Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 52 ring gauge
- ~$8.00
- Samples provided by Gran Habano
Background
A couple months back, Natasha Rico from Gran Habano asked me what cigars I would like to try for review. One of the ones I asked for was the Barracuda Maduro, but at the time she said it was not a “current release” so it probably wouldn’t be possible. I got some other sticks from them for review, but Natasha didn’t forget…a while later she was looking to send me a few other things and found some Barracuda Maduros stashed away. So now I get to try it out.
The S.T.K. (“Stay True Kid”…a sort of sub-brand in the Gran Habano company) Barracuda was a limited production cigar that debuted in 2012; the Maduro version came out in 2014. According to the notes I was sent, the Barracuda Maduro uses rare Esteli and Jalapa ligero fillers, a Nicaraguan Jalapa binder, and a Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. It was made in Miami.
I checked a few places online and couldn’t find anywhere with them in stock. This was, after all, a limited production cigar 4 years ago, so while I’m sure there are some out there somewhere…good luck. Gran Habano sent me two samples of this; this review is based on smoking the second.
Prelight
The main band has a teal background the color of the ocean around south Florida…well, at least the color you would imagine the ocean around south Florida would be. Using the name of a predatory fish that lives off the coast helps. The lettering is in black with silver foil highlights. The secondary band declares this to be a “Maduro Limitado 2013.”
The wrapper leaf was relatively light for a Maduro, a little lighter than milk chocolate overall with some darker mottling in some places. It had a smooth, slightly oily feel to it and the aroma from it had a little bit of cocoa powder and coffee overlaying earthiness. The foot of the cigar had a prevalent cedar aroma, along with more earth.
After clipping, I got a good draw that was just slightly tight. I tasted a faint honey sweetness along with floral and earthy notes.
Flavor
The Barracuda Maduro started off fairly mild with plenty of wood and floral notes up front. After a few minutes, the body bumped up to more of a medium place and there was a good amount of pepper spice, especially on the retrohale. The Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper provided a rather weak sweetness…nothing really like the Connecticut-grown version has.
As I got into the second third, the medium-bodied smoke produced more wood notes, including some cinnamon and cedar. The floral notes backed off some, while earth and coffee bean made an appearance. There was still just a light sweetness, but the pepper spice continued nicely.
Getting into the final third of the Barracuda Maduro, the sweeter notes finally started to pop a little more, with some dried fruit and cocoa powder mixing with the pepper spice. The wood notes were straight-up cinnamon at this point and the more floral aspects were fainter, but definitely still there.
Construction
I had a slightly tight draw, but nothing near unsmokeable. The burn line was very even and the ash was solid up to 3/4 of an inch.
Value
The price tag on these was very reasonable, especially for a limited production stick made in Miami.
Conclusions
The Barracuda Maduro by Gran Habano was a slow-burn…not literally, so much as it just started off quite mild and with flavors that were odd for a Nicaraguan blend. It showed a pretty amazing amount of complexity, changing over the course of the entire cigar into something medium-to-full in body and quite full-flavored, but I ended up wishing that more of the cigar was like the last third. It made me wonder if the fairly extensive aging this cigar underwent ended up sapping much of the strength from it. Still, if you see them, I would say to pick up a couple just to give it a try.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
