Perdomo Habano Connecticut Bourbon Barrel Aged Cigar Review

If you have smoked cigars for a little while, you might recall the Perdomo Habano line of cigars that were released in 2007. They were a creation of Nick Perdomo Jr. and were thought by many to be a one of the best cigars for the price. In fact Nick stated

Speed the film  up about 8 years to the 2015 IPCPR and Perdomo notched the Habano up,  tweaking the blend ever so slightly and decided to use a 6 year aged Connecticut wrapper. Once the wrapper was aged, the company then aged it for another 6 months in a bourbon barrel just to add a little more to the experience.

What gives this cigar its flavor profile is the higher priming Nicaraguan fillers and binders, including 4 year aged seco leaves from the Condega Valley, 5 year aged viso leaves from the famed Jalapa Valley, and 6 year aged ligero leaves from the Esteli.

The complete blend is described as:

• Wrapper – Ecuador Connecticut
• Binder – Nicaragua
• Filler – Nicaragua (Condega, Jalapa, and Esteli)

A hearty blend for a Connecticut if I say so myself.

The Perdomo Habano Connecticut Bourbon Barrel Aged is available in 5 different vitolas and packaged in 24-count boxes:

• Robusto – 5 x 54 (MSRP $7.00)
• Epicure – 6 x 54 (MSRP $7.50)
• Torpedo –  6.5 x 54 (MSRP $8.00)
• Churchill – 7 x 54 (MSRP $8.00)
• Gordo – 6 x 60 (MSRP $8.50)

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Pre-Light Examination

The Perdomo Habano Connecticut Bourbon Barrel Aged has a slightly waxy, dark tan wrapper with a nice cap and solid construction.  The wrapper is smooth and light on veins. The foot exudes some vanilla spice  while the barrel is mild on aromas. 

There are two bands on this cigar. The primary band describes this as the Habano blend and the Perdomo logo is centered in it. The colors are bolder than the original Habano from 2007. The footer follows the color combination with the word Connecticut written across it.

Once the cap is removed, which sliced easily, the cold draw offered notes of tobacco sweetness and butter with a gentle pepper backdrop.

So  far so good,  now it is time to torch it up and see how it performs.

For this review,  I sampled the Perdomo Habano Connecticut Bourbon Barrel Aged Epicure which I received as part of the Smoke Inn, Great Smoke package earlier this year.

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Cigar Review Notes

• Initially smooth smoke with sweet tobacco flavors
• A touch of citrus enters to blend with the sweetness
• Very light flavor development in fact it is a rather mild to medium cigar
• The ash is medium grey with a thick char line
• Flavors don’t evolve much until the second half
• Citrus is joined with a bitter coffee bean note
• A unique sweetness enters – thinking for a moment I realized it was bourbon sweetness!
• Burn is perfect so far holding a decent ash
• Wrapper has oiled up well
• Sugary notes build through the second third
• Cedar joins the mix with some dry leather
• Spice picks up in the final  third
• Mild strength
• Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 20 minutes

Overall, the Perdomo Habano Connecticut Bourbon Barrel Aged was a decent cigar that had a terrific sweet core that underpins the flavor transitions throughout the burn. It is a mild smoke that would be great in the morning with a cup of coffee,  but if smoked in the evening I would think a dram or two of Makers Mark would pair well with this.