Sky Moon

When it comes to creating a new blend, sometimes the process starts from a blank slate; other times, it’s a change of the wrapper leaf, and in a handful of instances, a company will choose to take elements from its existing cigars and bring them together. Such is the case with Sky Moon, one of the latest projects from Warped Cigars.

Announced in mid-June, the cigar is a Nicaraguan puro that combines elements from the company’s Sky Flower and Moon Garden lines; the blend uses a shade-grown corojo 99 wrapper from Jalapa, and a filler containing corojo 99, criollo 98 and medio tiempo, with the latter coming from Jalapa. All of the tobacco comes from AGANORSA Leaf, which produced the cigar at its factory in Estelí.

It is offered in a 5 1/2 x 42 corona vitola priced at $11 per cigar, with 500 boxes of 50 cigars produced.

• Cigar Reviewed: Sky Moon
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Agricola Ganadera Norteña S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Shade-Grown Corojo 99)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua (Corojo 99, Criollo 98 & Medio Tiempo)
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 42
• Vitola: Corona
• MSRP: $11 (Box of 50, $550)
• Release Date: July 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: 500 Boxes of 50 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The cigar sports a smaller version of the 109-style head, as the shoulders of the cigar are rounded while the head is fairly flat, certainly not pointed like a belicoso or torpedo. It’s an interesting look that I don’t see all the time, if a good bit smaller than the full-sized version and thus have a bit of the novelty of miniaturization. The three cigars all look good, though one has a jagged seam on its front that doesn’t look great. The color of the wrapper is even and rich, veins are small, and the seams are just slightly visible. One cigar seems just a bit darker than the others and is the only one to show me much in the way of mottling. I would describe two as being firm with a bit of give, though one cigar feels like it has a knot just above the band. The third cigar has more give but doesn’t feel soft or underfilled. The foot has very subtle aromas of graham cracker with an even more subtle aroma of apple sauce. There’s no pepper to speak of, and neither of the smells is noticeably sweet, either. The cold draw on the first cigar is incredibly firm, enough that I go back to make sure I cut enough of the cap off or that something wasn’t impeding the airflow, which is what led me to go back to inspect the cigar and feeling a firm spot above the band. The second cigar’s is not as firm while the third’s is much closer to ideal. There’s a flavor that reminds me of the doughy inner part of a pretzel as well as bit of creaminess, but no vibrant or immediately identifiable flavors jump off the cigar.

The draw on the first two cigars are a bit firmer out of the gate than I would like, and if I had to make a prediction based on the first puffs of the first cigar, I’ll be trimming a bit more of the head off before too long. The third is much better, and the difference in my impression of the cigar is immediate, as the draw seems to affect the flavors quite noticeably. The cigar with the overly firm draw has fairly mild flavors, while the second cigar has pepper, a bit of spice, touches of wood and earth, and a lingering finish of charred pepper. The third is the most developed and well-rounded of the bunch, with the same offering as the second cigar’s, just presented in a much better expression. A bit of pepper comes out after the first clump of ash gets knocked off, and at times is clean, but other times is a bit charred and grating on the back of my mouth. It develops further through retrohales, packing more potency than what the taste buds get, though doesn’t have the irritation. I wish I could say that there were no technical issues, but such was not the case. The first cigar has an incredibly firm draw, the second cigar has trouble staying lit, and the third was much better but still seems to burn just a bit slower than expected. Flavor is anywhere from a tight medium to a more developed medium-plus, body is more consistently medium, and strength is mild. While the burn line and smoke production are good, the draw and combustion issues present the real challenges across the three cigars.

The second third has a tendency to start off with some chalk and a flavor that has me thinking there might be some tar appearing, but there’s none of the brown stuff on the head of the cigar. There is a crisp, dry nuttiness beginning to emerge as well, devoid of the oiliness that often comes with the flavor as the cigar seems to be on a mission to dry out my palate as best it can. The third cigar that I smoked, the one with the best draw, continues to be the most developed flavor-wise, with hints of crisp pepper, some dry earth, and a shift to a better expression of the nuttiness from earlier. That said, construction and combustion issues continue to plague all three samples, as the third cigar, the one I am desperately hoping gives me a problem-free smoking experience, can’t seem to stay lit, punishing me for me putting in the ashtray for even a few seconds. Flavor stays around medium-plus, body is medium, and strength is medium-minus. The one thing that is full is frustration, as combustion just will not cooperate. The burn line stays sharp and smoke production is still good, small consolations in the construction category at this point.

The final third still has a twinge of the chalk and metallic taste that was present earlier, and once again, I check the head of the first cigar for tar, only to not find any. Thankfully, the other two don’t present this flavor, leading me to think that this particular cigar’s abysmal draw is the culprit. At its best, the cigar picks up a bit of creaminess and some soft bread, both of which soften up the profile while pushing the black pepper into a minor support role and a bit of muted tingling. The three cigars start to branch off in their own directions in the final third, which at this point, I can’t figure out how much to attribute to the draw and construction issues and how much might be just variance amongst the leaves. One of the most notable variances is how much of the corojo 99 flavors I get, as one cigar takes me back to smoking a purito of the leaf at AGANORSA Leaf’s factory during Puro Sabor a few years back, while another cigar has almost none of that sensation. For what it’s worth, Nicaraguan corojo 99 can be a fairly potent leaf to smoke on its own, so it created a fairly vivid memory in my mind. The final inch-and-a-half or so proves to be a true exercise in cigar smoking futility, as the cigar seems to have no interest in burning, reluctantly allowing me the privilege of a puff after yet another relight, and then quickly going out again. Flavor finishes somewhere between medium and full depending on the sample, body is still medium, and strength is medium-minus at best. Construction is the same story in this section: an even burn line, decent smoke production, but a lighter-draining number of relights are needed to even barely get through the Sky Moon.

Final Notes

• The first cigar had a spot that definitely felt overpacked just above the band, as the firmness was noticeably different than the rest of the cigar. In some ways, it was a cigar that never even had a chance to shine due to the draw issue.
• A cigar like the first one seems like one that should have never left the factory due to the draw issue it presented, yet I’m also curious what—if any—kind of quality control measure would have caught it. I would love to take that cigar to a number of factories and see what their quality control measures would do with it.
• I don’t keep trends on this kind of thing, but if I had to put a label on the cigars I’ve smoked in 2023, it has been the year of the relight. I find myself relighting cigars more and more the more I smoke this year.
• During the weighing and measuring process, my colleague Charlie Minato noted that “One cigar weighed less than 10 grams. I weighed it twice just to make sure. It is very rare for a cigar to weigh less than 10 grams. Of the last 100 cigars I’ve weighed (cigars, not reviews), this is just the third one to weigh less than 10 grams.”
• That cigar weighed 8.5 grams, while the other two were 10.32 and 10.57 grams. I don’t know which cigar that was in terms of the order they were smoked, however.
• Kudos to Warped for putting a QR code on the back of the band; scanning it takes you to the company’s website.
• Brian Burt covered Warped’s booth at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show, which included the Sky Moon.
• Warped also showed off the 2023 version of the La Colmena Black Honey at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show.
• I wouldn’t say that the Sky Moon is a strong cigar, but the first one left me feeling a bit funky and with a lingering aftertaste of that chalky, metallic combination. The other two didn’t, and neither offered much in the way of lingering strength.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 10 minutes on average.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigars Direct, Corona Cigar Co. and Famous Smoke Shop carry the Sky Moon.