Cohiba Maduros 5 Secretos

Description

The Quiet Hum of the Secretos: A Night at Sea
I’ve never been a fan of celebrating fifteen years of marriage while seated at an overcrowded steakhouse and have a waiter breathing down my back every three minutes. For our anniversary, I wanted to do something a bit more stripped back. I got a little old beat-up fishing boat just beyond the breakers, nothing fancy, just something sound in hull and engine comprising enough deck space for two chairs and a cooler. The sun was setting, turning the sky these bruised purples and burnt oranges, and the water was so glassy still you could barely tell what it was.

Product Specifications

It was peaceful. The sort of peace that makes you feel how much din you put up with during your normal life. We had just eaten a light dinner — cold lobster rolls and a bottle of crisp white wine — and as the engine rumbled to that smoky, low rhythmic hum, I felt that familiar itch. You know the one.

That moment when the air is so right you just feel like smoking a cigar with it. But There Was A Catch: We Were Only 45 Minutes From Returning To The Dock. I simply didn’t have the two hours to dedicate to a mammoth Churchill or a Double Corona. I wanted something that would concentrate a decade of flavor into whatever amount of time I was willing to wait.

Dense, rich and dark was what I craved. I reached into my travel humidor and pulled out a small, dark cigarette that appeared nearly black against the orange of the sunset. That smoke? The
Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos
.

It’s the sort of cigar that doesn’t need to snivel for your notice by its sheer physical bulk; it demands attention through character. I think I was sitting there, the air about me fresh with salt clipped the cap and wondered,
“If this isn’t worthy of the moment, I don’t know what is. Spoiler alert: It exceeded it. The Transition: Why the Secretos?

For most people, when they a picture of Cohiba comes into their mind it usually involves the yellow-and-black bands of the Siglo series or the classic Linea Clasica. But, the Maduro 5 line, which first appeared on the scene in 2007, is a whole different animal. It was Habanos S.A.’s way of saying, in the Connecticut shade market that is, that they can play at this dark, aged wrapper game just as well as the people in Nicaragua or the D.R., but still with unmistakable Cuban soul. The Secretos is the runt of the litter — a Petit Corona that appears to have been chiseled from aged mahogany.

That’s made for situations like mine on that boat: short on time but high on expectation. Feature
Specification
Product Name
Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos
Vitola de Galera
Secretos (Tres Petit Corona)
Construction: Small, Dark, and Handsome
The Secretos against the rest of them So let me tell you, it feels equally historic to hold a Secretos.

The first thing you see is that wrapper. This is not your average Colorado shade leaf. This is because it’s part of the Maduro 5 series, that wrapper has been aged a full five years before it even gets near to a roller. They take the top leaves of the plant — which are cooked by the sun — and ferment them longer and harder.

The result is a leaf that’s dark, toothy and oily as a mechanic’s rag. In my hand, on that boat, it was heavy for how small it feels in size. Solid. The pre-light draw was perfect as well.

I didn’t experience any of that airy, loose resistance one finds in poorly constructed mini-cigars. It was firm but productive. I took the cold draw and was greeted with what can only be described as fermented hay, dark cocoa, and just a underlying hint of something sour, but not off putting sour like high percentage dark chocolate. The construction looked impeccable.

No stinky flavor, no cough-inducing smoke, no soft spots, no veins that appeared as if they’d produce an uneven burn. It’s a “totalmente a mano” (totally handmade) long-filler cigar, and you can tell the rollers at the Partagás factory weren’t cranking these out like cookies. Taste: A (Three) Act in Three Movements
The First Third: The Awakening
I toasted the foot with a single-jet flame, making certain I didn’t scorch that lovely 5-year-aged wrapper to no great end.

The first few hits were a real wake-up call. You ever walk into a coffee shop in the middle of roasting beans?

That was it. I was slapped with toasted tobacco and a very defined cedar note. But it wasn’t “light.” You could feel the Maduro influence even in the first five minutes. There was a creamy mouth-feel to the smoke and a gentle touch of black pepper lingering in my nose on the retrohale.

It wasn’t aggressive, though. It was more like a mild hint of strength. While I was sitting watching the boat’s wake, the cigar fell into a rhythm of sweet espresso and toasted almonds. The Second Third: The Core of the Matter
It took me until I was halfway through — which comes quicker than you’d imagine due to a 40 ring gauge — for the flavors to begin to elevate.

This is where the name “Secretos” begins to befit. There’s a complexity here that you just don’t expect out of something that short. First halfThe sweetness from the wrapper began to bleed into the filler. I mean dark, bitter cacao and rich earthy leather.

It felt “thick.” Some cigars you smoke air; I felt like I was eating a meal here. That was balanced by a caramel-like sweetness on the finish that kept away from overly earthy grit. My wife even noticed the aroma, calling it “expensive old furniture,” and she meant flattery as an assistant to the cigar. Final Third: And a nail-biting finish
As the boat began to make its way back toward the marina, the Secretos decided to crank up the heat.

The last third is where this cigar gets its bite.

The creaminess was a distant second, and the leather and dark coffee crossed the line right in front. Then it was intense, but not bitter. I’ve smoked lots of little Cubans that become all “hot” and “squishy” near the end, but the Secretos held firm. I got a big hit of toasted tobacco, and a lingering spice that hung out on the back of my tongue long after the smoke was gone.

It’s a powerful finish. It’s like the last movement of a concerto where everyone is playing at the same time but it’s all coherent in some way. I smoked it all the way down to that concern, about singing my fingertips. Pairing: What to Drink?

Now, on the boat, I was sipping some of that remaining white wine and — truth be told — it was a terrible match. The acid in the wine battled with the full-bodied Maduro wrapper. If I were back in my study, I would go one of two ways with this. First choice?

A double espresso. That profile of the Secretos is frequently compared to a strong coffee, and putting them in unison reminded me of that feedback loop of goodness. The coffee’s bitterness serves to extract the hidden sweetness of the tobacco. If you’re an adult person, I’d recommend a dark, aged rum — maybe like Havana Club 7 Year.

What you need is something that has the sugar and body