La Gloria Cubana Revolution (ER Asia Pacifico 2015)

As part of the 2015 crop of new Cuban cigars, Habanos S.A. planned a new Edición Regional release in the La Gloria Cubana marca for the Asia Pacific region. Dubbed the Revolution, the 5 1/8 x 55 robusto grande is packaged in boxes of 20 with only 2,500 boxes produced. While the Revolution was scheduled to be released in 2015, it did not actually ship until the middle of last year.

Here is a quick refresher on Habanos S.A.’s Edition Regional program:

In 2005, Habanos S.A. introduced a new series of limited production releases that would eventually become to be known as Edición Regional (Regional Edition). The program took regular Habanos S.A. brands and gave their regional distributors special sizes that aren’t part of respective brands regular production line-up. In some cases, like the Bolivar Gold Medals, Habanos S.A. gave specific distributors sizes that had been discontinued, but most are sizes that have never been available prior. There’s one major exception to the rule and that would be perhaps the most famous ER, the Edmundo Dantés El Conde 109, which is an ER available for Mexico that is related to the Montecristo brand, but is largely its own brand.

The first Edición Regionals didn’t feature the red and silver secondary bands that read “Exclusivo (Region Name)” that have become synonymous with the ER releases.

The Revolution is only the seventh Edition Regional release for the La Gloria Cubana brand since the series began in 2005, and one of two different releases slated for 2015:

• La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos (6 1/8 x 50) — 2008 — Edición Regional Reino Unido
• La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos (5 x 48) — 2009 — Edición Regional  Cuba
• La Gloria Cubana Triunfos (6 1/4 x 50) — 2010 — Edición Regional Suiza
• La Gloria Cubana Belux No. 1 (5 1/2 x 52) — 2011 — Edición Regional Belux
• La Gloria Cubana Paraiso (5 1/4 x 52) — 2014 — Edición Regional Caribe
• La Gloria Cubana Glorias (7 1/16 x 54) — 2015 — Edición Regional Alemaina
• La Gloria Cubana Revolution (5 1/8 x 55) — 2015 — Edición Regional Asia Pacifico

• Cigar Reviewed: La Gloria Cubana Revolution Edición Regional Asia Pacifico (2015)
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: n/a
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Length: 5 1/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 55
• Vitola: Montesco
• Est. Price: $24 (Boxes of 20, $480)
• Release Date: 2016
• Number of Cigars Released: 2,500 Boxes of 20 (50,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Visually, the La Gloria Cubana Revolution is covered in a light mocha brown wrapper that has a bit of tooth to it when you run your finger down it as well as a number of obvious veins. There is virtually no oil at all that I can see and it is quite spongy when squeezed, with enough give that I think there might be some issues. Aroma coming off of the wrapper is a combination of fresh coffee, strong barnyard, hay, cedar, sawdust and dark chocolate while the cold draw brings very distinct flavors of lemongrass, white pepper, hay, cinnamon, creamy cedar and slight sweetness.

Starting out the first third, the La Gloria Cubana Revolution immediately exhibits very flavors of almonds, creamy cedar, hay, dark chocolate and bitter espresso. There is a some nice—albeit slight—vanilla sweetness on the retrohale that combines very well with a great white pepper as well as a touch of spice on the back of my tongue. The draw is way too loose after simple straight cut, and while the burn is a bit wavy to start, it is not bad enough to need touching up as of yet, while the smoke production is massive off of the foot. Strength-wise, the La Gloria Cubana starts off on the high side of mild and slowly pushes into the low end of medium by the end of the first third.

Coming into the second third of the La Gloria Cubana Revolution and the sweetness from the first third has morphed into a nice nutmeg note, along with other flavors of creamy nuts, bitter espresso, gritty earth, hay, lemon citrus and dark chocolate. Right around the halfway point, I notice a strong saltiness on my lips that sticks around a for a while, although it starts to recede as the second third comes to an end. In addition, there is still a great amount of white pepper on the retrohale and the smoke production is still well above average. While the burn has evened up nicely, the draw is still much looser than average. The strength ends the second third just below the medium range.

The final third of the La Gloria Cubana Revolution has a fairly significant increase in flavors, including a new floral note that is quite strong for a short time, then dissipates slowly until the end of the smoke. There is also more of creamy cedar and lemongrass than in the second third and the other notes of bitter espresso, hay, almonds and earth are still hanging around. The nutmeg note from the second third is thankfully still present, albeit slightly reduced, and the white pepper on the retrohale increases as well. The burn continues to impress until the end, but the draw is still much too loose. Strength does hit a solid medium by the time I put the nub down with a bit more than a inch left.

Final Notes

• In Cuban cigar factories, the vitola of the La Gloria Cubana Revolution is known as a Montesco, and it is the same size as the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill.
• There is no doubt that the ring gauges for the Edición Regional cigars are getting bigger; in fact, four out of the 14 releases for 2015 were produced in 55 ring gauge vitolas.
• Although this was technically a 2015 Regional Edition, it was not actually released to the market until mid-2016, which is not unusual in the least for Habanos S.A.’s releases.
• The box code that these samples came from was SGA DIC 15.
• While the burn was not a major issue for any of the samples I smoked, the draw on the first cigar I cut with a normal straight cut was much too loose. Since I had issues, I cut even less off of the cigar for my second sample, but it did not seem to help, and I still had a draw that was looser than optimum. For my final sample, I cut a very small piece off of the end of the cap, which turned out to give me the perfect amount of resistance.
• Noting the above, I would make sure you cut less off of the cap than you normally would to see how the draw is, and cutting off more as needed from there.
• Pacific Cigar Ltd. is the distributor for the Asia Pacific region, it distributes to over 30 places across Asia including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau and Singapore, however it is not the distributor for mainland China, India, Kazakhstan nor Russia.
• I was expecting a fairly long smoking time, but the loose draw on two of the cigars had an impact on the average, which ended up being just under one hour and 30 minutes.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel.