Aaron Loomis

 John McTavish

Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Cohiba Spectre 2024 is primarily medium brown but has some areas where it leans lighter or darker as well as some darker freckles. There are some thick, raised veins present, the seams are smooth and the head is well finished. There are two bands, with the primary being silver, black and red and denoting the line name on front and the brand name on back. Attached to the primary and running to the foot is a black and bluish-silver sleeve that denotes the brand. The aroma from the wrapper is musty earth with some wood, while the foot brings bread and stone fruit sweetness. The pre-light draw is very interesting as it brings cedar, floral notes, stone fruit sweetness and crushed red pepper along with a mid-level spiciness on my lips.
John: The Cohiba Spectre 2024 comes in cellophane and does not have a UPC sticker. There is a single silver Spectre primary band, and the cigar also features a black paper wrap with Cohiba printed on it. I weighed the cigar at 16.8 grams with the wrap on and 15.9 grams without it. Using the CigarMedics Humidimeter Pro, I measured the humidity at 62.3%. Aromas from the wrapper included faint tobacco and wood, and I was picking up the same aromas from the foot.

Cohiba Spectre 2024

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with toasted cedar, earth, crushed red pepper and black pepper. At a quarter inch in, the crushed red pepper becomes very mellow. At a half inch in, the black pepper mellows a bit. The retrohale is toasted cedar, earth and mild black pepper. At an inch and a quarter, the crushed red pepper has departed and a light mustiness joins the profile. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is a bit ahead of the earth, with black pepper in the back half of the profile and some mustiness in the background. The strength was right at medium.
John: The first third begins with sweet tobacco followed by wood and mild spices. Bread moves into the retrohale, combining with wood as the third continues.

Cohiba Spectre 2024

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the black pepper is pretty faint. At a half inch in, the earth becomes even with the toasted cedar up front. The retrohale remains toasted cedar, earth and mild black pepper. At an inch and a half in, the earth mellows a bit. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is a bit ahead of the earth, with black pepper and mustiness in the background. The strength remained at medium.
John: The second third opens with creamy tobacco and wood, as trailing spices and wood team up on the finish and post draw. Bread and wood return to the retrohale as the third settles in. Baking spices at light-plus strength define the post draw, joined by light-plus earth through the bottom half.

Cohiba Spectre 2024

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the faint black pepper has departed. At a half inch in, the toast level increases a bit. The retrohale is now just toasted cedar and earth. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is ahead of the earth, with some mustiness in the background. The strength remained at medium.
John: The final third gets going with sweet tobacco and mild earth leading off, followed by wood and mild spices to finish. Dry wood defines the post draw early on, with earth joining at light-plus strength as the cigar settles in. By the halfway point, earth fully defines the post draw.

Cohiba Spectre 2024

Burn

Aaron: The burn was fairly wavy throughout and the cigar struggled to burn as parts of the filler wasn’t combusting at the same rate and I would get low smoke production. The cigar would then go out or require touch-ups to keep burning and this occurred four times.
John: The burn had some waviness in the first third that self-corrected. It remained straight through the second and final thirds.

Cohiba Spectre 2024

Draw

Aaron: The draw was a bit tighter than I prefer, but I don’t think it contributed to the burn issues.
John: I measured the draw at 65 inches of water using the CigarMedics draw machine. Subjectively, I found it 3½ to 4 notches toward the resistant spectrum, fairly resistant overall.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with toasted cedar, earth, crushed red pepper and black pepper. The crushed red pepper mellowed out fairly quickly and then the black pepper mellowed a bit. Later the red pepper departed and a light mustiness joined in. The second third saw the black pepper become very faint. The earth increased to become even with the toasted cedar up front, but then mellowed to it’s previous level. The final third saw the black pepper depart. The burn issues really caused the overall experience to be off-putting. The flavor profile of the Cohiba Spectre 2024 was average throughout, focused around toasted cedar and earth. The crushed red pepper at the beginning was very nice, and I would have liked for that continue, but overall, it was a pretty monotonous experience. The burn issues did the cigar no favors. For a cigar at this price point, an inexcusable experience. No chance I come back to this cigar unless someone else has the completely opposite experience and I experienced an anomaly.
John: The Cohiba Spectre 2024 delivered a balanced but somewhat restrained experience, with a consistent mix of sweet tobacco, wood and faint earth throughout. Bread and light baking spices offered some nuance, but the profile remained largely linear from start to finish. Excellent burn performance was offset by a notably resistant draw. Given the price point, I find it hard to overlook any sort of construction issue, but especially a resistant draw. My total smoking time was 2 hours 29 minutes.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

4.73

Cost/Point

$31.69

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.30

Cost/Point

$28.30

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Cohiba Spectre 2024