Wednesday 21 July 2010

Cohiba Behike Range from Habanos SA



Habanos SA has just introduced three new cigars, under the elite Cohiba brand, that was originally created for Fidel Castro in 1966 and only made more generally available in 1982. They were originally made in secret and under high security, for the President, to avoid sabotage as some of Castro's enemies had the idea of blowing his head off with an exploding cigar! Castro also gave these cigars to heads of state and, according to Simon Chase at Hunters & Frankau, the UK consignment used to end up with the Prince of Wales, who (being a non-smoker), often handed some on to disc-jockey and TV host, Sir Jimmy Saville. Presumably, now, the young Princes, who appear to smoke, will be on the bandwagon but, somehow, I doubt whether their courtiers will advise them to smoke big Havana cigars infront of the paparazzi, for fear of fomenting republican feeling. There has to be an irony in that. However, points to the Princes for smoking at all and, for doing it in public, they deserve a gold cigar case each.

'Cohiba' is the old Cuban word for 'cigar' as smoked by the Taino Tribe. The new range, called 'Behike', is named after the priest or medicine man who led the ritualized smoking of the tobacco leaves. The new cigars come in new vitolas (configurations) and include unique ring gauges (the cigar's diameter, measured in 1/64ths of an inch; although the lengths are measured in millimetres): 52 (119mm long), 54 (144mm long) and 56 (166 mm long). These cigars include the rare Medio Tiempo leaf which comes from the very top leaves of some sun-grown plants (and not all plants produce it). Of course, these cigars come at a premium price but they are held out as the best of the best, in terms of modern Havana cigar production.

4 comments:

  1. One of these days, the embargo will be lifted for us here in the States. Until then, I promise never to smoke a Cuban cigar (fingers crossed).

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  3. It is amazing that the embargo is still in, officially, place. Presumably, it mainly benefits smugglers and counterfeiters. Once the market is opened up there will be a serious run on Havanas by legitimate traders in the USA. Mind you, it might well knock the tobacco farmers who left Cuba when their property was misappropriated by the hooldum commies, because they might find it difficult to continue to use the names that they took with them (such as Romeo y Julieta), duplicating those that continued to be used by the thieves.

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  4. Once I’ve been fortunate to smoke all 3 kind of CB range and I must say I found the 52 to be a disgrace to cohiba where the other 2 scored OK on my standards.
    My personal review of the 52 would be : little aroma, bad balance, interesting for the 1st inch then boring.
    On the other hand, the 54 was still too expensive but at least delivered some unusual and rich flavors. Changing a lot throughout the smoke.

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