Help me decide

[jayro75]

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to cigars. I am hoping to try something new and decided on the Cohiba Maduro 5. Which one would you choose as a first smoke the Gemios, Secretos, or the Magicos? Is there much of a difference in taste between them or is it size only?

Thanks in advance for any help given.

[Tampa1257]

First thing Jay, Welcome to FOH I am glad you took my advise and joined FOH. I believe you will find why FOH is a Home for many Cuban cigar smokers. Let me suggest that you also post an Intro to the forum explaining your cigar likes and dislikes, basically allowing the members to get to know you and you having an opportunity to know them. Rob & Lisa (El Prez & The First Lady) take customer service to a new level, which you will find out and enjoy when you do business with them.

Now to answer your initial question, I would recommend the Secretos personally of the Cohiba Maduro 5 line. While I do not believe that the Maduro 5 line tastes anything like either the Cohiba Linea or the Cohiba Siglo line, I feel it will develop and be an interesting flavor profile in the future. The Secretos being the smaller of the vitolas will have stronger flavor and will take less humidor time than the other vitolas in the Maduro 5 line in my opinion.

Tampa

[jayro75]

» First thing Jay, Welcome to FOH I am glad you took my advise and joined

» FOH. I believe you will find why FOH is a Home for many Cuban cigar

» smokers. Let me suggest that you also post an Intro to the forum

» explaining your cigar likes and dislikes, basically allowing the members

» to get to know you and you having an opportunity to know them. Rob & Lisa

» (El Prez & The First Lady) take customer service to a new level, which you

» will find out and enjoy when you do business with them.

»

» Now to answer your initial question, I would recommend the Secretos

» personally of the Cohiba Maduro 5 line. While I do not believe that the

» Maduro 5 line tastes anything like either the Cohiba Linea or the Cohiba

» Siglo line, I feel it will develop and be an interesting flavor profile in

» the future. The Secretos being the smaller of the vitolas will have

» stronger flavor and will take less humidor time than the other vitolas in

» the Maduro 5 line in my opinion.

»

» Tampa

Tampa, thanks for giving me the advice. I feel like I have been unshackled and am free to explore all that Habanos have to offer.

Forgive me for being naive but being a relatively new smoker I'm not quite sure why 1 vitola would need more humidor time than another?

[Grasso]

Firstly, welcome! Being new to cigars, you might want to take a step back and grab a bunch of singles to try from the various brands. It'll give you a nice idea of all the different flavor options available.

If you're dead set on the Cohiba Maduros, why not get some singles of all three? :-) Admittedly, I haven't smoked any of the Maduro 5s. If I were only going to try one of them, though - I'd go for the Genios. They seem to be a better value than the Magicos.

[harryleech]

Welcome Jay! I'm new here myself, but it's a great spot.

No idea what you like, but for what it's worth I've got to second the vote for the secrotos. I've only tried a few of each size, but the two larger size i found to be;

a) Too sweet and

A fairly strong ammonia taste

Although the tobacco is aged 5 years (or so we're told) I'd imagine that there's stil some fermentation etc to be done once the cigar is blended and that the cigars will still improve with age, and quite fast (or maybe not, I'm still getting my head around theory's of blending.)

That said, for some reason I didn't find an ammonia taste from the Secrotos, found the sweetness to be over-powering and found it to be very enjoyable and quite tasty. Not what I would usually go for (Partagas, RA, Bolivar etc) but a nice change of pace. I've only had experience with about a dozen (or maybe 2 dozen) NC's, but I imagine that if you like NC's that the Secrotos will be a nice 'in' to Cuban cigars...

[Grasso]

» Tampa, thanks for giving me the advice. I feel like I have been

» unshackled and am free to explore all that Habanos have to offer.

»

» Forgive me for being naive but being a relatively new smoker I'm not quite

» sure why 1 vitola would need more humidor time than another?

Quick and dirty explanation:

Larger cigars take more time to "blend" flavors together as they age. Have you ever had leftover spaghetti and thought "Wow, this is even better today!"? This is sort of the same effect. The big'uns, because there's more tobacco, just take longer to do this.

[jayro75]

Since I've never smoked a real Habanos I'm not qualified to say what I like from that stand point. As far as NC's go I really enjoy Tatuaje, and San Cristobal. I smoked a Davidoff Millenium Blend Robusto last night and found it kind of weak if that makes sense.

I think i might go ahead and take Grasso's advice and buy a Robusto sampler and some Maduro singles to get a better feeling for my likes and dislikes.

[Tampa1257]

Jay,

Another new member was recently asking about what a New Cuban Cigar smoker should consider as "Must Try" cigars. As I mentioned on that thread, we are very passionate cigar smokers with completely different favorite tastes and flavors that we enjoy. There is no one simple answer. I recommend that you read this thread for what several of us believe are "Must Try" Cuban cigars. There will be a few for your consideration.

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/board_entr...er&descasc=DESC

Tampa

PS, I encourage you to read all the sticky threads. Read the different cigar reviews and then smoke a few cigars.