Cohiba Behike 56

Description

My Own Tasting ofthe Cohiba Behike BHK 56

I was digging in my friend’s rusted-out fishing boat glovebox, the

Sea Hag, scabbing for a spare set of pliersor maybea dropped lure — when I glanced down and saw a crumpled-up Polaroid, salt-stained by all the fish caught that summer season. Its edges were bent over and its color that awful washed-out 1990s-yellow shade, despite the fact that I had not owned it for very long. I’m on a pier inHavana, squinting at the sun, so bright it hurt to open my eyes and I felt like storms never came; that the sky was made of white gold. I have a fish in my hand about which I haven’t the slightest idea what it’s called even under pain of death, but implying itself to the corner of my mouth like a mini-cannon shell is a cigar.

Product Specifications

That photo was so, like, wow, the humidity and these diesel engines and the sense of adventure on that trip. We hadn’t just come to fish; we’d come for the hunt. The strategy in which you walk into a shit-shack in the back and scream at every clown face for everything that isn’t on one of those front shelves. I still remember the guy who sold it to me — a man with hands of leather that had opened up and leaked all night, a man who treated the wooden box as if there was a saint’s bones inside.

He handed me one, and I could feel the thing. It wasn’t just a wad of tobacco but really a piece of history. To the end of the afternoon I was up ondeck a boat not so disssimilar this. Sea Hag, not even watching the fishinglines and thinking nowt of the smoke.

That smoke? The

Cohiba Behike BHK 56. It’s a cigar with a lotof baggage in these times — namely, the price tag that sends my accountant sobbing for his mother and/or that pitchfork-wielding mob I’m amassing at minimum wage — but each time I spy one all I can think of is that pier and how you feel when you know the world is your oyster. It’s a beast of a stick, and I’ve spent enough time with it over the years to know exactly what it is when the hype fades away and someone touches it.

The Specs
Factory Name
Laguito No. 6
Construction: The Hand-Held Cannon

Let me start by telling you that feelinga BHK 56 is pretty special.

It’sa Double Robusto, so it’s fat. You ever pick up a cigar that makes you feel like you’re hoisting a fucking piece of heavy machinery? That’s this. But it’s not for the petite-wristed or weak-carpussed.

It’s got a presence. The wrapper is another story — it’s got this golden, oily sheen to it, one which shines and reflects the light like a polished mahogany desk. It’s slick, almost veinless and that classic pigtailcapthatI always feel a tad guilty clipping away. I like to apply cold on it before Ieven bring a flame to it.

It’s firm but not tight. There’s a very fat piece of leaf inthere. The aroma off the foot is all raw uncut barnyard—wet hay, fertile soil and something sweet way back there like dry raisins. It feels solid.

No soft spots, no masses. It seems like it was built to survive a trek through the jungle (because it was). Laguito No. 6 knows what they’re doing, and it’s palpable in the weight of this thing. The Sweet Introduction: TheFirst Third

I remember puffing on the first few cigaretteon that boat in the photo, its motor whirring beneath my feet.

The BHK 56 isn’t awhisperer, it’s an existential statement. Begin your journey with the sweet beginning in its first third.

ABV: 11.5 percent First I get smacked with a big whack of maple syrup and café latte! It is creamy, dessert-like — but there’s a hint of spice that rescues it from being a wall of softness. What I think of is exotic spice: sharp nutmeg, perhaps a distant whisper of cinnamon — not something as inherently suggestive to me as gin can come across, but paired with allows for an shrewdly clear cedar note. The smoke output is thick.

I mean, you could lose a compact car up in the tail ofclouds this thing produces. There’s a little black pepper in theretrohale, but it’s well-behaved. It doesn’t burn your sinuses, it just lets you know that it is there. Those earthy notes are there, but second banana to the ripe fruit sweetness.

It’s an busy opening, and I puffed slowly here just to pull apart all of the nuances. A 56 ring gauge cigar is a cigar that you do not rush; it’s a cigar that you work. TheMiddle Third: Getting Groovy

As I progressed toward the middle of that cigar — and by the way, it’s going to take you a good 30-40 minutes before you get there — the sweetness became more muted.

This is where the
Medio Tiempo

leaves really start to talk. For the uninitiated, these are the very rare leaves that only grow at the top of certain tobacco plants. They get the most sun and they have a punch that other sticks don’t give you. In the second third, or at least in its middle part — my favorite of this cigar — it’s those woody notes that come into their own.

It’s like walking into an ava-va-voom humidor constructed of sweet, fresh Spanish cedar. The earthynesscontinues to get stronger, more reminiscent of muddy dark soil after a rain. But then you get these explosions of caramel or honey, too. There is something oddly warmabout it in your mouth.

The strength picksgo up here, really getting into that medium-to-full territory. I could feel that buzz from a bit of nicotine, little pinch to say “good morning this isn’t for the faint of heart!” It’s a serious commitment. The Final Third: The Nasty Part

And by the time I read through that last third, the sun beaming in my memory (like itdid in that old photo) had already started to set on me

.

That’s where the BHK 56 comes in. The coffee notes flip the switch both from latte light to down and dirty dark espresso. The blackpepper definitely bites back, but it’s tempered by the depth of an almost bitter cocoa. And the bitterness isn’t an unpleasant bitterness; it’s more like the bite of a good pieceof dark chocolate.

Being able to hear something here is insanely hard. One puff is all earth and leather, the next a spicy punch. It heats up at the end, but because of that 56 ring it stays bearable longer than a thinner vitola would. I’m the guy who will smoke these all the way down to nothing, until my fingersare almost on fire. And how do you think I picked up such a habit?

It is difficult to walk away from this one, the flavors shifting until the very last moment. It’s a 90-minute commitment at least — and if you’re an unhurried puffer such as your humble correspondent, things could just spread out into two full hours of adventure bliss. Pairing: What to Drink?

You’re looking for something that withstands the BHK 56 without flattening out as it rolls through soft notes of maple and fruit. For me, I’m a sucker for a spicy, aged rum. Something Carribbean that’s got caramel, a hint of vanilla. It bridges thesweet with the spicy.

For scotch, something smoky or peaty always works for brussles sprouts — just not too smoky. A decent Highland malt puts me right. The cigar’s cedar and earthwell exhibit the smokiness of the scotch so nicely. And if it is mid-day?

You gotta make it adoppio. Notice how the bitterness of the coffee helps to cleanse your pallet for any rude ways coming up behindit surrender signs. pagebro. Medio Tiempo
power. The Verdict

Now listen, I’m not going to standhere and tell you that the price of these things hasn’t gone through the roof.

Over the past decade, that cost has escalated to a point where purchasing a box feels like making a down payment on a car. But is it a solid smoke? Absolutely. TheCohiba Behike BHK 56 embodies the phrase statement cigar.

It is for when you have a win, or are rocking out on the boat with an old picture in one hand and remembering why you started smoking cigars. It’s thick; it’s complicated; it’s as sturdy as an M1 Abrams battletank. It’s something I can’t smoke every day, myWallet would certainly certify that on a daily basis, but when I do it reminds me why this is the most sought after line in all of Habanos. These are worth putting your hands on if you can -and have a couple of hours to kill.

You just need to settle somewhere comfortable, ideally with a view anda good drink in hand. It’s a trip in a wrapper, and while the photo may fade, the memory of that smoke will not. Final Thought:
这是一个硬棒子店，竟然真得不用大声吼。 Solid.