Plasencia Year of the Rabbit

Plasencia Cigars

• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Plasencia Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Toro Extra
• MSRP: $52 (Box of 10, $520)
• Release Date: January 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: 6,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (60,000 Total Cigars)
• Original Score: 91

This is the third year in a row that Plasencia has released a cigar in honor of Chinese New Year and the associated zodiac symbol. Turns out, the third time is a charm as this is the first of the trio to make halfwheel’s Top 25.

While Plasencia makes lots of normal-looking robustos and toros for its long list of factor clients, for its own cigar company—launched in 2016—it has oftentimes used some of the most unique shapes sold today. This shape isn’t as visually interesting as a hexagonal press or even this salomon, but this cigar has a circular cap, like a normal cigar, but an oval-shaped foot, very unlike a normal cigar.

My lasting memory of this cigar is it was quite expensive, pretty fragile, but very good. Not only did it produce a lengthy list of different flavor sensations—savory, sweet, salty and, to some degree, spicy—it layered them in a way more akin to a chef plating a meal than a person rolling up dried tobacco leaves. While we liked the flavor in all segments, the first half stood out to a couple of us as being uniquely dynamic and smooth. Interestingly, while there was a lot of different flavors, even the flavor intensity was rarely full. The largest qualm—outside of price, which we don’t factor into scores or this list—is that these cigars were quite fragile, six of the seven cigars we initially purchased had some sort of physical damage when they arrived or developed some sort of issue once cut. — Charlie Minato.