Gran Habano Azteca

Smoked: Gran Habano Azteca

Smoked at: Wetherington, Ohio

I have never been a big fan of Gran Habano, but I found one with some interesting tobacco that piqued my curousity. Gran Habano Azteca is made of Nicaraguan & Panamanian filler (interesting already), a Mexican San Andres Maduro binder, and a dark oily Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper with some decent sized veins. Not one drop of Dominican in the recipe. (More interesting.) And tobacco from Panama? A first for my palate. (Most interesting.) I believe this vitola is the Jaguar.

The band is huge, a muted olive color with an Aztec calendar centered around an olive green and gold Gran Habano name/logo and the word “Azteca/”

Cedar, earth, mild spice, roasted almonds, cocoa/chocolate, and well-aged tobacco notes. By the second third, more pepper breaks through the spice profile along with coffee, leather and a touch of honey and citrus. The wood notes change more toward oak or hickory. This is a full-bodied, medium-full strength cigar.

Nice open draw, fairly even burn line, speckled, mostly whitish grey ash that held well, and enough smoke output to blind your view a foot in front of you – I like that in a cigar.

There was nothing noticeably distinctive about the Panamamiam tobacco in this stick, although I must say this is a surprisingly good cigar from a brand I have considered low end, budget. Gran Habano invested time and effort well in crafting the Azteca. I had heard good things about this cigar. I was not disappointed.

The New Riff High Note is a well-crafted rye - runs rather hot, quite a bit of burn, but a good Kentucky Rye.