Bandolero Firecracker

For the 2022 release of its Firecracker series, United Cigars kept things fairly close to home as it turned to Selected Tobacco S.A., a company whose products United distributes, to produce a Firecracker, United’s signature short, fuse-capped cigar.

For those not familiar with the Firecracker series, its roots date back to 2007 when David Garofalo, owner of 2 Guys Smoke Shop and United Cigars, commissioned a short, powerful cigar to be smoked as part of the Fourth of July holiday. The line eventually moved into the portfolio of United Cigars, and in addition to a cigar that is simply called The Firecracker, a number of manufacturers and cigar brands have made cigars for the series, sometimes unique blends and other times smaller, more potent vitolas in an existing line. It is a group that includes Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, El Artista, Fratello, Kristoff, La Flor Dominicana, My Father, Perdomo, RoMa Craft Tobac and Tatuaje.

The Bandolero Firecracker gets its blend from two of the company’s other lines, the Clandestino and the Aventureros. The blend starts with the fillers of the Clandestino, or Series C line, taking the Dominican, Nicaraguan and other undisclosed fillers of that line and pairing them with the Ecuadorian wrapper and binder of the Bandolero Aventureros, or Series A line. Like the rest of the Bandolero line, the Firecracker uses five-year-old tobaccos, and the cigars were aged for a minimum of two years after being rolled.

The Bandolero Firecracker comes in a 3 1/2 x 50 short robusto size that is designed to resemble a firecracker, notably by way of a twist of tobacco that comes off the cigar’s head to resemble a fuse. Pricing is set at $9 per cigar, and $180 for a box of 20 cigars, with a total of 1,000 boxes produced for the release.

“My partnership with United Cigars has gone beyond the distribution of my cigars,” said Nelson Alfonso of Selected Tobacco in a press release. “This is family and I wanted to share my Bandolero blend with this beautiful vitola.”

After being shown off at the 2022 Tobacco Plus Expo in January, the cigars shipped to stores in June.

• Cigar Reviewed: Bandolero Firecracker
• Country of Origin: Costa Rica
• Factory: Tabacos de Costa Rica
• Wrapper: Ecuador
• Binder: Ecuador
• Filler: Dominican Republic, Nicaragua & Undisclosed
• Length: 3 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Vitola: Short Robusto
• MSRP: $9 (Box of 20, $180)
• Release Date: June 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 20 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The Firecracker series has been around long enough—and I have been fortunate enough to smoke enough of them—that the vitola feels fairly familiar and isn’t the first thing I notice about the cigar. Rather, it is the cellophane, which is cut in such a way so as to leave the foot exposed as opposed to folding over it. That means the cigar slides out easily, which is fine in this instance but has me thinking about how well it would function in a retail setting. The cigar is firm with just a bit of give, and while it is a small vitola, it has enough weight and density so that it doesn’t disappear in my hand. The wrapper is a meaty shade of brown, with a bit of variance in the color that reveals itself around the seam lines but is fairly consistent overall. There’s a bit of an oily sheen both visually and to the fingers, while the wrappers have some small veins and just a bit of tooth. The aroma from the foot is mellow and includes a bit of light, damp soil, along with subtle milk chocolate and a bit of creaminess, with pepper noticeably absent until I pick up a bit of tingle in my nose after several sniffs. I use my cigar scissors to remove the cap, cutting right through the fuse. The cold draw is very smooth and the flavor is equally as subtle as the aroma. Creaminess leads the way, then comes the chocolate and soil that I found in the aroma, while one cigar has a bit of grilled steak that has cooled to room temperature.

Lighting the foot of the Bandolero Firecracker seems to breathe life into the flavors and aromas that I picked up a few moments earlier, as the earth and chocolate are now alive and vibrant, and the profile now has a decent bit of black pepper, but it plays a supporting role in the first puffs. I give the cigar a retrohale about as soon as it is burning and I’m greeted with a bit more pepper, a bit more earth and very little of the chocolate, turning the experience into a near 50-50 mix of those two components. While it is called the Firecracker, I’m going to hold off on calling the first puffs an explosion or any related term, but it is a quite vibrant flavor. But if anything, I have to give the cigar a lot of credit for staying balanced and manageable, at least for my palate and preferences. There’s a bit of variance in the earthiness among the three samples, as two are a more solid, stable flavor, while the third has a bit of rockiness that in turn makes it taste a bit more textured and dynamic. It seems that variance also makes the smoke sting my eyes a bit, but other than that there is little with which to take issue. The cigar burns very well through the first third, with the burn line sharp and even, the ash holding on well, and plenty of smoke on each puff. The profile is medium-full in flavor and body, while strength is medium-minus, which for me means it’s noticeable but not overpowering.

I find myself retrohaling the Bandolero Firecracker every couple of puffs to get a bit crisper and more vibrant expression of the blend, as it contains a pepper that complements a profile that has settled down a bit as it hits the taste buds. In terms of flavor, it has a rich earthiness with a bit of dark chocolate and then transitions to pick up a bit of wood and black pepper on the finish. While I didn’t try and smoke the cigar at any particular rate—other than the rate required to keep it burning—I did notice that one cigar that I smoked a bit slower allowed some cocoa powder to come through, adding a layer to the profile that I didn’t get from the other two. The finish is steadily becoming drier, and it’s a change that brings out a lumber flavor that I don’t get as part of the puff or retrohale. Regardless of smoking rate, the flavor intensity has settled down just a bit, now sitting at medium, or medium-plus with the addition of a retrohale, while body and strength are still medium-full and medium-minus, respectively. Construction and combustion remain very good and problem-free across the board.

Given the short length of the Bandolero Firecracker, I’m not expecting a lot in the way of flavor changes, and the final third lives up to that expectation at the start. It generally holds on to the earthy core flavor as well as the slight bit of chocolate that has been baked into it, but that begins to change just a bit as the finish gets a bit drier and seems to shift into a woodier profile than has been offered thus far. The final inch picks up a bit of thick fruit sweetness, at first reminding me of guava candy, which cuts through the otherwise earthy profile. The change also makes me notice that the pepper has settled down ever so slightly. The cigar finishes with some heat in its final inch, bringing about a bit of red chili pepper and a sensation on the tongue that suggests it’s time to put the cigar down. It is only in the final inch that the burn line loses its evenness, a change that has me mindful as to where I put my fingers so as not to burn them. Otherwise, the cigar burns fine, though smoke production seems to decrease just a bit. Flavor finishes medium-full, body is medium-plus, and strength is now medium.

Final Notes

• There can be several approaches for how to cut the fuse cap; as I mentioned above, I simply use a pair of cigar scissors to cut straight through it. You could also remove the band and free the fuse, and then cut the cap, and while I’m generally not a fan of removing the band early out of concern for wrapper damage, it seems to be doable here as the band isn’t that tightly adhered and the wrapper is a bit more durable.
• This has been brought up several times before in other reviews on this site, but this vitola is really not meant for our process of reviewing a cigar in thirds. While this isn’t necessarily a quick-burning cigar, all it takes is a bit of distraction or mind wandering to realize I’ve moved from one third to the next.
• I only tried to let the ash build up on one of the three cigars I smoked, but it responded to the challenge to hang on quite well.
• In terms of strength, the Bandolero Firecracker is right on the line of what I would call a strong cigar. With a full stomach, I didn’t find it to be that strong, yet smoking one early in the morning on an empty stomach had me grabbing some white sugar. I will say that in terms of strength, it is a very satisfying cigar.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 35 minutes on average.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.