Howard G Black Moses Maduro

While it’s not like it was a decade ago, there’s been a recent uptick in the number of new companies entering the U.S. cigar market. Previously, most of the companies entering the American market were companies that were selling cigars in international markets and now selling in the U.S. for the first time, but now we are seeing some homegrown companies enter the space again.

Howard Gumbs did just that last year launching Howard G Cigars. My first interaction with the brand was looking at the list of vendors at the 2021 PCA Convention & Trade Show and seeing a name that I didn’t recognize. Brooks Whittington went and visited the booth and found a number of new lines.

The most prominent cigar the company sells is probably the 1OFAHKINE, a cigar released in collaboration with Ike Taylor, two-time Super Bowl winner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But today, I’m reviewing what seems like the more ambitious line from the company, Black Moses.

It’s a trio of perfectos, all of which uses a habano wrapper over a blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos. There’s the Black Moses Natural and Maduro—both box-pressed—as well as the Black Moses Limited, which is round. Presumably, the blends are a bit different, though the wrappers are dark enough that it’s quite difficult to tell the Maduro and Natural apart.

• Cigar Reviewed: Howard G Black Moses Maduro
• Country of Origin: Undisclosed
• Factory: Undisclosed
• Wrapper: Undisclosed (Habano)
• Binder: Undisclosed (Habano)
• Filler: Nicaragua (Estelí & Jalapa)
• Length: 6 1/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 58
• Vitola: Perfecto
• MSRP: $15 (Box of 10, $150)
• Release Date: August 2021
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

When I started typing this review, I had to double-check what cigar I was supposed to be reviewing. The cigars we bought were listed as the Black Moses Natural, but these wrappers are dark enough that something seemed off. As it turns out, we were shipped the Black Moses Maduro. I can understand how the retailer made the mistake as both the Natural and Maduro versions have very dark wrappers, though the ribbons on the bands are different: orange is Natural and red is Maduro. From a visual perspective, there’s a lot going on with two tapered ends, a sharp box-press, a partial cedar sleeve and the aforementioned ribbon. The wrapper is quite dark, almost to the point where it looks purple. Once the cedar is removed, I see some imperfections on the wrapper: the seams are a bit loose on each cigar and one sample has some small blemishes—almost like tiny dents—that were covered up by the cedar. The aroma from the wrapper is medium-full with barnyard, licorice, cedar and some acidity. The foot is also medium-full but much sweeter and refined: chocolate brownies and some raspberries. I rarely have problems cutting cigars, but I have minor issues with each cigar. The cigar photographed ends up with an unintentional Dickman cut, one cigar seems far too tight and needs a recut, and one sample has a small tear after cutting. I don’t think that’s my fault or the cutter’s fault as I’ve been using the Fox Knives 749 Cutter to cut pretty much every cigar for review for over a year now and can’t recall having consistent issues until now. Flavor-wise, the cold draw is a mixture of chocolate, cedar, creaminess and red pepper. One sample has more meatiness and some powdered lemonade to it.

As can oftentimes happen with perfectos, the draw is a bit tight at the start. Flavor-wise, I get a lot of mineral flavors along with cedar, apple juice and charcoal. For the first handful of puffs, I hope the overwhelmingly toasty profile is just a transition point until after the tapered end is burned through and the cigar opens up a bit. Unfortunately, if anything it just gets toastier. There’s charcoal, generic toastiness, burnt woods, mineral flavors—really a full bouquet of toastiness—along with sesame seeds and some underlying green pepper. While I would have hoped for something to cut through on the finish, there’s nothing to speak of as my mouth tastes like burnt coffee, mineral flavors and green pepper. Retrohales still have toastiness, but the Black Moses Maduro finally has something that helps to contrast it thanks to wheat bread and some rubber flavors. The finish of the retrohale is the first time I think there’s contrast: creaminess, herbal flavors, an underlying sweetness, wheat bread, and, of course, more toastiness. The flavor is medium-full, body is nearly full, and strength is medium-plus though building. One cigar needs multiple touch-ups to help with smoke production though the other two cigars are excellent construction-wise.

At this point, I’ll take anything the Howard G Black Moses Maduro can provide that isn’t toastiness. Fortunately, there’s some creaminess that really helps to cut through and help my palate. But unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the toastiness goes away. There’s still the bouquet of toasty flavors that overwhelms nearly everything else, though at times I can pick up a mild cracker flavor. While it might have happened in the first third, I’m not sure my palate can do much but pick up toastiness in the second third, even if the cigar isn’t actually toastier than before. The combination of toastiness and green pepper has built up in the back of my mouth to the point where things are getting a bit metallic due to the overwhelming amount of those sensations. I’m able to find some added meatiness when blowing the smoke out through my nose, but I also can’t escape the toastiness. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is getting close to medium-full, though it’s not there yet. Construction-wise, each cigar seems like the draw is a bit too open for the size, which isn’t helping the amount of smoke production that gets to my mouth and probably helps to explain the increased number of touch-ups.

While the creaminess in the second third was more of a tease, by the final third it’s sticking around consistently enough to make a difference. There’s no way around the toastiness, but creaminess and honey are helping to provide something else to think about. The finish is better than the second third, it’s no longer borderline metallic but it is still quite toasty. I find some sweetness and herbal flavors as well, but some of this may just be me searching for something else. Retrohales have toastiness, dry white bread, leather, minerals and some underlying sweetness—basically a combination of everything up until this point. The retrohale’s finish is the first time I feel like toastiness isn’t the leading flavor as an oak sensation beats it out, which is a welcome change but one that comes way too late in my opinion. Flavor is still medium-full, though a bit reduced from before, body is medium-full and strength is still medium-plus, seemingly never able to find the medium-full range.

Final Notes

• While we don’t do blind reviews at halfwheel, this is about as close as we are going to get to one. Even after smoking the cigars and looking at the limited amount we’ve written about the cigars, I still don’t know some things like where these cigars are rolled and where the wrapper comes from.
• I think the fact that the retailer we purchased these from confused the Natural and Maduro versions is is a good sign that Howard G might want to do more to differentiate which cigar is which. If nothing else, perhaps change the ribbon color to two colors that aren’t this close to one another.
• The other very obvious way to fix this would be to use the words “Maduro” or “Natural” on the packaging itself beyond the box.
• The box-press really does wonders to mask the 58 ring gauge. That’s normally not a ring gauge I enjoy smoking, but I didn’t even notice it while smoking these cigars.
• I haven’t smoked any other Howard G products, so I’m not sure what those cigars are like.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking varied between one hour and 40 minutes to two hours and 15 minutes.
• Site sponsor Corona Cigar Co. carries the Howard G Black Moses Maduro.