Welcome to today's little comparison guide, where we will be pitting the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne Connecticut against the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Sun-Grown.

Both cigars bear the same "10th Anniversary" nameplate, are produced by the same cigar manufacturer, and undergo similar fermentation, testing, and aging processes, but they are also very different from one another. 

For those of you who found our review of the 10th Anniversary Champagne to be amusing, and the cigar itself to be enjoyable, you may be wonder how it stacks up against the 10th Anniversary Sun Grown Klaro reviewed a few weeks prior. Both are available year-round, are strikingly similar in blend-wise, and feature tobacco that's bee aged in bourbon barrels. But they also different from one another on multiple fronts.

So, if you are wondering which Perdomo 10th Anniversary cigar is best for you and your puffing preferences, this little comparison guide should help point you in the right direction. Let's get to it, shall we?

Side-By-Side Specs: Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne vs Sun-Grown

Perdomo Champagne vs Sun-Grown Similarities

Perdomo Champagne vs Sun-Grown Differences

Flavor Comparison by Third 

First Third

10th Anniversary Champagne Connecticut

Biscuits baking in the oven, and a pot of warm honey sitting on the stove, a flurry of kitchen activities begin to take place as the first sizable section of the cigar ignites. All of the buttered popcorn tastes from prior are still popping, and are slowly becoming saltier and chewier as they heat up. Speaking of heat, the spicier cedar notes from retrohales have moved toward the tongue and tempt the taste buds with a crackling good time.

10th Anniversary Sun Grown

Candied dates sure do taste delicious, and are far more of a key player than the Fig Newton notes found within the unlit foot of the cigar. Vintage cedar is all over this cigar's first third, too, and it is both sappy and spicy. It may come as no surprise, but oak is also present in plentiful amounts, and this tannin-coated taste adds a dry texture over the top of those sweeter molasses coatings. Retrohales remain intense and spice-rich, with just the right amount of creaminess and caramelized sugar to keep each exhale enjoyable.

Second Third

10th Anniversary Champagne Connecticut

The second third shifts to a more mineral sort of salt flavor, which makes the popcorn flavors taste almost like they have been dusted with some form of gourmet herb salt. The blend is more buttery than before, and as the sweetness from earlier slowly fades, the sappier sides of the Spanish cedar start to shine. This causes aromatics within the cigar to soar to a level that exceeds all expectations.

10th Anniversary Sun Grown

Stronger sun-grown tobacco tastes and a fresh chord of split oak strike the moment the second third is reached, simultaneously stamping out any fruitiness or date notes left inside. The texture of the smoke is far creamier, too, and this works admirably with the spice notes underneath. Retrohales have rolled into a far more balanced rhythm, turning the spicier cedar sides of the cigar into a dance between creamy, sweet, and peppery. Traditional medium-powered, sun-grown cigar flavor profiles reach their pinnacle right in the center of this 60-ring-gauge smoke, but are not overbearing in any way.

Final Third

10th Anniversary Champagne Connecticut

Although it feels like the blend is favoring a stronger approach than one that is mild, the overall effervescence found within the smoke itself keeps the cigar on the sunny side of the street. Not even the nuttier, saltier, spicier, and soil-strong sides of that all-Nicaraguan internal team can sway that wrapper from its intended mission, and here you may find your toes curling a touch.

Crazy creamy in texture and taste, the smoke that swirls about is a milky delight, and tastes both dessert-like and outdoorsy all at once. As sweet honey notes hit on a secondary level, whipped cream in all of its sticky goodness, along come some strands of straw and dried clay shift in. The finish is longer and stronger, and the overall vibe of the blend is far more medium than mild. 

10th Anniversary Sun Grown

Hit the final third, and the peppery side of the blend bounces back with great gusto, and with it comes even more oak. Retrohales may have gotten sweeter and more molasses-like, but the tongue detects some dryness and stronger mulled wine spices. Here, the blend escalates to somewhere in between medium and medium-plus in potency.

Price & Value Comparison

Wondering how much a box of one of these Perdomo cigars costs? To be honest, not much!

Both the 10th Anniversary Champagne and the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Sun Grown cost $207.18 for a box of 25 sticks when you purchase them in "Epicure" toro format. That's $8.77 a cigar, or $43.87 a 5-pack, which in today's market, is incredibly affordable!

Tobacco Nerd Note: Perdomo remains the only cigar manufacturer willing to absorb the United States SCHIP federal excise tax. This means that every cigar within Perdomo’s portfolio is made more affordable courtesy of the Perdomo family viewing these fees as a "business expense."

Klaro Ratings Comparison

If you've waded your way through all of that, and are still wondering when to buy each of these blends, allow us to lay it out clearly.

If you want a mild-to-medium cigar with a buttery start, a creamy body, and a little bit more potency than your typical shade-grown smoke, then the 10th Anniversary Champagne Connecticut is the clear choice. As long as you can handle some spice and a hit of tannin woodiness toward the finish line, this blend is divine.

However, if bolder, earthier, far more bourbon-forward flavors appeal to your particular tastes, then check out that review of the 10th Anniversary Sun-Grown we mentioned in the introduction and you'll find that it is clearly the your top option. It's not all the way full, but it does get close at times, so bear that in mind when it comes time to spark this boozier blend up.

Now, as for our final ratings on these two smokes, well, that's purely a subjective assessment. Which is precisely why we encourage you to go out and try these iconic premium cigar blends out for yourself. They both offer impressive key points along the way, and continue to be two of our best-selling barrel-aged cigar blends for a reason.

Parting Puffs

If your are looking for a personal recommendation, and are still unsure as to which of these Perdomo blends is best, I would say give the 10th Anniversary Sun Grown a shot, but only in a smaller vitola format. The box-pressed "Super Toro" size they make tends to have too much flow for my taste, even when punched, and the burn issues I encountered time and time again are the complete opposite of the tidiness found in the slimmer ring-gauges they roll.

However, if you happen to be looking for the highest-rated Perdomo cigar in history, be sure to check out the Perdomo 20th Anniversary Maduro we now have in stock. This blend has seen at least eight years of aging placed upon each of its leaves, with an additional fourteen months of secondary bourbon barrel fermentation being applied to the wrapper alone.

This gives us all the more reason to point out that, yes, Perdomo is a high end cigar manufacturer, and that, yes, it is definitely worth your time and money to explore their portfolio and smoke around a bit.