read the Notebook

Inside the Book

Chapter Highlights

PART I

Foundations

What a premium cigar is, how it differs from machine production, the anatomy of construction, the language of vitolas and primings.

PART II

Cultivation, Curing, and Construction

From seed to bench: the tobacco plant, soil and climate, fermentation, aging, wrapper selection, bunching, the triple cap, quality control.

PART III

The Kaufmann Cigar Score

The KCS v2.1 methodology in full: six dimensions, calibration sample, version history, common pitfalls, bias correction.

PART IV

The World Cigar Atlas

Country-by-country: Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico, USA, Cameroon, Brazil, and beyond.

PART V

Brand Profiles

Encyclopedic profiles of the major marcas: Cohiba, Padrón, Davidoff, Fuente, My Father, Drew Estate, and more.

PART VI

Practice

Cutting, lighting, retrohale, humidor management, aging, the Kaufmann Pairing Index, lounges, etiquette.

PART VII

Reference

Glossary, methodology citations, bibliography, vintage tables, factory codes.

APPENDICES

13 Reference Tables

Pricing tiers, vitola dimensions, wrapper varietals, climate data, harvest calendars, KCS score history, and more.

Who It Is For

The Reader

The Beginner

If you have just started smoking premium cigars, this volume is your year-one curriculum. Read Parts I and II first; refer to the rest as you encounter cigars.

The Aficionado

If you have been smoking for a decade and want to read systematically rather than impressionistically, the encyclopedia is your reference shelf in one volume.

III

The Collector

If you maintain a serious humidor and want vintage notes, factory codes, and counterfeit-detection discipline, Parts IV-VII and the appendices are your operating manual.

The Reviewer

If you score cigars yourself, the KCS v2.1 methodology in Part III is the most transparent published rubric in the industry.

Selected Articles

Read from the Library

Editorial pieces drawn from the research behind the encyclopedia — available now on this website.

From the Author

An Author Note

I started keeping cigar notes in 2005 because I could not remember, three weeks after smoking a cigar, what I had thought of it. The notes became a notebook, the notebook became a scoring habit, the habit became a rubric, and the rubric, after twenty years of refinement, became the document that follows. The Kaufmann World Encyclopedia of Premium Cigars is not a research project; it is the working notebook of one smoker who got organized.

— Radim Kaufmann, Editor

The KaufmannWorld Encyclopediaof Premium Cigars