Lancero50 Redux

Some Random Thoughts…

1. Lanceros are a Pain in the Ass to Photograph — Or at least if you try to stand them up. They are long and thin. Light enough for any bit of wind to pick them up and blow over, and a tiny base makes it difficult for them to even stand up. I know it’s not really relevant for smoking them, but it was perhaps the largest problem of Lancero50. About one quarter of the Lanceros that were photographed were damaged during photography.
2. There are a Lot of Lanceros — I only reviewed non-Cuban Lanceros. There are about thirty other Lanceros in my humidor that I could have reviewed and about ten more I wanted to get to. Sure, some of them are single store exclusives, some are discontinued, LEs — but, the point remains there are a lot of Lanceros.
3. Not Everything Needs to be a Lancero — I mentioned it in the Primer on Lanceros, but it needs to be repeated. Some blends just don’t work. But, the single most important factor for a Lancero (or any cigar) is effort. If a manufacturer is not willing to put skilled enough, oftentimes their best, rollers and high enough quality tobaccos, don’t attempt it. Most Lanceros are of the higher-end blends (the second lowest-priced Lancero reviewed was the Oliva Serie V) creating a pretty lofty field. Then there’s the format, the smaller ring gauge means mistakes (whether wrapper issues or construction) get magnified. There’s a reason there aren’t $4 Lanceros, and we don’t need to change that.
4. Cellophane — This is more of an observation. I’m a big believer in the use of cellophane. However, it seems that in the case of Lanceros in particular, cellophane just doesn’t allow for any room and actually ends up pressing the cigar in a slightly box-press nature. For whatever reason, this seems uniquely problematic with the Lancero. Over half of all the cellophaned Lanceros reviewed displayed a box-pressed foot, only two (of fifty) were supposed to be box-pressed.
5. Don’t Rush — Don’t “try” to smoke a Lancero in any time period. Go as slow as you can, learn how to nurse a cigar. If you smoke a Lancero in an hour, forget it. Flavors develop when you lengthen the experience out. So… slow down.

The Winners?
Oliva had two cigars. They were one of nine companies to average 90+ (and one of three, where more than one cigar was reviewed.) But, it’s when you consider that Oliva had the second lowest average MSRP, a single penny higher than Oliveros/SWAG.

Paul Garmirian. The best kept secret and the biggest surprise.

Pepín/Jaime García/El Rey/Tabacalera Cubanas/My Father Cigars S.A. and La Aurora both solidified that their effort to make Lanceros in large quantity have paid off.

The Losers?
General & Altadis. The big boys proved they’ve got a lot to make up in regards to quality. They finished at the bottom and Altadis had a particularly atrocious showing, finishing in last place in terms of score by a fairly wide margin, but also managed to rank in the top third in average price.

Oh, yeah, you probably want this… — el niño diablo.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.