Cigar Review: Corojo No. 5 Maduro by Gran Habano

• Vitola: Gran Toro
• 6” x 54 ring gauge
• MSRP $6.50
• Samples provided by Manufacturer

Background

The Gran Habano cigars that I (and I suspect, many of you) remember the most are the old “#”ed blends that all share the same primary band, but have differentiated secondary bands. They sell tons of these through online and deep-discount retailers, so almost everyone has probably gotten a few of these through the years. There’s the Habano #3, Connecticut #1, and Corojo #5. Why all these blends have these specific numbers, I don’t know…what happened to #2 and #4? Why, after all these years, is there no #6? These are questions we may never know the answers to…but they did add some additional #5s to the catalog in recent years.

Today I’ll be looking at what is officially called (in the catalog) the “Corojo No. 5 Maduro” (I say that because the primary band reads “Corojo No. 5 | Gran Habano | Maduro” and the secondary band reads “Maduro No. 5 Limitado | 2011”). The Corojo No. 5 blend is reputed to be the strongest blend Gran Habano makes. This blend has Nicaraguan Jalapa and Costa Rican leaf in the filler, a Habano (probably Nicaraguan) binder, and a Nicaraguan Maduro (probably Corojo) wrapper. It does come in 5 different sizes, the smallest of which is a 52 ring gauge, and going up to a massive 66 ring monster.

Gran Habano sent me some samples of what I would call a “Gran Toro” at 54 ring gauge by 6 inches. I’ve smoked a couple of them before I got around to this review sample.

Prelight

The banding on this release is confusing at best…I won’t even mention (again) the whole “No. 5” thing and wonder what it is. I’m wondering now what the 2011 on the secondary band denotes. Is that the year the tobacco was harvested? Is that the year these were rolled? Is that the original year of release? Design-wise, I think they were shooting for “traditional” in the banding, but all I’m really getting is “uninteresting” from it. If I’m in a large and diverse walk-in humidor trying to select something, this cigar doesn’t really demand that I pay attention to it.

The wrapper leaf was dark chocolate brown with even darker mottling, especially along the veins. It had a slightly soft feel as I pinched the length of the cigar and the wrapper smelled like leather and anise. The foot had an even stronger anise aroma, along with touches of pungent earth.

The cold draw was very good, giving up mostly flavors of licorice, earth, and cocoa powder.

Flavor

Lighting up the Corojo No. 5 Maduro took a little doing with a single-flame torch, but I got it burning eventually. Not surprisingly, I got more anise flavors right off the bat (it seemed to be inundated with that flavor and aroma). Lesser notes of earth and black coffee were fairly recognizable in the mix, with cocoa powder and a dark fruit sweetness faintly making themselves known. The retrohale had cedar and red pepper notes that are pretty tightly tied to Corojo leaf, at least for me.

Despite the fairly large ring gauge, this stick burned pretty quickly, making me think it was slightly underfilled. Before I knew it, I was into the second third where earthiness was the most forward flavor component, followed swiftly by the anise and a citrus zippiness (really, I don’t know how else to describe it). I was starting to get some pepper notes on the palate, while the burn continued on the nose.

The final third was heralded by a strong return of anise notes with the earth diminishing a bit. The citrus pretty much disappeared, leaving just a little pepper burn on the finish and nose.

Construction

Build quality was good…I had a very good draw, even enough burn line and solid ash.

Value

The cigar was good and the price was great, so that equals excellent value.

Conclusions

The Gran Habano Corojo No 5 Maduro was a good cigar with a medium-to-full body and a price tag that’s hard to say “No” to. Despite the ring gauge being larger than I usually like, I enjoyed the cigar from beginning  to end. It wasn’t the most complex cigar in the world, but it was consistently good and that’s more than you get with a lot of cigars in this very moderate price range.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 1/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10