Casa de Sueños The 5th

In 2019, the Casa de Sueños brand was started by five partners, all of whom met at the LG Cigar Club in Los Gatos, Calif. Given that 2024 marks five years since the brand was launched, the company decided to create a fifth anniversary release.

That cigar is named The 5th, a 5 1/2 x 58 box-pressed robusto gordo made with an Ecuadorian habano wrapper covering a San Vicente binder grown in the Dominican Republic and a filler blend that includes Dominican piloto cubano tobacco and other undisclosed leaves. As is the case with the rest of the Casa de Sueños cigars, The 5th was made by De Los Reyes in the Dominican Republic.

The MSRP for each cigar is set at $20 and the total production is limited to just 300 boxes of 12 cigars.

• Cigar Reviewed: Casa de Sueños The 5th
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: De Los Reyes
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Dominican Republic (San Vicente)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano) & Undisclosed
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 58
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $20 (Box of 12, $240)
• Release Date: March 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: 300 Boxes of 12 Cigars (3,600 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Covered in medium-brown wrappers that feature some noticeable mottling, the Casa de Sueños The 5th are obviously box-pressed and quite thick, albeit lighter than I expected when I picked them up. The wrappers are extremely rough to the touch—close to the texture of a coarse sandpaper—and while there are no overt veins, I find numerous small bumps on two of the three cigars. Aromas from the wrappers include surprisingly neutral, with a faint generic woodiness leading barnyard, soap and earth. The foot is huge, so it is no real shock that the aromas are more obvious than what I picked up from the wrappers: roasted peanuts, earth, creamy leather, toasted bread black pepper and brown sugar sweetness. After straight cuts, cold draws bring flavors of strong almonds, coffee beans, creamy cedar, light black pepper, leather tack and a blackberry-esque sweetness.

A harsh metallic note combined with some light spice starts the cigars off, and while neither note sticks around very long, it does not make for the most enjoyable of beginnings. Thankfully, after about 10 puffs, the profile recovers as main flavors of roasted peanuts and gritty earth take over the top spots, followed by secondary notes that include and plain white bread, creamy hay, cinnamon, slight lemon zest. There is a combination of faint black pepper and semisweet chocolate chips on the retrohale—although neither is very strong at this point—while my first cigar features a light mineral saltiness on the finish. The flavor ends the first third at medium-plus, the body is at a point just under medium, and the strength hits a solid medium. All three aspects of construction are excellent across the board, but the standouts are the razor-sharp burn lines exhibited by all three cigars.

The roasted peanuts flavor continues to dominate the profile of the cigars during the second third, but the gritty earth has been replaced by a creamy cedar note, although the mineral saltiness on the finish from the first third is still apparent. Additional flavors of earth, cinnamon, bitter espresso, sourdough bread, baker’s spices and leather tack show up at various points, and while the retrohale now includes quite a bit of the black pepper note, the sweetness—which is still fairly faint—now reminds me of cloves. Flavor bumps up to medium-full, while the body increases to medium-plus and the strength increases to medium-full. Construction-wise, my first cigar continues to be problem-free; unfortunately, the other two cigars have various issues: my second cigar goes out randomly on two separate occasions—leading to relights and a harsher profile—while the burn on my third cigar needs a fairly significant burn correction with my lighter to keep on track.

The bitter espresso flavor from the second third moves to the forefront of the profile during the final third, where it is joined by a dark chocolate flavor. Secondary flavors of cinnamon, burnt bread, plain oatmeal, barnyard, earthiness, cocoa nibs and leather flit in and out, while the amount of black pepper and clove sweetness on the retrohale remains the same compared to the second third. The mineral saltiness on the finish of two of the cigars has been replaced by a slight vegetal flavor that continues through the final third, while the finish of the third cigar becomes fairly nondescript. The flavor remains at medium-full, and the body remains at medium-plus, but the strength increases just enough to land at the full mark. There are issues once again with the burn lines of two cigars—both need two touch-ups each, albeit at different points—but the draws are excellent and there is plenty of dense smoke for all three cigars until I am finished with them.

Final Notes

• Casa de Sueños means dream house in Spanish.
• Interestingly, there is another cigar brand bearing a similar name of El Sueño Cigars.
• I was careful to remove only a very small amount of the cap for the first cigar, but even so, I ended up with a draw that was looser than I prefer. Cutting even less fixed the issue, but I would definitely be careful not to remove too much of the cap before testing out the draw.
• There is something odd to me about a cigar named simply “The 5th” instead of “The 5th Anniversary” as it is printed on the secondary label.
• It would have been cool if the company had made this cigar a 5 x 55 vitola to go along with the fifth anniversary theme.
• Speaking of the labels, I absolutely love the combination of rich purple and metallic bronze colors that are used on the bands.
• The first cigar I smoked had fantastic construction all around, but the second and third cigars were quite a bit worse when it came to the burns.

• These cigars are officially listed as being 5 1/2 x 58 vitolas. The lengths of all three were noticeably shorter than 5 1/2 inches, this could be because we try not to measure the pigtail portion of the cap.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time for all three cigars averaged out to two hours and three minutes.