A few months ago, Todd Pribanic, the head of Croatian Mafia Cigars called me up and said he was working on a cigar to celebrate Croatia’s place in the FIFA World Cup tournament. The Champion’s Edition 2026 would be a unique blend for the company and he needed graphics for it. He had come up with some ideas using AI engines, but needed everything finalized…so that’s where I came in. I ended up designing the box and band artwork, as well as setting up the page on his website where you can buy these cigars. A week before the World Cup final game (and long after Croatia had been eliminated, unfortunately), I got a couple samples of this cigar and decided to keep one to smoke on the day of the final game for this review.
The CMC Champions Edition 2026 is a Nicaraguan puro, using a Nicaraguan shade-grown claro wrapper, Corojo binder, and fillers from Jalapa. As if to emphasize that shade in one country is not the same as shade in another, the wrapper on this was a dark tan color and it did have a nice oiliness. The aroma from it, though, was not unlike a Connecticut Shade with sweet hay and lightly earthy notes. The foot of the cigar had notes of earth and cedar, alongside more floral and even popcorn notes.
The cold draw was very easy and tasted mostly of those same floral notes I got on the aromas from the foot of the cigar. It’s been said that if you want a cigar that appeals to the majority of people, make it mild, or at the most medium in body. From the beginning that seems to be what we have here…something in the mild-to-medium-bodied range. I picked up buttery popcorn, sweet hay, light cedar and earth, and bright citrusy notes on the first few puffs, along with the slightly amount of white pepper on the palate and a more pronounced amount of pepper on the nose.
As I burned through the Champions Edition, I got a consistent mix of grassiness, cedar, lemongrass, and white pepper. Because of my work with Croatian Mafia Cigars, I have had the opportunity to try pretty much everything they’ve done so far and this is, in my opinion, the best blend they have put together so far. Excellent job…get them while you can as this is a limited run.
