Cohiba Blue is made with Honduran, Dominican and Nicaraguan filler, a Honduran binder and a toothy medium brown Honduran wrapper. Of course, it has a blue Cohiba logo band.

The initial flavors include mild spice, pepper, chocolate, cream and earthy leathery mineral notes of chalk and slate. Occasional puffs seem like a thin veil of mint or menthol as part of the mineral/chalky taste. I rarely taste chalk in cigars. Caldwell Spoon comes to mind. The second third adds some wood, hazelnuts, herbal and floral hints. The retrohale features wood, leather, herbal and floral as well. There’s very little transition but it is complex. It’s medium to medium-full bodied and strength

The construction is exemplary – perfect draw, generous smoke production, and solid ash that held to tap off. If short fillers are part of the mix it certainly didn’t affect the ash. The burn line was almost flawlessly even. It went a tad askew at one point but a one second torch touchup and the burn line was plumb line accurate.

Although it is an unusual tasting smoke, I found Cohiba Blue enjoyable. It’s hard not to rate it a 4. Give it a 3.75 if I could.

The Laphroaig 18 is exceptional. Now...does anyone know where I can find another bottle when I polish off this one?

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