Today we will be taking a look at a brick and mortar release, the San Lotano Habano! The San Lotano brand is blended and manufactured by none other than the tobacco whiz himself AJ Fernandez at his factory Tabacalera Fernandez in Estelí, Nicaragua. Released in August 2010 the line gets its name from a brand AJ’s grandfather created in San Luis, Cuba many decades ago. While AJ has made an incredible name for himself in recent years creating cigars for Padilla, Gurkha, Rocky Patel and having many limited distribution lines like Man O’ War, Diesel, La Herencia Cubana and Sol Cubano this will be his first solo nationally distributed cigar. The brand currently has three lines:

Maduro:

San Andrés Wrapper (Mexico)

Nicaraguan – Honduran – Dominican Filler

*Honduran Binder

*Box pressed

• Robusto 5 x 52 MSRP $6.80
• Toro 6 x 52 MSRP $7.10
• Churchill 7 x 52 MSRP $7.60
• Torpedo 6 1/2 x 52 MSRP $7.60

Habano:

Brazilian Wrapper (Brazil)

Nicaraguan – Honduran

*Honduran Binder

• Robusto 5 x 54 MSRP $6.70
• Toro 6 x 54 MSRP $6.90
• Churchill 7 x 54 MSRP $7.30
• Torpedo 6 1/2 x 54 MSRP $7.30

Connecticut:

Connecticut Wrapper (Ecuador)

Nicaraguan – Dominican Filler

*Nicaraguan Binder

• Robusto 5 x 52 MSRP $6.20
• Toro 6 x 52 MSRP $6.40
• Churchill 7 x 52 MSRP $6.60
• Torpedo 6 1/2 x 52 MSRP $6.60

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Let’s get to the review shall we?

• Cigar Reviewed: San Lotano Habano Robusto
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Fernandez
• Wrapper: Brazilian Habano
• Binder: Honduras
• Filler: Nicaragua & Honduras
• Size: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Robusto
• MSRP: $6.70 (Boxes of 20, $134.00)
• Year Released: August 2010
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 3

The cigar itself is a wonderful creation. It has an incredibly oily dark chocolate wrapper with minimal veins and an incredible wrap you literally can’t see the seam at all it looks like one uniform leaf. The cigar has a tight pack and a beautiful triple cap. I have to say this is probably the nicest looking cigar I have reviewed this year. It just has a great overall look that you can tell was rolled by someone very experienced.

The Pre light aroma is leathery with a ton of rich tobacco sweetness at the foot it’s a heavy wet earth type aroma. The wrapper smells of dark chocolate and leather. The Pre light draw is full of cedar and a sweet tobacco flavor with lots of earth.

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Starting off in the First Third I am hit with a ton of flavor right off the bat. There are flavors of cedar, dark chocolate, and a wonderful burnt caramel that is just amazing. The cigar starts of full bodied with lots of pepper and spice. The finish is incredibly long with a lot of pepper, dark chocolate and leather. The finish just goes on forever. This is a very impressive start indeed….

Coming into the Second Third the cigar changes up just a bit, I start to get a real nuttiness on my palate. All of the flavors from the first third are still present but intensified a little, the cedar ramps up and the cigar gets very rich and leathery with a load of earthiness. There is a lot of dark chocolate and still a nice amount of spice through the nose and some pepper on the tongue. The cigar and its flavors are in complete harmony, there is a lot of sweetness and earth and a perfect amount of spice and pepper to balance it all out. The draw and burn are just perfect…

Finishing up in the Final Third the cigar doesn’t change up a whole lot with the exception of a roasted coffee flavor and the burnt caramel from the beginning comes back on the finish. Overall it’s just a wonderful mix of toasted flavors, lots of sweetness and a nice spice and pepper. Again the cigar is just very balanced and each flavor flows perfectly with out any overpowering the other. Not only did I nub this but I wish I had another 2 inches to smoke…

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Final Notes:

• The key here is flavor and balance. This cigar has a ton of full flavor and such great balance. While it was full bodied it stayed relatively medium in strength so you were able to get the flavor without the strength overpowering.
• AJ Fernandez is a master blender and this cigar is a perfect example of what he is capable of creating, full flavor, balance, complexity and a wonderful construction. This is a brick and mortar release meaning you can only find this cigar at brick and mortar cigar shops. You will not find this cigar for sale in any catalog or online retailer.
• Final Smoking time was 1 hour 17 minutes.

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The Bottom Line: This cigar impressed the hell out of me! I have to say that I would be very surprised if this cigar didn’t do well on every review out there. It had such rich flavors and such incredible balance, the construction was spot on with every sample I smoked I literally didn’t have to touch it up once and the burn stayed razor sharp every time. All I can say is that you need to go out and grab one of these to try and if you don’t like it come find me I will buy the rest of them off you.

Final Score: 91