Gran Habano Blue in green Gran Robusto

At the end of 2018, Gran Habano released a new line of cigars that looked very similar to the Johnny Walker Blue Label.

This line, Gran Habano Blue in Green, was marketed not as a cigar to smoke alongside a finger or two of Johnny Walker, but as a new age Connecticut. There was a time when a lighter wrapper color almost always meant a very mild filler blend, but in the early 2010s that began to change. Instead of taking lighter wrappers and combining them with some of the most unobtrusive and low nicotine fillers, cigar makers began combining the Connecticut seed wrappers with more medium-strength tobaccos.

While I don’t remember most of the cigars I smoked five years ago, I do remember the Gran Habano Blue in Green Gran Robusto as it is one of the best cigars I have smoked in the last five years. Here’s what I said when I first reviewed it:

The first candidate for “most enjoyable cigar of the year” is the Gran Habano Blue in Green. Taste-wise, it’s probably not the best cigar I’ve smoked this year, but all things considered, it’s the clear winner. It seems pretty rare these days that we can take three cigars, smoke them, and never have to worry about construction issues, but the Gran Habano Blue in Green was that exception. Well made, well balanced, and with decent flavor, I would recommend this cigar more than the rating necessarily suggests.

• Rated cigar: Gran Habano Blue in green Gran Robusto
• Country of origin: Honduras
• Factory: GR Tabacaleras Unidas SA
• Packaging: USA (Connecticut seeds)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 inch
• Ring size: 54
• Form: Round
• RRP: $9.50 (boxes of 20, $190)
• Release date: October 2018
• Number of cigars released: Regular production
• Number of cigars smoked for Redux:

This is an incredibly majestic appearance. With the bright colors, cedar wrapper, and clear printing, it looks like a cigar that will cost a lot, even though I remember it wasn’t a situation where you had to spend a fortune. While the cellophane wrapper comes off easily enough, the cedar wrapper gets stuck about two inches from being completely removed from the cigar. Thankfully, with a little more of a firm pull, it comes off the cigar without damaging the wrapper or even the cedar itself. I’m greeted by a very rich, bright, mustard-colored wrapper that has plenty of oils and not a lot of veining. While this might not be my first choice for a wrapper based on flavor, it’s as pretty as any. The wrapper’s aroma is medium-strong with faint hints of sweet and fruity cedar, but not much else. The foot is almost full with scents of chocolate syrup and some plum-like sweetness. The cold draws are medium full with plenty of orange sweetness and sourness, paired with cocoa and salty nut notes, the draw is also slightly open.

The Gran Habano Blue in Green Gran Robusto has a slightly open draw on the first hit, which limits the amount of smoke I can produce. Flavor-wise, it’s a very smooth and rich wood flavor with some cold, milky creaminess. This one-two punch remains for most of the first third, though the profile gets a bit drier than I’d like. Nuttiness, rye bread, and black pepper join the mix. Hits end up more earthy than nutty, though creaminess and black pepper are also present. Retrohales are mostly a remixed version of the flavor list you’ve read so far, though some leather and dry popcorn are present. Flavor is full, body medium-plus, and strength medium, though those descriptions don’t remotely capture the whole story. The more appropriate descriptions are rich, smooth, and electric. Much like a well-seasoned, freshly ripened tomato can taste electrifying this time of year, the flavors of the Gran Habano interact with my taste buds in a way that few cigars ever can. Even though there aren’t that many flavors, and even though the flavors aren’t the most interesting, what I taste explodes on the palate in the best possible way. No doubt this contributes in part to how cool the cigar burns, the cherry on top of its excellent craftsmanship.

While the nuttiness and creaminess are still very present, the dry bread flavors increase in intensity most noticeably between the first and second thirds. Moist earthiness, leather, and black pepper are also regularly present, though not on the finish, which remains very similar to the first third. In the final third, the nuttiness isolates itself a bit more, a reminder that while this is an excellent cigar, it may not be the most harmonious in terms of spatial positioning on the palate. In this case, the nuttiness is increasingly found in places where I can’t taste other parts of the profile. The cedar flavor becomes more pronounced and has a juicy component that wasn’t there before, though I never get the fruitier aspects that I found before lighting the cigar. Retroahles have a more traditional citrus flavor, with both sweetness and tartness, though it’s still largely about the creaminess and nuttiness. In both the second and last thirds, I find the finish of the retrohale to be the grainiest part of the otherwise remarkably smooth profile. The flavor is full, the body medium-full, and the strength medium. The production was excellent from start to finish.

Charlie Minato

I’m the editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I was previously the co-founder and editor of TheCigarFeed, one of halfwheel’s two predecessors. I’ve been writing about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to mergers and acquisitions. I also handle a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing matches, falling asleep at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, wearing sweatshirts year-round, and eating gyros. Real love.