Vitola: +53 (Super Robusto)- 5.75” x 48 ring gauge
- ~$30
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Last December, Cigar Aficionado reported that Dion Giolito of Illusione had purchased the trademark for the OneOff cigar brand. I had to have seen the original cigars at some point, but I will admit to being almost completely unaware of the brand. It was the brand, though, that inspired the creation of Dion’s Illusione brand. His intention was to retain the packaging and brand identity from the original releases.
OneOff was begun by Andrea Molinari in 2001 when he wanted a cigar brand of his own. Though he ran Milan’s Casa del Habano he couldn’t get a Cuban brand, so he worked with the Plascencia family in Nicaragua. Initially the cigars were shipped to a few accounts in Asia and Europe and quantities were extremely limited. The cigars were highly rated, but eventually the brand was sold off to Cuban Crafters and new blends that had no resemblance to the old came along. He is trying to replicate the original blends as much as possible, although they are being produced at the TABSA (Casa Fernandez/Aganorsa) factory instead of Plascencia.
The original OneOff used Nicaraguan filler and binder leaves, some of which was first-generation Cuban seed, along with a Honduran wrapper. I could find no reliable source for the makeup of the current release.
I have smoked a couple OneOffs before this review, but the smaller sizes and lower price points. I saw a friend posted about the +53 a couple weeks ago on Facebook and asked him if it was really worth the extra cost (about $10 more than the second most-expensive vitola). He said “Absolutely” so I struggled with the concept of buying one until I gave in and just did it. Going up against various Davidoff and Padron releases and far outweighing (price-wise) any Illusione, Tatuaje, Aganorsa, or (most) My Father releases, let’s just say the +53 (named for the telephone country code for Cuba) has some mighty big expectations to fulfill.
Prelight
So I’m just going to state it up front…the banding and packaging on this cigar is dumb. Why would you want to alienate a large percentage of your potential client-base by putting a divisive and politically-charged symbol on it…really the only thing that is actually on most of these cigar? I understand that Dion was just retaining the old look, but I think the old look was just a poor choice and it doesn’t translate any better to the present day. I have had several people in the shop refer to it as the “hippie cigar” or “commie cigar”…hell, I refer to it as the “Chickenfoot cigar…though that might get people thinking they should pair it with some Cabo Wabo. The secondary bend here says “ONEOFF +53” in a barely readable mix of dull blue-gray and dull gold metallic. So, if anything the bands will restrict the audience of the cigar to just those who know what they are looking at…and maybe that was the point.
The wrapper leaf was a dark-medium brown color, just short of milk chocolate. It had tons of oils, a great feel to it, and just a little bit of mottling. The wrapper had aroma notes of manure and leather and hay. The foot of the stick had a richer, sweeter earthiness, with a hint of chocolate brownie.
I clipped the end with my Xikar Xi cutter and got an excellent cold draw that had notes of milk chocolate, cherries, cream, and black pepper.
Flavor
The OneOff +53 starts off with a burst of sweet earth and leather, with a strong red pepper coming in right after that on both palate and nose. There was a nuance to the sweetness as it showed layers of berries and chocolate, while some cedar started to come through on the finish. The pepper was especially potent on the retrohale, as it felt like my nose was going to burn off if I blew the smoke out very slowly. As I got closer to the end of the first third, the pepper mellowed out some and I picked up some notes of hay and leather in the mix, while the sweeter notes faded into the background.
Getting into the second third of the +53, I was getting earth and leather in fairly strong amounts. The body had started around medium-plus, but was now in the lower end of the full-bodied range. Pepper spice hung around as a dull, persistent burn and there was a good underlying sweetness.
As I got into the last third, the red pepper morphed into more of a cayenne note, burning intensely, but fading quickly after each puff. Nicaraguan earthiness dominated the blend up front, but there was some coffee bean and cocoa powder in the mix, as well as a remaining touch of sweetness.
Construction
I had great construction with a very even burn line, great draw and solid ash.
Value
In case you weren’t aware, my value rating comes down to this: full point if I would gladly pay full price; half point if I would smoke it again if it were highly discounted (or free); no points if I would give it away after someone handed it to me. I just don’t see this experience being worth a $30 price tag, but I did enjoy it and would like to smoke it again.
Conclusions
Whether or not this OneOff brand is even close to the original is something I can’t speak to, but it is an excellent blend and probably the best thing to come from Illusione. That said, I struggle with the pricing of the regular vitolas and simply can’t find a way to justify the exorbitant price tag of this +53 version. It was an great display of the complexity you can achieve with Nicaraguan leaf, but still fell short of the pleasure of a Padron 1926 Serie or Davidoff Nicaragua, at least for me.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 8.5/10
