Cohiba Spectre Returns for 2021

General Cigar Co.’s halo product, the Cohiba Spectre, will return to shelves next week.

At $119.99 per cigar, the Cohiba Spectre 2021 is one of the most expensive cigars in General’s extensive history, though, oddly, it’s not even the most expensive Cohiba release announced this month.

It’s a 6 1/2 x 52 toro extra size that uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper that the company says went through “a secondary fermentation process lasting six months” over a Connecticut broadleaf binder. For the fillers, General is relying on a combination of the more labor-intensive tasks it uses in other cigars. There are Dominican piloto cubano tobaccos from the 2014 harvest that are aged in tercios, a way of wrapping a large number of tobaccos in royal palm leaves, almost like a large present. In addition, General is using tobaccos from Jalapa, Nicaragua that were harvested in 2017 and then aged in Spanish sherry barrels.

This is the third release for the Cohiba Spectre and like the previous two editions, every cigar is created by the same pair: Ruben Dario Perez Peña bunches every cigar, while Xirolma Céspedes rolls every cigar.

It will have an MSRP of $119.99 per cigar and is limited to 500 boxes of 10 cigars. At $1199.90 per box, it’s almost $300 more expensive than the last Spectre release. General will begin shipping the cigars to stores on Nov. 23.

“Cohiba Spectre continues our tradition of creating exceptional smoking experiences,” said Sean Williams, brand ambassador for Cohiba, in a press release. “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.”

While there was no Cohiba Spectre release for 2020, this is the third release for the series.

• Cohiba Spectre (7 1/4 x 54) — November 2018 — 180 Boxes of 10 Cigars (1,800 Total Cigars)*
• Cohiba Spectre CS19 (6 x 49) — November 2019 — 180 Boxes of 10 Cigars (1,800 Total Cigars)
• Cohiba Spectre 2021 (6 1/2 x 52) — November 2021 — 500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (5,000 Total Cigars)

*General Cigar Co. made more than the originally-announced 180 boxes though never clarified just how many more.