Chogüí Heart Breaker

For Chogüí’s latest release, the Dominican company crafted a limited production, single vitola release called Heart Breaker.

The cigar uses a Dominican sun grown wrapper and binder over Dominican corojo filler, with the blend designed to be a bolder smoke than what the company has featured to date. The filler is a mix of viso and ligero, with no seco used at all.

The first run of the Heart Breaker was 250 boxes of 10 cigars, which were reported not to have just sold out but were oversold, a testament to the line’s growing popularity in the United States. There’s no timeline yet for the second release, though it is billed as a twice-a-year production.

• Cigar Reviewed: Chogüí Heart Breaker
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Top Secret Nest
• Wrapper: Dominican Republic
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Corojo
• Length: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Vitola: Corona Extra
• MSRP: $10.50 (Boxes of 10, $105)
• Release Date: Aug. 11, 2017
• Number of Cigars Released: 250 Boxes of 10 Cigars
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

There’s a lot to like about the Chogüí Heart Breaker right out of the package; the petite vitola, the band, and the wrapper’s tanned, rich color all stand out. The leaf has some veins and a bit of difference in color towards the foot, and while some samples don’t offer the cleanest roll I’ve ever seen, all three are more than acceptable. There are also some noticeable variations in firmness as the cigar gets softer towards the foot, with samples ranging from rock solid to a touch soft in the center portion. The foot has notes of graham cracker and pepper, along with a bit of reduced butter both in aroma and the physical sensation it elicits. The cold draw ranges from near perfect to a touch loose with flavors a bit less forthcoming, showing a bit of the graham cracker and butter again but no pepper.

The Chogüí Heart Breaker opens up with copious amounts of white smoke that contain a bit of pepper and Dominican terroir, which starts woody before quickly picking up a bit of loamy earth, more pepper, and then some chalk on the finish. Early puffs can overstep, one by way of some off putting sourness, another in terms of pepper-driven harshness, leading to a recoil of the back half of the tongue on those puffs. In the nose, it’s the chalk that skews from the path, getting a bit wet and sour when things aren’t right. The ash is a bit flaky but holds on better than I initially expected, building to an inch in length rather quickly before dropping off. After that first inch, the flavor and body both get settled in at medium or just a touch more than that, as the now light pepper is doing most of the talking, settling in quite comfortably on my palate. The first third finishes with a bit more lumber and pepper, the latter of which is a good bit fuller through the nose.

There’s a bit more chalk and pepper in the Chogüí Heart Breaker once the second third gets underway, but what really stands out is the draw, as it’s smooth, silky, and about as elegant as I could want. A retrohale shows the first semblance of sweetness that I’ve gotten to this point, as I get a faint touch of peach and nectarine through the nose. As the burn line approaches the midway point, the cigar holds onto most of its pepper, with retrohales showing it both better and stronger than how it appears on the palate, though in one sample the base thins out a bit and loses the complexity that this cigar offers. The tongue, meanwhile, gets a bit more earth and the beginnings of some sharper wood notes, which by the end of the this section pick up notes of char and the beginnings of some sourness, which when present quickly takes over and distracts from what the blend could be offering. This portion also sees the burn line begin to get wavy, though the cigar continues to smoke quite well.

Plentiful amounts of smoke pour out of the Chogüí Heart Breaker at the start of the final third, as this small cigar is proving to be quite adept in that department. There isn’t much change in terms of flavor, though an occasional puff will have a bit more pepper than the one before it. Heat begins to become a factor in the flavor with a little over an inch left, sharpening up the flavors and adding a less than pleasant twinge to the profile. Thankfully the cigar stays lit as it cools, and some slower puffs allow me to milk pretty much every inch of smokeable tobacco out of the cigar, which produces a softer and now creamy smoke that has a bit of dairy and marshmallow sweetness to it.

Final Notes

• The combustion, ash, and smoke production were all incredibly consistent and impressive.
• Also consistent was a wavy burn line that—almost on cue–developed just past the midpoint in all three samples.
• The first sample I happened to smoke showed a blend that I thought would easily be a candidate for Cigar of the Year, but the second and third samples showed just enough flaws to have me rethinking that. As a reminder, the reviewer does not know what the final score will be while smoking the cigar.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Chogüí is distributed in the U.S. by Pospiech, Inc., which is owned by the same people behind Cigar Hustler, which advertises on halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was a drawn out one hour and 20 minutes on average, though one sample smoked for about 20 minutes more than that.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Site sponsor STOGIES World Class Cigars has a listing for the Chogüí Heart Breaker but it does not appear to be in stock.