Gran Habano announced the Black Dahlia last May and is described as full-bodied. The blend uses a Nicaraguan shade grown corojo wrapper and two Nicaraguan habano binders. The filler uses Nicaraguan cubita and habano, Colombian and Costa Rican tobacco. Today we are reviewing Gran Habano | S.T.K. Black Dahlia Robusto. The S.T.K. Black Dahlia is a regular production cigar coming in three vitolas: Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46) — $9.50 (Boxes of 20, $190), Gran Robusto (6 x 54) — $10 (Boxes of 20, $200), Robusto (5 x 52) — $9 (Boxes of 20, $180) Each box comes with Boveda humidity pack and are rolled at George Rico’s GR Tabaqueras Unidas factory in Honduras. S.T.K. stands for “Stay True Kid” and has been used in several other of the company’s cigars.
This cigar was reviewed blind (no bands) by a panel of at least 4 reviewers. They did not know what they were smoking beforehand. The scores are an average of all the reviewers' scores with outliers removed. All of our cigars reviewed are shipped to the panelists with Boveda packs to ensure optimal smoking experience.
Vital Stats:
Vitola: Robusto Length: 5″ Ring Gauge: 52 Country of Origin: Honduras Wrapper: Nicaraguan Shade Grown Corojo Binder: Nicaraguan Habano Filler: Nicaraguan Factory: G.R. Tabacaleras Co. Blender: George A. Rico Number of reviewers: 5 – Mickey T.(irratebass) John A.(Bostoneo) Ryan H.(Ryan H.) Dave W. (mdwest) Steve (ThaGreatWazoo)
Price: $9.00 Age: 4 months Release Date: May 2017 Contributed by: Gran Habano
Initial Impressions
Appearance: 93
“Beautifully capped and wrapped with nearly invisible seams, this is a great looking stick. If it smokes half as good as it looks, it will provide a really nice smoking experience. ” –Dave W. (mdwest)
Aroma: 90
“A pleasant tobacco and cedar aroma excite the nose while a loose draw reveals the same profile with a bit of sweetness.” –John A. (Bostoneo)
First Third
Flavor: 91 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium
“Much stronger than I expected based on its appearance and aroma, and is on the stronger side of medium. The flavor profile is full of wood and floral notes that are delicate and understated. Very nice start. ” –Dave W. (mdwest) “A huge floral, soapy, and salty flavor hit the palette on the initial light. The floral flavors stay around and are joined by a sweet lemongrass profile, this is damn tasty. Lastly, this third ends with the same floral theme going on and, call me crazy, pancake syrup… yup… now I need pancakes. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Second Third
Flavor: 91 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium
“Floral and ‘pancake syrup’ start this third off with a wonderful experience. As it burns along, light cedar notes join the fray as big smoke clouds carry me to the end.” –John A. (Bostoneo) “Starting to get a bit of spice, but not so much that it’s ramping up the strength it’s still on the mild – medium side. Gone out on my a couple of times, but no need to call anyone.” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
Final Third
Flavor: 90 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium
“Cedar and lemongrass sweetness carry this last third to the end. This has been a wonderfully tasty cigar even though it plateaus on this part. ” –John A. (Bostoneo) “Man this is a long smoke, been at it for almost 3 hours now….whew, so this is a time commitment. This is has been a dynamite smoke however. The creaminess has returned, the spice has left. There is an interested flavor on the end of this smoke that I can’t pinpoint, like maybe a rye bread or pumpernickel??? Hell I don’t know.” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
Overall Impressions
Draw: 96
“Perfect resistance provided. Not much room for improvement here at all. ” –Dave W. (mdwest)
Burn: 91
“The burn was consistent from beginning to end, and while it got a little off kilter at times, it self corrected on every occasion and never required a touch up. ” –Dave W. (mdwest)
Construction: 93
“No flaws except the prominate veins ” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
Overall Strength: Medium Overall Body/Complexity: Medium Experience Overall: 94
“This was a fantastic smoke, lots of butter/cream, bread and some baking spices to round it out. No real flavors of wood or earth or anything like that. I would really like to try this in a corona, because this was almost a 3 hour smoke, and that’s just too much. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass) “This was a great smoking cigar. The variance and complexity of flavors offered were amazingly tasty and made it hard to not just want to hotbox this thing because it was THAT good. That being said, I’ll defiantly recommend this cigar to any smoker as it is a mild to medium stick with uddles of semi sweet flavors. I need a box… stat. ” –John A. (Bostoneo) “I was suprised I enjoyed this cigar as much as i did. Just not a conni guy, but this is definately box worthy.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.) “Another cigar I will be interested in seeing the reveal on. A great stick, that I will certainly be looking to buy more of in the future. ” –Dave W. (mdwest) “I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar and the experience. The flavor profile was clean and crisp and the build and burn were exceptional. The cigar profile was fantastic and had a nice amount of complexity as the flavors bounced around. The retrohale was smooth, never harsh, and added some real nice notes of dark roasted coffee. This is a box worthy cigar, so go and get them.” –Steve (ThaGreatWazoo)
To view the complete scores and notes, click here.
Gran Habano | S.T.K. Black Dahlia Robusto
Overall Score – 92 – Great
Blind Cigar Review: Gran Habano | S.T.K. Black Dahlia Robusto
Summary
“This was a great smoking cigar. The variance and complexity of flavors offered were amazingly tasty and made it hard to not just want to hotbox this thing because it was THAT good. That being said, I’ll defiantly recommend this cigar to any smoker as it is a mild to medium stick with uddles of semi sweet flavors. I need a box… stat. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
