This week, I’m reviewing Sinistro Cigars’ Habana Vieja. The cigar I sampled came as part of my monthly StogieBird subscription. The Habana Vieja I smoked was a Corona vitola with a length of 5 1/2 inches and 42 ring diameter.
The Habana Vieja’s blend consists of Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, a HVA (Habana Vuelta Arriba) binder and a combination of Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobacco. The cigar is manufactured for Sinistro Cigars by La Aurora in the Dominican Republic.
Visually speaking, the Habana Vieja projects a lot of character. From the unfinished foot, comprised of binder and filler leaves to the gold foil and black band and ending with what looked to me as a “fuse” made from the binder and covered up with wrapper leaf, this cigar is unique and interesting to look at.
Enough with the ogling, it’s time to light this cigar up. I gave it a straight cut and then a pre-light draw. The draw was easy with just the right amount of pull. I picked up on savory and sweet flavors from the draw. The wrapper itself had a rich tobacco aroma and the foot was sweet and earthy. Next, I lit the unfinished foot with a triple flame lighter.
The shag foot understandably burned quickly and a little erraticallly. Right before the transition from the shag leaves to the wrapper, I gave it a quick touch up to even things out and the cigar burned like a champ for the rest of my session.
The flavor during that inch of shag had a mellow, mild spice. There was a medium tobacco finish on my palate and the cigar produced a fair amount of smoke.
As I previously mentioned, the burn was spot on once the wrapper leaf came into play. The carbon ring was thin and dark. The cigar produced a tight, firm gray ash with black striations.
I rolled the ash off the cigar around the inch and a half mark. I try to keep it at this length because if I let it go longer, the ash will inevitably land on my laptop keyboard and i may as well not even use an ash tray.
Anyway, back to the flavor profile. During the first third, I picked up on a mild spice sensation on the retrohale while on my palate I tasted coffee and tobacco with a mild, lingering finish.
Moving into the second third, the retrohale picked up a little more strength and lingered in my nasal passage. There was a mild tingle on my tongue, a pronounced savory tobacco flavor and a rich, lingering finish.
Coming down the home stretch, the spice sensation during the retrohale is sharp and very pronounced. The cigar finishes up with strong tobacco flavors and the same rich, lingering finish but with a longer duration.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Habana Vieja. I would consider this cigar to be medium to full in both strength and body. Overall, I give this cigar a 98 out of 100.