Cohiba Spectre 2021

After a new price list for Cuban cigars sold in Spain indicated that Habanos S.A. was implementing another price increase came to light recently, it seems that a number of comments and chatter on and off this website have centered around the increasing cost of cigars. It was also a topic brought up following the release of halfwheel’s Top 25 Cigars of 2023 list, which included six cigars with MSRPs of more than $50 per cigar.

Yet expensive cigars are nothing new. For as long as I’ve been actively smoking cigars and tracking the industry, there have always been cigars that pushed the upper boundary of the mainstream market. One of the cigars that have done that is the Cohiba Spectre, a halo product that’s part of General Cigar Co.’s most prestigious line.

The Cohiba Spectre debuted in 2018, using extensively aged tobacco and elaborate packaging that pushed its price into ultra-premium territory, as it came with an eye-popping $90 price tag. Subsequent releases kept pace in both price and presentation, with new editions arriving in November 2019, November 2021 and March 2023. The most recent release, the Cohiba Spectre 2022, just won halfwheel’s Packaging Award for 2023.

In the case of this cigar, the Cohiba Spectre 2021, it was a 6 1/2 x 52 toro extra with a blend that started with an Ecuadorian habano wrapper that the company said underwent a six-month-long secondary fermentation process. Then there was a Connecticut broadleaf binder, while the filler used some specially treated tobacco. The Dominican piloto cubano from the 2014 crop was aged in tercios, bundles of tobaccos wrapped in royal palm leaves. There was also tobacco from Nicaragua’s Jalapa region that was harvested in 2017 and aged in Spanish sherry barrels.

The cigars, which came in thick plastic tubos, were presented in 10-count aluminum boxes with the Spectre word mark embossed all over it, and piano hinges on the doors that opened up to reveal those red tubos. And to keep the box looking its best, each one came with a pair of gloves to keep fingerprints off the box.

As with all Cohiba Spectre releases, the 2021 version was limited, with just 5,000 cigars produced by the same pair of individuals who produced the previous two releases. The cigars were bunched by Ruben Dario Perez Peña and rolled by Xirolma Céspedes, with the pair, at the time, having more than 50 years of combined experience in cigar making, according to General Cigar Co.

“Cohiba Spectre continues our tradition of creating exceptional smoking experiences,” said Sean Williams, brand ambassador for Cohiba, in a press release, at the time. “Our blending expertise, passion for tobacco, and commitment to craftsmanship and creativity are on full display with Spectre. As with its predecessors, this offering is uniquely representative of our rarest tobacco. Spectre is quite simply, a cigar that can never be replicated.”

Here’s what I said about the Cohiba Spectre 2021 when I reviewed it in February 2022:

Let’s put the price aspect of the Cohiba Spectre 2021 to the side for a moment; this cigar is very good but not without its flaws. The first half of the cigar is incredibly mouth-drying, which I’ve never found to be overly enjoyable; the final third can be hit-and-miss; and the strength that the cigar can offer seems out of place. But then there are the good points, the highlights of which seem to trace back to the sherry barrels used for some of the filler, as well as the extra fermentation that the wrapper undergoes. The sweetness that the cigar offers is distinctive and quite refined, much like a fine spirit. When it’s not drying out the mouth, the earthiness is enjoyable for my palate, and the pepper aspect of the profile is about as developed and refined as I can recall. Construction and combustion are also very good, all but completely problem-free except for some combustion in the final third of one sample. Put all that together, and you have a distinctive and memorable cigar that I enjoyed smoking and would gladly smoke again. Whether or not that sounds appealing enough to you to pay the premium for, that’s an opinion about the Cohiba Spectre 2021 that you’ll have to make for yourself.

• Cigar Reviewed: Cohiba Spectre 2021
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: General Cigar Dominicana
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano) & Nicaragua (Jalapa)
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Toro Extra
• MSRP: $119.99 (Box of 10, $1199.90)
• Release Date: November 2021
• Number of Cigars Released: 500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (5,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Redux: 1

Getting to the Cohiba Spectre 2021 requires popping the cap off the thick plastic tubo, which in this case is near the foot of the cigar as opposed to the head. Once it’s off, the cigar does not immediately slide out, as it seems there’s enough surface friction between the tube and the cellophane that the cigar comes in to keep it in place. Enough of the cigar slides out with a few taps and shakes, and once the folded-over part of the cellophane is out the rest of the cigar slides out much more easily. During the unpacking process, I notice that the cap has what appears to be a silicone inner stopper to keep the foot from getting damaged, which I don’t often come across as it seems foam is the more common option. Once out of the cellophane, the bands of the Cohiba Spectre 2021 are the first things to catch my eye, with their gold trim and letters popping out from the carbon fiber background. As for the cigar, the wrapper is a darker-than-medium shade of brown but not so dark that some details of the leaf get obscured. The leaf has a very fine texture, the veins it has are small, and there’s still some fairly soaked-in oil that gives the leaf some sheen. The cigar has a very firm density, and nothing from a visual standpoint concerns me, though the fact that the seams seem just a touch darker than the wrapper does stand out, almost as if the cuts resulted in a darker color. The wrapper has a slightly waxy smell, while the foot has a cool and damp aroma that doesn’t immediately remind me of anything specific. A series of sniffs builds a picture of milky wheat cereal and bourbon barrels. Air moves well on the cold draw, producing a much different flavor, as it is dry and toasty while the leaf tingles my lips and a bit of sweetness lingers once I remove the cigar from my mouth.

The first puffs of the Cohiba Spectre 2021 deliver a combination of many of the flavors, aromas and sensations of the pre-light experience, adding a bit of black pepper along the way. Retrohales have a bit more pepper, as well as creaminess that finishes with a light strawberry sweetness, which gives it a different depth of sensation than what the flavor offers, and while complementary, I like the aroma a bit more. The underlying creaminess becomes more prevalent throughout the first inch, and after the ash breaks off just after the photo was taken, it feels like it has become of the main drivers of the profile. The retrohales begin to lighten in body as well and now finish with some chalk in my nostrils. As the first half burns, I keep thinking that there is some earthiness just about to emerge in the profile, yet it never does, and instead, I get a bit of a wine barrel flavor as the smoke has a dampness to it. Flavor is medium-plus for most of the first half, while retrohales can kick that up to medium-full. Body is medium and strength is mild.

One of the first things I notice from the Cohiba Spectre 2021 as the second half starts is a bit more of a lingering and peppery finish. A bit of chalk emerges but doesn’t have the sourness that often comes with that flavor. Whatever sweetness the first half offered is now gone, a change that reveals some nuttiness and more flavors that tease some dry earth. It also reveals the distinctive flavor of tar, a suspicion that is quickly confirmed when I put my finger on the head of the cigar and come away with a brown spot. That leads me to clip off a few more millimeters of the head to hopefully dispatch the sensation. Combustion begins to struggle in the second half as the burn line approaches what would be the final third. While there’s still some creaminess, it’s much less of a contributor than it had been earlier, which leads to the flavor becoming drier by way of dry lumber and wheat grains taking the reins. Retrohales offer a more complete profile as the pepper is more vibrant and some traces of cream and bright berry sweetness emerge on the finish. In the final two inches, creaminess makes a sudden and surging return to give the profile a nice body while reinvigorating the flavor. Yet being able to enjoy this change without the need for a relight is a challenge, as combustion continues to struggle, going out after seemingly the shortest of pauses between puffs. When I can keep the cigar lit, the profile is still solid and vibrant. Unfortunately, it also feels like it’s becoming a bit fractured as the pepper, wood, and creaminess feel like they’re heading in their own directions. This takes the cigar to its conclusion after a very long three-and-a-half hours of smoking time, a number inflated by the sheer number of relights the cigar needed in its second half, as construction was very good otherwise. Flavor finishes medium-full, body is medium-plus, and strength is medium.