Gran Habano #3 Robusto

Gran Habano Cigars is a cigar company that often flies under the radar of many cigar enthusiasts.  Many have heard of Gran Habano because they were famous for crafting the world’s largest cigar.  Gran Habano is a company  that is a fourth generation cigar maker run by Guillermo Rico and his son George.   I have not paid enough attention to what Gran Habano has been doing,  Earlier this year, I reviewed the Azteca – a most unique cigar that has a terrific mix of Panamanian and Mexican tobaccos.  Upon that experience, I was pretty excited about sampling some more cigars in the line.   This time around, I opted to go with an older cigar in their line – the Gran Habano #3.   Once again, I found a nice surprise.

First up, let’s take a look at the composition of the blend of this cigar.  While not as radical as what the Azteca does, this cigar to present a unique blend – particularly in the filler which has Mexican and Costa Rican fillers.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan, Mexican, Costa Rica

The Gran Habano #3 has a wide variety of vitolas available, so there should be something for everyone:

Churchill 7 x 48
Pyramid 6 1/8 x 52
Gran Robusto 6 x 54
Gran Corona 6 x 44
Rothchild: 4 1/2 x 50
Robusto 5 x 52
Lunch Break 4 1/2 x 40
Imperiales 6 x 60

For this cigar experience, I opted for the Robusto.   I placed a straight cut into the beautiful cap, but before toasting this, I did perform a pre-light ritual.   I’m not big on pre-light flavor notes, but this one blew me away.  It had wonderful cocoa and coffee flavors.  While I don’t do a lot of pre-light draws, this one impressed me.

After toasting this cigar, I began the full cigar experience.    The initial notes were a healthy dose of pepper and salt.  No doubt the Nicaraguan tobaccos were hard at work as this is very typical.   In a lot of ways, the pepper blast was Pepin-like in nature.  I was surprised though, the pepper blast lasted longer than most I get.  Soon enough, I detected some chocolate and coffee notes on this cigar.  The pepper notes do diminish as the first third of the smoke is reached.    As the second third begins, I noticed citrus like flavors.  These citrus flavors were actually more lemon in nature.   At the same time, I could still feel pepper notes through my nose.   For the most part, there isn’t much change to the smoke moving forward as it holds like this for much of the remainder of the smoke.   The finish was terrific.  While the nub was more on the soft-side, it was not burning hot at all.

From a body and strength point of view, both were solid Medium to Full.   I’m wondering if the presence of the Costa Rican tobacco tones down the strength a bit.  For the flavors this cigar produced, I loved the balance of strength I got from the tobacco.

From a burn standpoint, a few touch-ups were needed.  The Robusto did not burn quickly and it did not burn hot.  The draw gave me no issues either.

Overall, I would have loved a little more complexity in the smoke from this particular cigar, but this cigar surprised me.  It brought something different to the table – particularly with the citrus notes balanced with some of the strength of the tobacco.  The price is right too – about $5.00 – $6.00 suggested retail price for a cigar.  I definitely would reach for this cigar again.

Burn: Good
Draw: Good
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Assessment: Nice to Have