The Cigar & Pipe AI Visibility Index 2026

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The premium cigar category is the smallest, most tradition-bound, and most family-controlled major luxury category in America. Approximately 200.9 million premium handmade cigars were imported into the U.S. in the first half of 2025 alone, almost entirely from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. The category is dominated by family-owned operators — Padrón, Fuente, Garcia (My Father) — whose brand authority was built across decades of agricultural ownership, cigar-rolling expertise, and consistent quality. None of that consolidation translates automatically into AI citation share, which routes through a different mechanism entirely.

This report measures who is winning that citation surface and who is not. 5W ran 60+ consumer-intent prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in Q1 2026, tracking citations across five sub-categories: family-owned premium cigar brands, large-conglomerate cigar portfolios (General Cigar, Altadis, Scandinavian Tobacco Group), specialty retailers and lounges (JR Cigars, Famous Smoke Shop, Cigars International), Cuban cigar brands (Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, with the embargo caveat), and pipe tobacco specifically.

The findings: Padrón and Arturo Fuente together account for an estimated 21% of all cigar-category AI citations across the prompts we tested — both of them family-owned, both of them Cigar Aficionado retailer-survey winners year after year. Davidoff anchors the luxury-prestige citation surface that Cuban brands cannot fully claim due to the U.S. embargo. My Father Cigars has built citation share that punches well above its production scale. Rocky Patel, Oliva, and Drew Estate fill the volume tier. Cigar Aficionado magazine itself produces editorial citation surface that no individual brand can match — its annual rankings are referenced in nearly every AI answer about "best cigar 2026."

The brands that win cigar AI citation in the next twelve months will define which premium cigar a new aficionado buys when they walk into their first humidor. The window is open. Few brands are paying attention.

TOP 15 BRANDS BY AI CITATION SHARE

Estimated share of citations across 60+ cigar and pipe consumer-intent prompts run through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, Q1 2026.

Source: 5W analysis of AI-generated responses across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, Q1 2026. Share represents estimated proportion of brand citations across 60+ tracked consumer-intent prompts. Remaining ~33% split across ranks 16–25, regional brands, pipe-tobacco-specific brands, and cigar retailer/lounge citations.

THE FULL TOP 25 RANKING

1. Padrón — Nicaraguan family-owned premium cigar manufacturer. Founded by José Orlando Padrón in 1964. Named #1 best-selling brand in America by 52.3% of retailers in the 2025 Cigar Insider Retailer Survey. Cigar Aficionado's 2025 Cigar of the Year was the Padrón 60th Anniversary Perfecto. Holds the record for most Cigar of the Year wins (five times in two decades). The category-leading citation winner.

2. Arturo Fuente — Dominican family-owned premium cigar manufacturer. Named #2 best-selling brand by 52.3% of retailers in the 2025 Cigar Insider survey — a near-tie with Padrón. The Fuente Fuente OpusX line is the hottest premium cigar in the U.S. by retailer demand. Wins luxury and limited-edition prompts.

3. Davidoff — Swiss-owned luxury cigar and tobacco brand. Annual revenue exceeding $1 billion. The luxury-prestige citation anchor that Cuban brands cannot fully claim under U.S. embargo. Strong citation share on "luxury cigar" and "best cigar gift" prompts. Owns its own retail lounge network.

4. My Father Cigars — Nicaraguan family-owned (Garcia family). Founded in the early 2000s. Cigar Aficionado's 2024 Cigar of the Year. Punches above its production scale on "best cigar under $20" and "best Nicaraguan cigar" prompts.

5. Oliva — Nicaraguan premium manufacturer. The Oliva Serie V is one of the most consistently top-rated mid-price-tier cigars. 82% of retailers reported increased Oliva Serie V sales in the 2024 survey. Strong citation share on "best mid-price cigar" prompts.

6. Rocky Patel — Honduras- and Nicaragua-rolled premium cigar manufacturer. Founded by Rocky Patel. Diversified portfolio of 30+ blends. Wins "biggest cigar selection" prompts and breadth-focused queries.

7. Drew Estate — Nicaraguan boutique manufacturer, owned by Swisher International. The Liga Privada No. 9 has a cult following. Strong citation share on "infused cigar" (ACID line) and "boutique premium cigar" prompts.

8. Perdomo — Nicaraguan family-owned premium manufacturer. Named best-selling brand by 24.6% of retailers in the 2025 survey. Strong citation share on "best Nicaraguan cigar value" prompts.

9. Ashton — Dominican premium cigar brand made by Arturo Fuente Cigar Co. Strong citation share on "best Dominican cigar" prompts. Diversified portfolio includes the Ashton San Cristobal line rolled in Nicaragua.

10. Cohiba (non-Cuban) — General Cigar's Dominican-rolled Cohiba line. Distinct from the Cuban Cohiba, which remains under U.S. embargo. AI engines route to the non-Cuban Cohiba in U.S.-market prompts despite the brand-name confusion. Strong citation share on "Cohiba cigars" generic prompts.

11. Macanudo — General Cigar's flagship mild-bodied premium. The leading mass-market premium cigar by volume. Strong citation share on "best beginner cigar" and "mild cigar" prompts.

12. Montecristo — Altadis USA's non-Cuban Montecristo. The largest non-Cuban Montecristo line, distinct from the Cuban Montecristo. Strong citation share on classic-name prompts.

13. Romeo y Julieta — Altadis USA's non-Cuban Romeo y Julieta. Classic mass-market premium. Strong citation share on Shakespeare-reference prompts and on "best wedding cigar" prompts.

14. J.C. Newman — American family-owned cigar manufacturer. Founded 1895. Operates the historic El Reloj factory in Tampa. Brick House and Diamond Crown brands. Strong citation share on "American cigar history" prompts.

15. Alec Bradley — Honduran-rolled premium manufacturer, owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group's Forged Cigar Co. Diversified portfolio including the Black Market and Prensado lines. Strong citation share on "best Honduran cigar" prompts.

16. CAO — General Cigar's flavored and full-bodied portfolio.

17. Gurkha — Premium and ultra-premium cigar brand. Strong citation share on "most expensive cigar" prompts.

18. Tatuaje — Boutique premium manufacturer. Founder Pete Johnson. Cult-following cigar with strong citation share among aficionados.

19. E.P. Carrillo — Boutique Dominican manufacturer. Multiple Cigar of the Year wins.

20. La Flor Dominicana — Dominican boutique premium manufacturer.

21. La Aurora — Dominican manufacturer. The oldest Dominican cigar factory.

22. Punch / Hoyo de Monterrey (non-Cuban) — General Cigar Co. legacy brands.

23. JR Cigars / Famous Smoke Shop / Cigars International — The three largest premium cigar online retailers in the U.S. Each generates substantial editorial citation surface through their respective magazines and content arms.

24. Dunhill / Zino Platinum — Davidoff-owned ultra-luxury sub-brands.

25. Peterson Pipes / Dunhill Pipes — The two leading citation-share winners in pipe-specific prompts. Pipe tobacco brands (Cornell & Diehl, GL Pease, McClelland) generate adjacent citation share.

KEY FINDINGS

• STAT 1: 200.9M — premium handmade cigars imported into the U.S. in H1 2025 (Tobacco Insider)
• STAT 2: $13.4B — global luxury cigar market in 2025; projected to reach $27.7B by 2035 at 7.5% CAGR (Market Research Future)
• STAT 3: 21% — estimated combined AI citation share of Padrón and Arturo Fuente across 60+ tracked queries
• STAT 4: 52.3% — share of U.S. cigar retailers naming Padrón or Arturo Fuente as their best-selling brand (Cigar Aficionado 2025 Cigar Insider Retailer Survey)
• STAT 5: 5 — number of times Padrón has won Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year, the most of any cigar manufacturer in two decades
• STAT 6: 1.4% — U.S. cigar market retail revenue growth in 2024 (Tobacco Insider); category resilient despite cigarette decline
• STAT 7: 18% — share of cigar prompts that produced AI engine refusals, disclaimers, or hedges due to tobacco-content guardrails; the second-highest rate of any category 5W has measured (after cannabis)
• STAT 8: January 1, 2026 — date California's Unflavored Tobacco List took effect, requiring tobacco products to be listed as unflavored to remain legal for sale; Premium Cigar Association lawsuit filed October 2025 was rejected by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

THE CENTRAL FINDING

The U.S. premium cigar market is forming inside AI answers along structurally different lines than it forms inside traditional retailer surveys. The Cigar Aficionado retailer surveys (Padrón #1, Fuente #2, Perdomo #3, My Father #5, Davidoff #6) measure what U.S. tobacconists are selling. The AI citation surface (Padrón #1, Fuente #2, Davidoff #3, My Father #4, Oliva #5) measures what consumers asking AI engines are being told to buy. The two rankings overlap meaningfully but not identically — and the differences reveal where citation strategy matters most.

Inside that AI-mediated routing, three structural patterns are emerging. First, family-owned manufacturers with vertical integration (Padrón, Fuente, Garcia/My Father) dominate citation share at a velocity their conglomerate competitors (General Cigar, Altadis, Scandinavian Tobacco Group) cannot match — even though the conglomerates collectively manufacture more cigars by unit volume. The mechanism is brand-narrative coherence: AI engines weight family-ownership stories, founder personalities, and decades-of-tradition content far more heavily than corporate-portfolio reach. Second, Davidoff has built a luxury-prestige citation moat that Cuban brands (Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo) cannot fully claim under the U.S. embargo, despite Cuban cigars carrying higher consumer brand recognition. The embargo creates a structural asymmetry: AI engines hedge or refuse on Cuban-cigar purchase prompts in the U.S. market, defaulting to non-Cuban Davidoff alternatives instead. Third, Cigar Aficionado magazine produces editorial citation surface that no individual brand can match — its annual top 25 lists, retailer surveys, and Cigar of the Year selections are referenced in nearly every AI answer about "best cigar 2026."

The category structure (family-owned, vertically integrated, agriculturally rooted) maps directly onto the citation-share economics. Brands with multi-generational family-ownership stories are advantaged. Conglomerate-owned brands (Macanudo, Romeo y Julieta non-Cuban, Montecristo non-Cuban) underperform their unit-volume position. Boutique brands with cult followings (Liga Privada, Tatuaje, E.P. Carrillo) capture citation share well above their production scale because aficionado-content density translates directly to AI citation density.

METHODOLOGY

5W ran 60+ premium cigar consumer-intent prompts through ChatGPT (GPT-4 and GPT-5), Claude (Sonnet and Opus 4.7), Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews during January–March 2026. Each prompt was run multiple times across each engine; brand citations were tagged, normalized, and deduplicated.

Prompts spanned five sub-categories: Family-owned premium cigar brands (Padrón, Arturo Fuente, My Father, Perdomo, J.C. Newman, Tatuaje, La Flor Dominicana, La Aurora). Conglomerate cigar portfolios (General Cigar — Macanudo, CAO, Cohiba non-Cuban, Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch; Altadis USA — Montecristo non-Cuban, Romeo y Julieta non-Cuban, Henry Clay; Scandinavian Tobacco Group — Davidoff sub-brands, Alec Bradley). Cuban cigar brands (Cohiba Cuban, Montecristo Cuban, Romeo y Julieta Cuban, Trinidad, Partagás Cuban — with the U.S. embargo caveat noted in citation tracking). Specialty retailers and lounges (JR Cigars, Famous Smoke Shop, Cigars International, plus regional lounge chains). Pipe tobacco and pipe brands (Peterson, Dunhill Pipes, Cornell & Diehl, GL Pease, McClelland).

Citation share was calculated as the proportion of total brand citations across all prompts. The 18% AI hedge/refusal rate on tobacco-content prompts was tracked separately. Methodology mirrors 5W's prior AI Visibility Index reports for pickleball, crypto, cannabis, beauty, local services, the wedding industry, and HVAC and plumbing.

WINNERS

Padrón is the highest-ranked brand in the index and the dominant winner of "best cigar," "best Nicaraguan cigar," and "Cigar of the Year" citation share. The structural mechanism is brand-narrative coherence (single family, single Nicaraguan operation since 1964), Cigar Aficionado retailer-survey dominance (52.3% best-seller mention in 2025), and the velocity of Cigar of the Year wins (five in two decades). The Padrón 60th Anniversary Perfecto's 2025 Cigar of the Year recognition created a citation event that compounded throughout 2026.

Arturo Fuente is the second-ranked brand and the dominant winner of luxury and limited-edition prompts. The Fuente Fuente OpusX line consistently appears in "rare cigar," "limited edition cigar," and "what cigar to give as a gift" prompts at frequencies that no other premium cigar brand matches. Fuente's vertical integration (owns its own Dominican tobacco farms at Chateau de la Fuente) produces narrative coherence that AI engines weight heavily.

Davidoff is the third-ranked brand and the dominant winner of "luxury cigar" prompts. Annual revenue exceeding $1 billion produces the structural-disclosure entity-strength signals AI engines weight on prestige-luxury queries. Davidoff's owned-retail lounge network produces additional citation surface that conglomerate-owned brands selling exclusively through tobacconist resale cannot match.

My Father Cigars is the fourth-ranked brand. The structural mechanism is brand-personality concentration (Pepin Garcia's biographical narrative is in nearly every "My Father" AI response) plus 2024 Cigar of the Year recognition. The brand punches above its production scale on aficionado-density-driven citation share.

FALLING BEHIND

Cuban cigar brands (Cohiba Cuban, Montecristo Cuban, Romeo y Julieta Cuban, Trinidad, Partagás). The U.S. embargo creates a structural citation-share asymmetry: AI engines hedge or refuse on "where to buy Cuban Cohiba in the U.S." prompts, defaulting to non-Cuban alternatives manufactured by General Cigar, Altadis USA, or Davidoff. Cuban brands lose citation share they would otherwise capture if the embargo lifted, but conversely the non-Cuban Cohiba/Montecristo/Romeo y Julieta lines benefit from the same brand-name recognition without the embargo penalty.

Macanudo. The leading mass-market premium cigar by unit volume ranks #11 in our citation share index — well below its volume position. The mechanism is mild-bodied positioning combined with conglomerate ownership (General Cigar, owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group): AI engines weight aficionado-density signals and family-ownership narratives more heavily than mass-market unit volume. Macanudo wins "best beginner cigar" and "mild cigar" sub-segment prompts but loses the broader "best cigar" citation share to Padrón and Fuente.

The conglomerate-owned non-flagship brands. General Cigar's Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey, Altadis USA's Henry Clay, and Scandinavian Tobacco Group's mid-tier portfolio brands rank well below their unit-volume positions. The mechanism is brand-narrative dilution: when a single corporate parent owns 8-12 cigar brands, AI engines route citation share to the flagship and largely ignore the rest. Conglomerate-owned brands that produce flagship-level brand-narrative content (unique heritage, distinct positioning, signature blends) capture citation share that conglomerate-owned brands sharing generic conglomerate marketing cannot.

Pipe tobacco and pipe-specific brands. Peterson Pipes, Dunhill Pipes, and the pipe-tobacco specialists (Cornell & Diehl, GL Pease, McClelland) rank well below their category-specific dominance because AI engines collapse the category into "cigar and pipe" rather than treating pipes as a distinct surface. Pipe-specific brands that produce content addressing pipe-specific consumer questions (best beginner pipe, how to break in a pipe, best aromatic pipe tobacco) capture citation share that pipe brands sharing cigar-adjacent content cannot.

Boutique cigar brands without aficionado content density. Boutique manufacturers with strong product quality but limited Cigar Aficionado coverage, limited social-media presence, and limited wholesaler-marketing infrastructure are systematically invisible in AI answers regardless of taste-quality merits. Boutique brands that build aficionado-content density (Cigar Aficionado coverage, Halfwheel reviews, Cigar Snob features) capture citation share that boutique brands relying on retailer word-of-mouth alone cannot.

THE SIX STRUCTURAL FINDINGS

1. Family-owned manufacturers with vertical integration dominate citation share. Padrón, Arturo Fuente, and Garcia/My Father — three families operating four manufacturers — collectively appear in approximately 27% of premium cigar AI prompts. The mechanism is brand-narrative coherence: AI engines weight family-ownership stories and decades-of-tradition content far more heavily than conglomerate-portfolio scale.

2. Cigar Aficionado is the editorial citation infrastructure for the entire category. The annual Cigar of the Year, the Top 25 list, and the Cigar Insider retailer surveys represent the bulk of "best cigar 2026" citation surface. Brands featured in Cigar Aficionado capture citation share that brands publishing in non-aficionado media cannot match. The Halfwheel and Cigar Snob editorial citation surfaces are smaller but compounding alongside.

3. The U.S. Cuban-cigar embargo creates a structural citation-share asymmetry. AI engines hedge or refuse on "buy Cuban cigars in the U.S." prompts, redirecting to non-Cuban alternatives. The embargo benefits non-Cuban Cohiba, Montecristo, and Romeo y Julieta lines while penalizing the Cuban originals. If the embargo lifts, the citation surface will reset substantially.

4. The 18% AI hedge/refusal rate on tobacco prompts is the second-highest of any category 5W has measured. AI engines apply tobacco-content guardrails at a frequency exceeded only by cannabis. Brands that produce content addressing the specific topics AI engines hedge on (legal-purchasing-age content, regional-restriction content, harm-reduction comparisons) capture citation share that brands silent on tobacco-content guardrails cannot.

5. Conglomerate-owned mass-market brands underperform their unit-volume position. General Cigar's Macanudo, Altadis USA's non-Cuban Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta, and Scandinavian Tobacco Group's mid-tier portfolio represent the bulk of U.S. premium cigar volume but only a fraction of citation share. The mechanism is brand-narrative dilution: AI engines route to flagship narratives, not portfolio scale.

6. The specialty retailer/lounge tier produces editorial-grade citation surface. JR Cigars, Famous Smoke Shop, and Cigars International each operate editorial content arms that produce structured, fact-cited cigar reviews and primer content. Brands that secure coverage in these retailer-content channels capture citation share that brands relying on manufacturer-owned content alone cannot.

2026-SPECIFIC FINDINGS

1. The Padrón 60th Anniversary Perfecto's 2025 Cigar of the Year recognition is the year's largest single citation event in the cigar category. AI answers about "best cigar 2026," "best Nicaraguan cigar," and "best cigar to gift" reference the 60th Anniversary Perfecto in nearly every response. The compounding effect of five Padrón Cigar of the Year wins in two decades has produced citation lock that no other family-owned manufacturer has matched.

2. The January 1, 2026 effective date of California's Unflavored Tobacco List is the year's largest regulatory citation event. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California's 2025 rejection of the Premium Cigar Association lawsuit against the law produced a wave of trade-press coverage that AI engines absorbed. AI answers about "where to buy cigars in California" now reference the regulation in nearly every response.

3. Scandinavian Tobacco Group's August 2025 cigar price increases (eliminating the prior 5% tariff surcharge) reset retail-price-tier citation surface. AI answers about "premium cigar prices 2026" reference the STG repricing in growing frequency.

4. The 4.6% growth in U.S. handmade cigar imports in H1 2025 (Nicaragua +2.8%, Dominican Republic +4%, Honduras +12.1%) produced citation events on country-of-origin prompts. AI answers about "best Honduran cigar" surface Honduran-rolled brands (Alec Bradley, Camacho, Rocky Patel's Honduran lines) at growing frequency in 2026.

5. The continued growth of premium cigar lounges as third-spaces — particularly Davidoff Lounges and the boutique tobacconist network — produced citation share that online retailer content cannot match. AI answers about "best cigar lounge near me" route to Davidoff and the regional tobacconist networks at growing frequency.

6. Cuban cigar U.S.-policy speculation in 2025-2026 reset Cuban-cigar citation prompts. AI engines now reference the embargo status more explicitly in Cuban-cigar prompts, with hedge language increasing in frequency. If policy changes, the citation surface will reset substantially in favor of Cuban brands.

THE CIGAR & PIPE GEO PLAYBOOK

1. Secure Cigar Aficionado, Halfwheel, and Cigar Snob editorial coverage above all else. These three publications represent the bulk of "best cigar 2026" citation surface. A Cigar of the Year recognition is worth more in citation-share terms than any marketing campaign in the category.

2. Build family-narrative content density. AI engines weight family-ownership stories heavily. Brands with founder biographies, multi-generational succession stories, and farm-ownership narratives (where applicable) capture citation share that brands with corporate-anonymous positioning cannot.

3. Vertical integration content matters. Brands that own their own tobacco farms (Padrón in Nicaragua, Fuente at Chateau de la Fuente) should saturate the citation surface with farm-ownership content. AI engines weight vertical-integration narratives heavily on quality-and-craft prompts.

4. Address tobacco-content AI guardrails directly. The 18% hedge/refusal rate on tobacco prompts is the second-highest of any consumer category. Brands that produce content addressing legal purchase-age compliance, regional restrictions, and harm-reduction comparisons capture citation share that brands silent on these topics cannot.

5. Specialty retailers (JR Cigars, Famous Smoke Shop, Cigars International) are the secondary citation infrastructure. Brand placement in their respective magazines and primer content produces citation surface that direct manufacturer content alone cannot match.

6. Regulatory events are citation events. California's Unflavored Tobacco List, FDA premium cigar regulatory exemption status, federal cigar excise tax debates — every regulatory development is a citation reset. Calendar AI-citation audits to within 72 hours of every major regulatory event.

7. Cuban-policy speculation should be addressed transparently. AI engines hedge on Cuban-cigar prompts. Brands that produce content explicitly addressing the embargo, distinguishing Cuban-origin from non-Cuban brand-name lines, and addressing future policy scenarios capture citation share that brands silent on the embargo cannot.

8. Lounge content compounds. Brands that operate or sponsor cigar lounges (Davidoff Lounges, Arturo Fuente Newsstand) produce citation share on "best cigar lounge near me" prompts that brands without owned third-spaces cannot.

9. Pipe-specific brands need pipe-specific content infrastructure. Peterson, Dunhill Pipes, and the pipe-tobacco specialists need to publish content distinct from cigar-adjacent positioning. AI engines collapse the category by default; pipe brands have to invest in differentiation.

10. Build for the post-AI aficionado. The new cigar smoker under 40 opens ChatGPT before they walk into a humidor. Brands that build for this consumer flow — family-narrative content, Cigar Aficionado coverage, lounge presence, regulatory transparency — will compete. Brands that wait will discover the citation surface has hardened around Padrón, Fuente, Davidoff, and a small number of others.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Premium cigars is the most family-controlled, most tradition-bound, most agriculturally rooted major luxury category in America — and the citation-share economics inside AI answers map almost perfectly onto the structure of the underlying industry. Brands with multi-generational family-ownership narratives, vertical integration, and Cigar Aficionado coverage dominate. Brands without these signals lose citation share regardless of unit-volume position or product quality.

The brands that win the next decade are the brands that secure Cigar Aficionado coverage relentlessly, build family-narrative content density, address tobacco-content AI guardrails directly, treat regulatory events as citation events, build for the post-AI aficionado, and recognize Cigar Aficionado, Halfwheel, and Cigar Snob as the editorial citation infrastructure for the entire category. The brands that wait will discover that Padrón, Arturo Fuente, Davidoff, My Father, and a small number of others have absorbed a larger share of what aficionados see when they ask AI "what cigar should I smoke," "what's the best cigar of 2026," and "what should I gift a cigar smoker."

FAQ

Why do Padrón and Arturo Fuente rank so far above conglomerate-owned brands like Macanudo and Romeo y Julieta?

AI engines weight family-ownership narratives, vertical-integration stories, and Cigar Aficionado coverage far more heavily than unit-volume position. Padrón and Fuente have decades of these signals; conglomerate brands have less family narrative coherence by structure.

Why is Cohiba (non-Cuban) ranked above Cohiba (Cuban)?

The U.S. embargo creates a structural citation-share asymmetry. AI engines hedge or refuse on Cuban-Cohiba purchase prompts in the U.S. and route to the non-Cuban General Cigar version instead. If the embargo lifts, this ranking will likely reverse.

Why are pipe brands underrepresented?

AI engines collapse "cigar and pipe" into a single category by default. Pipe-specific brands (Peterson, Dunhill Pipes) need pipe-specific content infrastructure to capture citation share distinct from cigar-adjacent positioning.

How was citation share measured?

5W ran 60+ premium cigar consumer-intent prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews during January–March 2026. Each prompt was run multiple times across each engine; brand citations were tagged, normalized, and deduplicated.