The Cohiba Panetela is a small 4.5"x26 baby from Habanos' flagship brand. It's so thin it practically looks more like a cigarillo than a full cigar. Still it's full of flavor, and a very nice decent strength. Hats off as well to the torcedors who somehow managed to hand-roll such a thin stick. It's not without its rather serious issues though, as I will be explaining shortly.
The sticks come in a nice brown varnished box inside a cardboard box. Habanos has a bad habit of printing the box code on the cardboard box rather than the wooden one, so you have to remember to copy the code over before you discard the outer box.
Box Code: MUA DIC 09
Construction:
Appearance-wise the panetela looks like your typical Cohiba - beautiful wrapper with thin veins, beautiful cap, nice tight seals, slightly lumpy. The wrapper isn't particularly oily, but still very pretty.
Unfortunately the beauty in its construction really goes only skin deep. Out of around 6 panetelas I've smoked so far, 4 have had an unreasonably tight draw, including this one. The draw is so tight it almost feels plugged. I could feel several tight spots along the body close to the band, and massaging it relieves the tightness only temporarily.
This is an expensive stick for its size at US$216 for a box of 25 from my favorite vendor (approx US$9 per stick, ~US$11 after Singapore import taxes and GST), so the tight draw is pretty unacceptable.
The prelight draw is very pleasant though - It reminds me of Chinese dried prunes. If you've ever had one of those you know it's not a bad smell.
This stick didn't have too much of that hay that's often present in Habanos sticks.
Opening and 1/3:
Despite the tight draw the opening was very decent. Within 2 or 3 puffs the smoke came out nice, thick and smooth. There is leather and very nice wood, with a dark chocolate and nutty finish. The amount of smoke is very decent. Not as thick and buttery as the Secretos, but still very smooth and nice.
Towards the middle of the first third some pepper starts to creep in. Typical of Cohibas, when you don't draw on it, the burn is very slow with hardly any smoke coming from the cigar. It's easy to think that the cigar has gone out, until you draw again and get that thick mellow smoke. The burn was perfect and sharp, requiring zero touch-up and relighting.
2/3:
The smoke is now fairly peppery, with notes of latte, chocolate and nuts. The cedar on this stick is excellent, very pleasant, although the "2nd hand smoke" coming off the tip lacks that pleasant aroma that I got from the Oliva Serie G. Top-quality tobacco flavors are also present, along with the smooth taste of earth and leather.
3/3:
Still leather, cedar and lots of pepper. This is a great smoke despite the terrible draw, very enjoyable. I smoked it down to the last 1/2", when I had to let it go because it was getting a bit too hot for my fingers.
This is definitely a fantastic cigar, and very convenient too at 20-30 minutes (I'm a fairly slow smoker - to give you some idea, a typical Robusto takes me about 2 hours). Unfortunately the very high price coupled with the tight draw on most sticks I've had makes me give it a somewhat low score of 76/100. If it had been cheaper (say about US$5 per stick) or if the draw had been much better, it would've easily scored a 90 with its nice flavorful smoke, and pleasant cocoa, latte and nutty notes. Personally I wouldn't be re-stocking on this when I run out. I'd rather spend the money on the much better Siglo line, or on an Oliva Serie V.
I rank this a medium-full bodied cigar, with a medium strength.
I'd love to hear from the rest of you about your experiences with this cigar.
The sticks come in a nice brown varnished box inside a cardboard box. Habanos has a bad habit of printing the box code on the cardboard box rather than the wooden one, so you have to remember to copy the code over before you discard the outer box.
Box Code: MUA DIC 09
Construction:
Appearance-wise the panetela looks like your typical Cohiba - beautiful wrapper with thin veins, beautiful cap, nice tight seals, slightly lumpy. The wrapper isn't particularly oily, but still very pretty.
Unfortunately the beauty in its construction really goes only skin deep. Out of around 6 panetelas I've smoked so far, 4 have had an unreasonably tight draw, including this one. The draw is so tight it almost feels plugged. I could feel several tight spots along the body close to the band, and massaging it relieves the tightness only temporarily.
This is an expensive stick for its size at US$216 for a box of 25 from my favorite vendor (approx US$9 per stick, ~US$11 after Singapore import taxes and GST), so the tight draw is pretty unacceptable.
The prelight draw is very pleasant though - It reminds me of Chinese dried prunes. If you've ever had one of those you know it's not a bad smell.
This stick didn't have too much of that hay that's often present in Habanos sticks.Opening and 1/3:
Despite the tight draw the opening was very decent. Within 2 or 3 puffs the smoke came out nice, thick and smooth. There is leather and very nice wood, with a dark chocolate and nutty finish. The amount of smoke is very decent. Not as thick and buttery as the Secretos, but still very smooth and nice.
Towards the middle of the first third some pepper starts to creep in. Typical of Cohibas, when you don't draw on it, the burn is very slow with hardly any smoke coming from the cigar. It's easy to think that the cigar has gone out, until you draw again and get that thick mellow smoke. The burn was perfect and sharp, requiring zero touch-up and relighting.
2/3:
The smoke is now fairly peppery, with notes of latte, chocolate and nuts. The cedar on this stick is excellent, very pleasant, although the "2nd hand smoke" coming off the tip lacks that pleasant aroma that I got from the Oliva Serie G. Top-quality tobacco flavors are also present, along with the smooth taste of earth and leather.
3/3:
Still leather, cedar and lots of pepper. This is a great smoke despite the terrible draw, very enjoyable. I smoked it down to the last 1/2", when I had to let it go because it was getting a bit too hot for my fingers.
This is definitely a fantastic cigar, and very convenient too at 20-30 minutes (I'm a fairly slow smoker - to give you some idea, a typical Robusto takes me about 2 hours). Unfortunately the very high price coupled with the tight draw on most sticks I've had makes me give it a somewhat low score of 76/100. If it had been cheaper (say about US$5 per stick) or if the draw had been much better, it would've easily scored a 90 with its nice flavorful smoke, and pleasant cocoa, latte and nutty notes. Personally I wouldn't be re-stocking on this when I run out. I'd rather spend the money on the much better Siglo line, or on an Oliva Serie V.
I rank this a medium-full bodied cigar, with a medium strength.
I'd love to hear from the rest of you about your experiences with this cigar.
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