The grass around here is not growing much at all, but the weeds never seem to stop, so I have to get the bush hog out and hit some areas in the pastures that are getting a bit tall. I reached into my “for review” section of my humidor to pull out something to occupy myself while I mow and ended up with the Knuckle Sandwich Habano from Espinosa Cigars. This cigar was created in a collaboration with none other than Guy Fieri. Apparently Guy Fieri is a big cigar smoker who wanted to venture into the industry. I’m anxious for this trip to “Flavor Town”... or at least hopeful that’s where I end up.
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: San Lotano
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Vitola: 5 x 52 Robusto
Price: $12.50 MSRP
Release Date: February 2022
Company Website: www.espinosacigars.com
The wrapper on this cigar was very fragile and flaked off in two spots near the head. The cap is also split down the middle. I hope everything holds up throughout the smoke. The wrapper is light and has some decent mottling. I’m not crazy about the name or the presentation, but it seems fitting for Guy fieri’s style. It smells like cedar and sweet tobacco. The cold draw has some cacao, berries, and pepper. First light brings loads of medium-full bodied smoke with full flavors of bread, sweet peppers, black pepper, and earth. A quarter inch in I got a soy sauce note. This is the first time I have actually gotten that note in a cigar. The retrohale has some spicy pepper and cacao. The first third concludes with perfect performance and a pretty consistent profile. The second third shows the bread to be more toasty, but aside from that, the flavors are much the same. Hitting halfway a fair amount of wood and light brown sugar have become prominent. There’s still some of that soy sauce in the finish. Hitting the band it has gone towards more of a dry wood. The wrapper is still hanging on and the performance has remained great. Entering the final third I’ve hit the wrapper splits and the wrapper is flaking off, but the cigar is smoking fine. It’s mainly wood, earth, and toast with a bit of general pepper and sweetness. Coming to an end at an hour and 37 minutes the wrapper pretty much came apart, but the cigar burned to the end, albeit with some canoeing. The profile turned more pepper and earth forward with some wood.
Overall Experience
Overall I thought this cigar had plenty of flavor and offered some interesting flavor combinations between the sweet peppers, soy sauce, and cacao. This was reminiscent of some Asian inspired cooking, to me. I am sure some of this was because of the correlation with this cigar to the culinary world. The cigar then turned towards a more generic earth, wood, and sweet pepper profile, but that’s not a bad thing. Even with the wrapper issues, it performed well throughout. I don’t know that I will necessarily purchase more, but I think it’s something worth trying if you like full flavored cigars that lean towards savory, earthy, and peppery flavors.
Feel free to reach out to me with questions, concerns, criticisms, or just to talk at @guitarsandcigarsfarm on Instagram, or visit my website www.guitarsandcigarsfarm.com.