Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés, San Andrés rope
Binder: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Filler: Pennsylvania, Criollo 98, Corojo, Nicaragua
Aging: 14-year-old tobaccos
Size: Ambassador Perfecto, 4.5 x 38/60
Strength: Medium to Full
Price: ~$16.50
Release: 2025
Factory: La Aurora S.A., Dominican Republic
Blender: Manuel Inoa
Experience Rating: 98
Transcendent. Transformative. Transportive.
This one has me scratching my head. Not because I’m confused. Because I’m overwhelmed. This is a cigar that transcends all cigar logic. It doesn’t warm up. It doesn’t build into a sweet spot or two. The entire smoke is a sweet spot.
When I shared my thoughts on this cigar a couple of weeks ago, I said, When you give a blender tobacco that’s already fully resolved, you’re giving him the ability to build a cigar that doesn’t have to come together later, because it’s already together. Now it can do something else.
And that something else is a cigar that doesn’t wait to unfold or reveal itself. It simply exists in full expression from the first draw.
This is probably the best-tasting cigar I’ve had in a long time. Its profile is strong, dark, and sweet. The extreme age of the tobacco ensures a smoothness, composure, and refinement I haven’t experienced before.
But I won’t give it a score of 100.
Yes, it is transcendent. It’s transformative. It transports my mind to a very happy place. But as good as it is, it’s just lacking in a single place.
Drama.
It’s fully resolved and fully expressive. It’s just not suspenseful.
It’s almost paradoxical: the cigar is overwhelming because it arrives complete, but that same completeness removes some of the dramatic tension I normally respond to. There’s no chase. No risk. No moment where the cigar might fail, then pulls itself together. No final revelation.
It’s just magnificent from the start, and it stays there. That’s what’s keeping it from getting a 100.
When I wrote my review of the Southern Draw Manzanita, I said the activity never stopped, with wave upon wave of flavors coming at me. Transition after transition—it just kept coming. That’s drama.
The 008 lays out its profile right away: deep, rich tobacco, sweet notes of grape jelly, honey, molasses, stone fruit, caramel, and vanilla. There’s also sourdough, herbs de Provence, nutmeg, yeasty bread, baking spices, earth, oak, cashew, leather, mint, beer malt, and minerality on the finish.
The complex array of flavors is wonderful. They’re all there from the start, and they come at you with full force and all at once. Strength starts at medium-plus and stays there until the end, where it cranks up to full. It’s overwhelming.
Don’t get me wrong. This is a wonderful cigar. It’s so good that I bought a second box.
That says everything.
The 008 is magnificent from the first draw to the last.
And maybe that’s the point. It doesn’t need to fight for greatness. It arrives there.
For me, the only thing keeping it from 100 is that final bit of drama I look for in the rarest experiences. And even without it, the 008 is extraordinary.
I realize this review is shorter than usual. There just wasn’t a long progression to trace. I tried applying my usual heuristics to the cigar, but I gave up after the first third because it was pointless. It was almost as if the cigar was scolding me for even attempting to treat it like other cigars.
Unlike other cigars that move through distinct phases, this cigar was fully realized from beginning to end. Simply put, there wasn’t much movement to follow.
Klaro Cigars still has 5-packs and boxes. I’m not affiliated, but if you’re interested, you can get them there.
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