The Vancouver Cigar Company has produced a straight forward (and more importantly free) e-book called Cohiba 101 (Cohiba 101 Download). I downloaded it tonight and gave it a bit of a look over and was surprised about two things: #1) It was relatively pitch free (just good information) #2) I learned a couple of things about the Cohiba. Also it seems that they actually used some of my reviews that I sent them (Bonus!).
This 101 e-book thing would have been great when I first started smoking cigars.
Cohiba Cigar Blog Entry By Shane
This is pulled from a cuban cigar blog post I found a while back but I think it illustrates how fanatical your average Cohiba lover can become. (Original Post from Vancouver Cigar Cuban Cigar Blog):
“I was sitting in the Vancouver Cigar Company watching a customer pore over the hundreds of Cuban cigars carried. It was a daunting task. He was looking for the perfect smoke for his boss.
The guy on the counter that day had reviewed about 30 cigars with our guest when one of our regular Cigar Club guys Gregg stood up (Gregs a big guy) and asked the customer:
‘Do you want a cigar or a memory? You can buy any of these Cuban cigars here and your boss will have a good smoke. But… how would you like to create a memory? Buy a couple Cohiba Sublimes and enjoy them with him, it will be a meeting he won’t forget.’
And that was it. The guy left with arguably one of the best cigars (or memories as Gregg calls them) available. Always a rich deep oily wrapper these cigars have a deep, full bodied flavor, on the stronger side but absolutely one of the smoothest most flavorful cigars you will ever experience.
I attended a cigar club reception recently hosted by the Vancouver Cigar Company. They had a few of these in stock and I have ordered them online from elsewhere but these were fresh out of the humidor. The Piramide also referred to as a torpedo is something new to Cohiba (last 3 years)
This is another great addition to the Cohiba family. This was a complex smoke. Rich and spicy, and noticeably consistent right until the end. These are a classic smoke, and meet up to the Cohiba brand. Like the Maduro 5 they are also great value per dollar overall.
I like an easy draw so that would have to be the only thing that I didn’t find totally satisfying about this one.
A month ago I arrived back from Cuba with a fresh box of Cohiba Maduros 5 – Genios. I swore I would lay the box down for another year or so put the box sort of taunted me each time I opened up my humidor locker.
I picked them up at the Partagas Factory. On my tour of the factory I watched one of the rollers make a Genios. The leaf looked extra dark. I assumed because it was from higher up in the plant. I was then corrected, the leaf is from further up the plant but that’s just the start.
This Cohiba leaf has also been aged 5 years minimum before it is made into a cigar. In addition to this unlike many other maduros the wrapper isn’t the only part of the cigar that is aged. Cohiba has elected to use several aged leaves along with the standard Cohiba tobacco.
A lot of these boxes have already been laid down for a couple years so the thought of leaving my box any longer didn’t seem to make any sense. I GLAD I BROKE THE SEAL. Needless to say this is now favorite Cohiba (next to the Sublime of course). I do of course reserve the right to change my mind at a later date.
The construction is amazing (I know because I have now smoked 8 this month). The draw is perfect, not too tight but wrapped well enough to control the burn. The flavor is surprisingly smooth yet the cigar is strong like a vintage 1980’s era Cuban cigar I once smoked.