Review of Macanudo 1968 Gigante Cigar

The Macanudo 1968 was a new release in 2008, and an attempt by General Cigar to push this well known brand name into a higher level premium market share and in their words “a tribute to iconic brand's 40-year legacy”. Everyone smoking cigars today knows the Macanudo line and usually thinks of mild smoking medium priced sticks that will not disappoint you, nor will they knock you off your feet for that ‘Wow’ factor. The wrapper is something called a Honduran San Agustin Havana Seed, the binder is a Connecticut Habano and the filler is a mix of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Ometepe tobacco. If you remember from one of my earlier reviews, I wrote about ‘Ometepe’. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. It was formed by two volcanoes leaving the mineral rich soil perfect for growing tobacco and coffee. The ‘Ometepe’ is really two words from the local indigenous language of Nahuatl and literally means two mountains (‘ome’ is two and ‘tepetl’ is mountain). Okay so now you have a filler that is Nicaraguan tobacco from two different tobacco growing regions of that country. I am not certain where the non-Ometepe tobacco comes from but I would guess Esteli. Now why does all this sound familiar? I will get to that later. Right now, let's talk about the smoking experience.

The size I choose for my review was the Gigante, a colossal 6” by 60 ring gauge. I don’t usually smoke this large of ring gauge but there are plenty of folks that do and I want to give equal time to various sizes in these reviews. This cigar is a very bold flavorful smoke. The aroma and taste was a good combination of triple espresso flavor and the smell of coffee beans just after they have been roasted and ground with a hint of ‘dolce la leche’, a sweet syrup made from milk and very popular in South America. The kept these flavors and aromas were consistent throughout the entire cigar.

The natural wrapper is nice and firm and has a great ‘olde world’ look to it while still being a polished well appointed cigar. The draw was good, lighting easy and a perfectly even burn right from the start producing lots of smoke. Although as I said, this is not my choice of size the 60 ring gauge was a bit daunting but for this cigar very manageable. So what about the tobacco that goes into this cigar and why did I say it should sound familiar? Well, the Punch Gran Puro is wrapped with a Honduran San Agustin Havana Seed, the Hoya de Tradicion has a Connecticut Habano binder and the Bolivar filler is the exact combination of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco (Nicaraguan tobacco from Esteli and Ometepe). Okay, you are now thinking ‘So What’. If you know your cigars you will realize that all of these cigars are produced by the General Cigar Company, and a very clever company indeed. They have taken the best aspects of these other cigars and combined them to produce an even better cigar. The ash on this cigar fell off at 2” after 40 minutes and entire cigar lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes down to 1 ½ “.

These cigars come in several sizes; Churchill (7x49) $10, Toro (6x54) $9.50, Robusto (5x50) $8.50 and the one I smoked for the review the Gigante (6x60) $11. These are a little higher priced that your average Macanudo, but a much better smoke. I felt it was similar to a Camacho Triple Maduro but a slightly softer version. With the Camacho being a $12 to $16 stick I would say that the Macanudo 1968 is a much better value. A tip of the hat goes to General Cigar for a great job on blending this one.

PRICE REDUCTION: The prices of Macanudo 1968 cigars were drastically reduced in May 2011. Click For Details.