Team Cigar Keep's favourite cigars

The Proprietor: Quai d’Orsay 54 - This delicious cigar is the perfect companion to any late morning cup of coffee. It is soft and sweet from the start and whilst described as light to medium bodied, in my view it has enough taste to satisfy a full medium smoke. Brioche runs through every puff, but a really soft doughy, buttery brioche even better than the real thing and far less fattening too! If I ever ended up on a desert island, it would be the one I could happily smoke every day.

Tom Chamberlin: Ramón Allones Gigantes – This is a cigar that I want on me at all times. The size is unfortunate if you’re always in a rush, but then again you aren’t likely to get into cigar smoking if that is the case. The Specially Selected by Ramón Allones is regarded by the late, great Simon Chase as the best all-rounder cigar on the market, so imagine just doubling the size and you roughly have the Gigantes. This cigar comes with great memories too. It was the first cigar I smoked on my honeymoon, it is the cigar I subsequently smoke on the terrace of the Deux Rocs, a restaurant up in the hills of the Var region of France, when my wife and I have our honeymoon dinners. Smoked honey, toasted almonds and with a cigar of this size, so much of it. Pure perfection.

Sam Merullo: Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill - Anything that bears the name of a British hero gets to the front of the queue. I chose the Wide Churchill as it not only plays both to the strengths of the RyJ blend, but also appeals to my preference for a wider-ring-gauge cigar. There is a regional Bolívar, the Belgravia, that mimics its size and profile, but considering these now sell at four times the price of a Wide Churchill, I know which one I am buying.

Max Foulkes: Hoyo de Monterrey du Maire – I have very fond memories of this Entreacto size cigar (30x100) barely considered a cigar by today’s standards. ‘Entreacto’ translates to ‘between acts’, which is exactly when the cigar was intended to be smoked, during the intervals of theatre productions. This was the first cigar I actively enjoyed. I remember vividly luxuriating in the blue smoke and delicate flavours generated by a cigar of such an elegant disposition. It is still a smoke I often revisit and one I continue to enjoy.

Drew Laidlaw-Hoare: Punch Short de Punch – Someone was smart enough to give me one of these as an introduction to cigars for a marketeer. For a complete novice who had no idea what to look out for, this cigar – as hindsight has been good enough to tell me – became the 'control' from which I benchmarked subsequent smokes and came to understand the fluctuation of taste profiles and also for a cigar that is comparatively dainty, it comes with a wonderful kick, or perhaps I should say a punch.