Gran Habano Cabinet Selecton

I picked this cigar up last week in Philadelphia and it was the first time I saw them in a B&M. I have seen them on-line, and I guess because of that most people do not carry them. However with Pennsylvania currently having no cigar tax they can get away with cigars that are usually a catalog brand. Twin Shoppe is a great smoke shop on 10th and Tasker in the City of Brotherly Love and the smokers haven that I found these sticks. I suggest you check them out, and they are only a few blocks away from Gino’s or Pat’s which have the best cheese steaks in the city.

Cigar: Gran Habano Cabinet Selection
Origin: Honduras
Size: 5 x 52 (Robusto)
Wrapper: Nicarauga Corojo
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua

Appearance & Construction (16/20): A slightly box pressed cigar with a red and silver band that bleeds and lacks definition which gives the cigar an appearance of being  factory second. The wrapper is a gorgeous looking corojo wrapper and if you remove the band it would look like a Punch Rare Corojo Rothchilde. The wrapper has virtually no bands and the flaw on roll lies at the cap where it is a sloppy cap giving the look of a double cap on one side, and a triple cap on another. The cigar is well packed and has a nice weight to it.

Flavor & Notes (28/30): The prelight of this cigar was very interesting as it has notes which I can best describe as a caraway seed. If you ever had rye bread with seeds, the caraway seed is used in rye bread.  The initial light reveals some really nice flavors and as we work the first third of this delightful the cigar the notes of white pepper through the nose and caraway and some subtle leather on the palate. The second third of the smoke some nice floral notes replace the caraway with some cinnamon notes and the occasional wisp of toffee along for the ride.  The final third the toffee notes remain and the hints of leather creep back in to finish the very enjoyable smoke.

Burn/Ash/Draw (21/25): The draw on this cigar rates right up there with some of the best I ever had in terms of a box press. The burn line is straight for the most part until the midway point where it began to burn very jagged. but the ash while being a very light gray was extremely flaky and would not hold on at well. My sweater was full of flake from the ash, and the floor had a nice pile of ashes.

Overall (20/25): Is this a cigar worthy of a 7.50 plus price tag a stick, probably not. Is it a good cigar, yes it is. The one problem I have with the Rico family is their prices on a lot of cigars and that issue continues with this cigar. It has a nice flavor profile, and a decent construction but it should be no more then a 6.50 stick at most. Because of the price I had to take off a significant amount of points on this stick. If you don’t mint paying a premium price for a mild stick then by all means go for it. If you like a corojo wrapper with a little bit of a kick, stick with the Punch Rare Corojo and save some money.

Rating: 85
Price: $148.99 at Famous-Smoke