Originally published on Tiki Bar Online
Robusto, 4.875” x 50 ring gauge / MSPR ~$6
First things first…this company is not named after a Panamanian boxer. I first heard of Roberto Pelayo Duran and the Roberto Duran Premium Cigar company in July of this year. They sent out an email announcement of their upcoming product debuts at the IPCPR show. A bit later I was contacted again about possibly reviewing some of the cigars and, as always, I said, “Yes.” I received one each of Azan White Premium and Burgundy Lines and set them aside to rest from the road for a bit before I started this review. Azan is a bit of an anomaly. These days a lot of people are trying to resurrect old Cuban brands, but this particular brand was a bit obscure, though it’s definitely an interesting story. It goes like this (from the website):
1870 – Kwan Ben Sen and his two brothers migrate from China to Havana, Cuba, to eventually settle in Manicaragua, the center of Cuba.
1928 – Kwan adopts the Cuban name: Domingo Azan and he is soon known by Cubans as the ‘Chinese from Manicaragua’. Together with his sons and nephews he starts to produce hand made cigars. The cigars become very well known in the region, using long filler tobacco leaves from Hoyo de Manicaragua, which is considered one of the top tobacco region in Cuba.
1938 – Luck is on Mr Azan’s side, he wins the national lottery. He invests the money into building a state-of-the-art cigarette factory. It soon becomes the main source of local employment and the biggest infrastructure in the region. The factory’s high quality products conquer the region rapidly.
So, this is the only Cuban brand with Chinese roots, now being produced in Estelí, Nicaragua…a very intriguing blend indeed!
The White Premium Line is Azan’s flagship line, using long fillers selected from the Jalapa and Estelí regions of Nicaragua, as well as a special leaf from Matafina, Brazil; a Nicaraguan binder; and a grade 5 to 6 Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper. I will admit that reading their marketing materials on their website makes me want to hurry up and smoke this cigar!
The Azan White Premium band is (as expected) primarily white, with thin, mostly cursive lettering in metallic gold ink and some other lettering and art in a secondary color, which is hard to identify because of the thinness of the lines…it may be burgundy, it may be brown. There is a bit of embossing, although if you look closely you can tell the printer didn’t quite line up the emboss with the printed lines…I know from experience, make the lines too thin and a dead-on strike with the embossing plate is very, very difficult. Still, overall the band looks nice and has a feel of “relaxed and casual elegance.” The wrapper leaf was a dark tan color with some hint of a reddish hue, but nothing overt. It did not look oily at all, but when I touched it, I could feel some oiliness. The smell from it was rich earth and natural tobacco; the foot was sweeter, with a subtle fruit aroma, as well as quite earthy. The cold draw had a great taste of sweet tobacco with subtle wood and floral notes.
After lighting, the Azan White Premium started off with an explosion of red pepper spiciness on the palate and the nose. I also got a strong cedar component on the tongue as well as notes of earth and sweet dried fruit. During the first third I noticed a hollow spot in the bunch, which knocked the flavor into the “off” category for a while, but after I got past that, it corrected itself and turned more earthy and woody, while the sweetness became more subtle. The spice died down a bit on the palate…more of a background burn.
In the second third, cedar and floral flavors came on strong and the sweetness bounced back a bit. After the hollow spot in the first third, the construction was very good; I had a perfect draw, strong ash, and the burn line was fairly even, just needing a minor touch up every 7 to 10 minutes.
The final third was strongly cedary with some sweetness to balance it and more pepper on the nose, both very typical of Corojo wrappers in my experience. For me, the cedar flavor was too much; I like some, but not this much. But if it sounds like something that appeals to your flavor preferences, you should definitely give the Azan White Premium a try. The construction was good and the price was very good, so it’s an easy cigar to recommend for those who like this particular flavor combination. Body was medium-plus as was the strength.
Body: 6/10
Strength: 6/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
