Cohiba Secretos is a petit corona size cigar with ring gauge of 40 (15,87 mm) and 110 mm length. The vitola is known as Reyes in Cuban cigar factories and it’s about 1 centimeter longer than the previously reviewed Perlas. The cigar is locally available for 11 euro in black lacquered boite nature boxes of 10 (bBN10) and 25 (bBN25). Secretos was released at 2007 as part of the Cohiba Maduro 5 line-up together with Genios and Magicos as the first commercially available Cuban maduros. The maduro wrapper is aged for 5 years (hence the name Maduro 5) with the rest of the tobacco used in the range being aged for 3 years.
The cigars reviewed came from a box of LOE JUL 12 making these about a year old during the tasting. The LOE box code should refer to La Corona factory as far as I’m aware and I have seen few HdM’s and Punch’s with the same box code. The cigar is full bodied and intense flavored, starts out somewhat sharp and dry, there are dark chocolate notes mixed with coffee bean, burned wood, campfire and some ash notes with sweet maduro aftertaste, I don’t detect much resemblance to regular Cohiba taste profile, it might be a little overpowering, in fact it is so intense that there is no point in having another Cuban shortly after.
Cuban maduro is an interesting concept and while I do understand the business sense in labeling these as Cohiba, these don’t have much in common with the regular Cohiba line-up. If anything it does remind Partagas a little with it’s earthy woodiness. Would I buy these again? The cigar is enjoyable and I do recommend trying these as Maduros are different from what Cuba usually makes. That being said the Secretos is not my first option for a petit corona mainly due to the inconsistencies (can be amazing when done right but usually aren’t) and price (one of the most expensive cigars in it’s size group). In enjoyment factor it is comparable to Monte No 5 and I would smoke these more often if these were half the price. As things are I would rather take a Siglo I. 89 points.
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