La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra

In the U.S., there are a handful of cigar store franchises. The most prominent are Davidoff — since 1911 and Casa de Montecristo. Both programs are hybrid models that have more corporate-owned stores than independent operators. While a far cry from what it used to be, Tinder Box is likely the largest American tobacconist franchise model by number of locations, with roughly two dozen stores still remaining.

Around the world, there are Davidoff stores and other franchises, but the most prominent is undoubtedly the La Casa del Habano (LCDH) program run by Habanos S.A., the Cuban cigar monopoly.

The LCDH stores are independently owned and are invited to be part of the program by Habanos S.A. and the local distributor. These stores are required to have certain features, such as a lounge and a humidor used as an aging room. Beyond being able to use the LCDH name, there are two key benefits to being an LCDH store. First, anytime there is a new release, the local distributor is supposed to send those cigars to the LCDH stores in their distribution area first. Second, Habanos S.A. offers certain cigars only to LCDH stores.

Many of the LCDH exclusives are regular production cigars, though not always available for shipment year-round, but some releases are bonafide limited editions. In 2015, the LCDH program celebrated its 25th anniversary and Habanos S.A. announced a limited edition humidor release to celebrate the occasion.

The La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario humidor looked like a colonial-style house that you might see in a neighborhood in Havana. Inside were two bundles of cigars: 15 Pirámides (6 1/10 x 52) and 15 Robustos Extra (6 7/10 x 48). As with many of the other LCDH exclusives, each cigar had a secondary band with the LCDH logo, though these bands also had a small gold-on-black part that indicated these were made for the 25th anniversary.

• La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Pirámides (6 1/10 x 52)
• La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra (6 7/10 x 48)

The cigars began shipping to stores in January 2017, with pricing in Switzerland set at 1,500 Swiss Francs, which was roughly $1,500 at the time.

Production was limited to 3,500 humidors.

• Cigar Reviewed: La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: Undisclosed
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Length: 6 7/10 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 48
• Vitola: Robusto Extra
• Est. Price: $50 (Humidor of 30, $1,500)*
• Release Date: February 2017
• Number of Cigars Released: 3,500 Humidors of 15 Cigars (52,500 Total Cigars)*
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 1

*As noted above, each humidor comes with 30 total cigars, though only 15 are the Robusto Extra vitola.

Note: Since halfwheel launched in 2012, we have started off each new year with a week of reviews that are different from the other parts of the year. Rather than reviewing new cigars, we try to find cigars people might consider a holy grail cigar. These reviews are scored the same as our regular reviews, though oftentimes we are only able to procure one of the cigars, so many of these reviews are based on smoking one cigar instead of our normal three cigars per review. You can read more Holy Grail Week reviews by clicking here. — Charlie Minato.

While it’s not the cleanest-looking wrapper—there are lots of veins—the color of the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra is great. It’s medium brown with some reds and quite a bit of visible oil. Paired with the excellent bands, the total appearance is great. This cigar has been stored in a five-finger bag—inside of a humidor—since it arrived at our office, so I’m optimistic there’s some detectable aroma compared to if it was just placed loose inside a humidor. While there’s a medium amount of smell, there’s not much outside pungent acidity, barnyard and some Spanish cedar. The foot is medium-full with a very sweet Spanish cedar smell that gets into the floral and bubble gum-like levels of sweetness. That flavor makes its way over to the cold draw, joined by pasta water. It’s medium-full to full and the draw is great.

The first puff of the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra delivers lots of nuttiness, drier and fragrant pecans, over some earthiness. As the finish develops, there’s a very dense creaminess akin to a stick of butter. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the draw is compromised by some sort of knot in the bunched cylinder. While the draw’s resistance is only slightly tight, I decide to make a second cut to see if that opens things up. The second cut makes a slight improvement but also leads to a small crack on the cap. Unfortunately, that knot—or blockage—is clearly impacting combustion and, therefore, the flavor. A very rich but also dry nuttiness sits on top of a woody texture and some sharp herbal flavors. There’s also just a lot of generic tobacco flavors. As the finish develops, white pepper emerges on top of creaminess and some nuttiness. Retrohales have a nice mixture of semisweet floral flavors over sawdust and some peanut butter. The finish is fruitier, with red apple sweetness and citrus joining earthiness. I also find the retrohale’s finish to be much sharper than any of the rest of the profile to this point. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. The burn line is fine, and despite the knot in the bunch, I’m able to get an adequate level of smoke production.

While my decision to provide a second cut might have helped the draw, it’s come with the cost of having the cap unravel, which becomes a much more annoying experience during the second third. Thanks to a creeping harshness, the flavor of the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Robusto Extra is also heading in the wrong direction. The mild amount of harshness wouldn’t be a huge issue if the flavors weren’t also getting sharper. The main flavors are a mixture of nuttiness and hard pretzel, sitting on top of some creaminess, black pepper, and white pepper. The finish has a creaminess and peanut shells leading leather, white pepper, and some bitter creaminess. Retrohales have taken a step back in complexity from the first third, now with peanut butter and creaminess over cedar and mild white pepper. The finish continues to be sharper than the rest of the profile, with flavors of acidic earth leading to some bitter creaminess and dwindling pepper sensations. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. Eventually, the cigar goes out and forces me to make a full relight of the cigar. It was a matter of if not when, as the blockage’s impact on combustion becomes more noticeable as the cigar burns down. 

In more ways than one, the cigar is falling apart in the final third. Physically, the cap’s unraveling probably looks worse than it is, but it’s annoying. My larger issue is with the harshness of the flavor. My educated guess says that because the cigar isn’t burning all the way through, the temperature that some of the tobacco is burning is lower than it should be. If you’ve ever puffed on a cigar before it’s fully lit, you will find the profile to be sharper and harsher. That’s what’s happening here. A harsh creaminess leads woodiness and earthiness. There’s a good bit of generic tobacco flavors, which would be fine without the harshness, along with barnyard and some nuttiness. White pepper emerges during the finish, which seems to supercharge the impact of the sharpness. The aftertaste reminds me of the flavor of smoking four cigars in a single day, yet this is my first of the day. Retrohales have sawdust and floral flavors—similar to the first third—but there’s also a spicy nuttiness and some pita bread. It’s more pleasant than the rest of the flavor profile, but it’s still sharp. Unfortunately, after retrohaling, there’s an intense amount of sharpness and harshness. It’s difficult to get much beyond different pepper sensations, generic harshness and earthiness. Flavor is full, body is full, and strength is medium-plus. Construction is better than the picture below would suggest, but my lighter is regularly needed to help get the cigar to the finish line.

Final Notes

• Brooks Whittington reviewed the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario Pirámides as part of Holy Grail Week 2021. He had a much better experience with those two cigars he smoked than I did with this one.
• As of March 2023, Habanos S.A. said there were 157 La Casa del Habano franchises around the world.
• Habanos S.A. also has other retail programs. As of last March, there were 1,264 locations Habanos Specialist locations around the world. This would be a secondary tier compared to LCDHs with more locations and fewer requirements; for example, those stores aren’t required to have an aging room. While Habanos S.A. makes a smaller number of Habanos Specialist exclusive cigars—which also go to LCDH stores—they don’t get the same new release priority as LCDHs.
• There’s also the Cohiba Atmosphere Lounge program, which I think still has fewer than 20 locations around the world. To my knowledge, there are no Cohiba Atmosphere Lounge exclusive cigars, but Patrick Lagreid says he found the Cohiba Atmosphere location in Havana had a much better supply of Cohibas than most La Casa del Habano locations in Cuba’s capital.
• To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the La Casa del Habano program, Habanos S.A. created the Juan Lopez Selección Especial. I imagine just about everyone found this to be less exciting than the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario, though more people probably got to smoke that cigar.
• The most recent LCDH exclusive was decidedly more exciting: the Bolívar New Gold Medal. After a soft launch at the Festival del Habano XXIII in February, it went on sale at stores during the summer.
• A release like the La Gloria Cubana 25 Aniversario is a great reminder that Habanos S.A.’s packaging is unrivaled. I think if other cigar companies could sell 3,500 boxes at these price points, that gap would close, but most cigar companies will never be able to do it.
• I know this cigar is called “Robusto Extra,” but I’d classify it as a Churchill, which is 7 x 47 in the Cuban system.
• My experience tells me that this cigar probably could have been improved by a draw poker. I’m not sure if it ever would have been as good as a cigar that was bunched properly, but the blockage seemed localized.
• As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t use draw pokers during our reviews because we are scoring cigars. There are a lot of reasons why, but I think the best one is that we are trying to review the most honest representation of a cigar, not the representation of a cigar at its best.
• While the second cut led to the cap unraveling and produced an ugly-looking mess of a cigar, I don’t think it really affected how the cigar smoked. By the time the cap really unraveled, it was after the cigar had gone out and needed to get relit, and it’s not like things were heading in the right direction before that.
• C.Gars Ltd sold two full humidors at auction during 2023. In June, one sold for £3,000, while another humidor sold for £3,350 in October. In June 2022, C.Gars Ltd sold one for £7,600 at auction, which stands out as a complete outlier. None of these prices include the 18 percent buyer’s premium.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel. In February 2020, we paid $61 for each cigar.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 45 minutes, some of that lengthy time is due to my slow smoking habits, some of this is due to the draw issues.