Cigar Review: Mederos Habano by Cubanacan

• Vitola: Fifty 1 (Robusto)
• 5” x 50 ring gauge
• Price ~$11.99
• Provided by Cubanacan

Background

Cubanacan weathered some controversy immediately before and during the 2015 IPCPR show, but the sales people worked through it and were able to successfully deal with line extensions and the re-launch of the Mederos brand. According to their press release, the Mederos brand has been around for about 5 years and Cubanacan is celebrating their 10th year in business. They wanted to make the Mederos brand more upscale visually, in keeping with its place in the overall line hierarchy. The blends stayed the same, but the bands and boxes were replaced with something that frankly looks as good as what they used on the Hr line, if not better.

Mederos is named for Robert Mederos, the owner of Cubanacan, and the line is available in Connecticut Shade and Oscuro wrapper varieties, as well as the Habano version I’ll be looking at today. The Habano version uses Nicaraguan fillers, and Ecuadorian binder and wrapper leaves.

I was given this sample for review purposes, I believe by a company rep, but I can’t remember for sure. I have had one previous sample while at the IPCPR show and I enjoyed it; this sample did not come from there.

Prelight

As referenced above, I think this band is better looking than what they did for the Hr that debuted last year. It uses a dark, rich brown primary color with plenty of olive green and red accents and lots of both metallic gold ink and gold foil, as well as embossing. And it’s done on a rich, highly textured paper stock that looks high-end. Some may scoff at this, but I still think it’s important for a cigar that starts north of the $10 mark to look the part. It may not improve the blend, but it will improve people’s first impressions and the likelihood that they will pick it up in the first place.

The wrapper under the band was milk chocolate in color, with some darker mottling and a very nice oily sheen. I got notes of barnyard and leather when I sniffed it, with more barnyard on the foot. I clipped the head with my Xikar Xi and got a very good draw and notes of leather, oak, and earth.

Flavor

The Mederos Habano lit up easily and evenly. Initial flavors were largely of earth and pepper spice, with some black coffee and subtle dark fruit notes creeping up behind that. Subsequent puffing filled in some blanks with notes of wood and citrus on the palate, along with more wood, roasted nuts and red pepper on the nose. All this was wrapped up in an oily, medium-to-full bodied smoke.

As I got into the second third, I got more grassy, light citrus notes from the Mederos Habano, and those became the dominant flavors, with earth and coffee backing them up. The pepper spice was all but absent on the palate by this point and only a touch of it was still burning my nose.

The last third of the Mederos Habano had a resurgence of cedar flavors mixing nicely with the citrus notes, while the earth and coffee notes faded further back in the blend.

Construction

I got a great draw, very even burn line and solid ash from this stick.

Value

The price is a little steep for this line, but it is a very good smoking experience, so I’m going to call it “worth it…but just barely.”

Conclusions

The Mederos Habano is indeed a very fine cigar with a solid medium-to-full body and a very pleasing complexity. It is a little pricey, but still maintains its value, which is something I could never quite say about the Hr. With that blend looking to be either moving to a different company (if you believe what Hirochi Robaina and La Palina have to say on the matter) or more likely discontinued in the next year or two (if Cubanacan retains control, I honestly don’t see them extending or maintaining it long term) this will be the new top of the line cigar from Cubanacan. It does a better job than the Hr did in that task. I’m looking forward to trying out the Connecticut and Oscuro versions at some point.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10