Aladino Classic Elegante

Over the past summer, JRE Tobacco Co. added a lancero vitola to its Aladino Classic line, with the new size measuring 7 x 38 and getting the name Elegante.

Like the other vitolas in the line, the Aladino Classic Elegante is a Honduran puro that uses tobacco grown by the company on its farms in the Jamastran Valley of southern Honduras. Specifically, the wrapper is a habano-seed tobacco, the binder is a corojo-seed leaf, and the filler uses both habano and corojo tobacco. It is a blend that the company created to be less corojo-forward than other cigars in its portfolio, thus giving it what is described as a classic profile.

The Aladino Classic Elegante is priced at $9.50 per cigar and offered in 20-count boxes. It becomes the fifth size in the line, which arrived in stores in June 2022:

• Aladino Classic Corona Classic (5 x 44) — $7 (Box of 20, $140)
• Aladino Classic Robusto (5 x 50) — $9 (Box of 20, $180)
• Aladino Classic Toro (6 x 50) — $10 (Box of 20, $200)
• Aladino Classic Gordo (6 1/2 x 60) — $11 (Box of 20, $220)
• Aladino Classic Elegante (7 x 38) — $9.50 (Box of 20, $190)

After JRE Tobacco Co. showed off the Aladino Classic Elegante at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show, the company began shipping the cigars to retailers in July.

• Cigar Reviewed: Aladino Classic Elegante
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Fábrica de Puros Aladino at Las Lomas Jamastran
• Wrapper: Honduras (Habano)
• Binder: Honduras (Corojo)
• Filler: Honduras (Corojo and Habano)
• Length: 7 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 38
• Vitola: Lancero
• MSRP: $9.50 (Box of 20, $190)
• Release Date: July 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

It’s either been too long since I’ve smoked a lancero and my internal ring gauge is off, or the vitola is thinner than the 38 ring gauge it’s listed as. Measuring the three cigars confirm my suspicions, as one cigar had a 37 ring gauge while the other two measured 37.5. Not a huge difference, but enough to be measurable and somewhat noticeable visually and to my fingers. The other noticeable thing about this cigar is that the band sits a bit higher than normal. The cigar has some give but is firmer side of the spectrum, except for one cigar that I would peg as average. One cigar’s head and cap are sloppy, with odd cuts that look like tears in the leaf, plus a oval-shaped finishing piece that drapes over one side of the cigar. The other two are much better, and all three look to be rolled well with no visual issues. The foot has a pretty faint and indistinct aroma, reminding me of dried tobacco leaves and then following aromas of corn cereal, dry lumber and/or a bit of light, dry earth. Clipping the caps of the three cigars shows that the wrapper might be a bit dry and brittle, but I’m able to get three cuts without problem. The cold draw has a bit of resistance, with a flavor that reminds me of cake donut with some creaminess in the background.

The Aladino Classic Elegante has a dry, toasty but still soft profile in the early going, but there is a bit of thick creaminess that can appear, a change that both fills out the body of the smoke and adds to the flavor. A bit of a mixed nut flavor emerges, and while it registers as a flavor, it does so better as an aroma as it rides along with some creaminess for a really textured smell. Like a lot of lanceros, there is a learning curve when it comes to the required rate of puffing, and it seems like the Aladino Classic Elegante is pretty finicky when it comes to staying lit. For a lancero, it produces tons of smoke, while the burn line is even and the draw is smooth. Flavor is medium, body is medium-minus and sometimes a bit thin, with strength fairly mild.

As the Aladino Classic Elegante gets into its second third, it delivers a really well-balanced pepper through the nose, making retrohales quite enjoyable and complementary to the flavor, which is now offering a clearly defined dry lumber and a bit of dusty earth, the latter of which is seemingly a signature taste of Honduran terroir. A very pleasant creaminess comes in at varying points between the midpoint at the end of this section, giving the cigar a fantastic profile that is rich, just slightly sweet, but still holding on to the wood, pepper and earth from earlier, making for a rather dynamic layering that is beautifully balanced. The creaminess extends to retrohales as well, though it tends to dominate the other flavors and doesn’t achieve the same effect as what the flavor gives my taste buds. About the only thing I have to complain about in this section is the finicky combustion. Despite not seeming to be damp or having any other sign that would lead me to think combustion would be an issue, the cigar is quick to punish me for putting it down. Flavor is medium-plus, body is medium and strength is mild.

The final third of the Aladino Classic Elegante starts by holding onto the creaminess it developed in the previous section, though it seems like the other flavors that have been constants thus far—the wood, the pepper, and the earth—have backed off in intensity, at least in the flavor. If given just a puff from the start of the final third, I don’t know if I would think of this as a Honduran puro that uses habano and corojo tobacco; rather, it seems like it is the flavor of a blend that uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper. About halfway through this section, the creaminess begins to quickly fade away, replaced with a very different yet very enjoyable profile that is bright and peppery with accents of dry wood. It’s almost as if a blender took one cigar out of my mouth and replaced it with another one, and for as much as I love a creamy, rich cigar, the clarity of flavors in this new expression of the blend is quite good.

Final Notes

• During the first cigar, on two separate occasions, the ash started to break off but held on at an angle, which is photographed above.
• The second cigar really struggled with combustion; in the second half, it seemed to go out nearly as soon as I set it on the ashtray.
• Editor’s Note: The difference in scores between the average of the first two cigars and the third cigar was eight points. — Charlie Minato.
• JRE Tobacco Co. debuted the Aladino Classic Elegante at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show in July 2023 alongside the new Aladino Sumatra line, the Aladino Lounge Exclusive, and the Aladino Limited Edition.
• Like a growing number of its releases, the Aladino Connecticut debuted with a small group of retailers who had visited the company’s farms and facilities.
• JRE uses the Elegante name for its lanceros, which is also found in the main Aladino line, the Aladino Maduro, the Aladino Habano Vintage Selection, and the Aladino Cameroon.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 45 minutes on average.