Pre-light Experience

Seth: The Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto is a nicely pressed cigar. It sports a wrapper that is dark Natural, and it has some tooth present. Small to medium sized veins. It has qualities of Sumatra seed tobacco, could be Cameroon of sorts, but who knows these days. The coloring is that of leather, and it’s a good looking cigar. Wonderful draw, with aromas of barnyard, spices, tobacco and rich earth. Lovely.
John: The Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto is wrapped in a Colorado Maduro wrapper, and the vitola appears to be a soft box-pressed Corona with a neat and tidy appearance. The wrapper is quite smooth. I weighed the cigar at 12.5 grams and measured the humidity at 63.7% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Aromas from the wrapper included tobacco and wood, with both registering at light to light plus strength. From the foot, I was getting a richer tobacco aroma along with earth and mild hay.
Jiunn: The Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto has a silky smooth and uniform Colorado wrapper on the soft pressed format. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and firm, head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas give sweet roasted nuts and cedar.

Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto

First Third

Seth: The first third begins with nice barnyard qualities that are paired with coffee, leather and some mocha notes. Earth present as well with warm spices. Medium to medium-full in strength and body.
John: The first third opens with an intense medley of chocolate, medium minus strength spices, sweet tobacco and sharp wood on the finish. Through the retrohale, there is an even more intense combination of creamy tobacco and medium plus strength spices, finishing with an earth component. As the first third settles in, some bread moves into the retrohale, but the spices have morphed into medium-full, almost full-strength black pepper, which is currently dominating the entire retrohale. At roughly a half-inch into the review, the pepper begins to calm down to around medium strength. As the pepper continues to fall in intensity with the cigar moving toward the halfway point, the bread becomes more detectable through the retrohale. By the halfway point of the first third, light plus strength baking spices are lingering on the post draw.
Jiunn: The first third gives mainly citrus and cocoa powder. Sort of an odd combination but it works. Retrohaling provides nose clearing fresh red pepper spice. The finish is short with cedar and citrus. Strength and body is medium.

Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto

Second Third

Seth: The second third delivers a more barnyard, earth and coffee profile. The leather is still there, but not as pronounced. No mocha, but the spices are getting warmer. Medium-full in strength and body.
John: The profile moves into the second third with a decidedly stepped-down intensity, with bread and wood leading off at light plus strength. Spices and wood combine on the finish, also at light plus strength. As the second third settles in, the profile increases somewhat in strength to medium minus and settles into a consistent combination of bread and wood leading off, supported by baking spices. The profile remains stable and consistent through the bottom half of the second third.
Jiunn: The second third shifts to far less cocoa powder, replaced by primarily citrus and cedar. It’s not as eventful as the first third but the enjoyment factor is unchanged. Strength and body is still medium.

Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto

Final Third

Seth: The final third delivers a spicier profile that is paired with wood and earth. Some faint barnyard notes are present. Strong tobacco qualities. Full of strength and body.
John: The cigar moves into the last third with bread and wood leading off, supported by light to light plus strength baking spices. As the last third settles in, the wood intensifies on the finish to just over medium strength, bringing a tannic sharpness with it. Wood flips for the lead against the bread as the last third continues. By the halfway point, the sharpness in the wood through the finish begins falling in strength as dryness moves in. The profile becomes primarily wood forward through the bottom half of the final third. Bread pushes back against the wood as the bottom half continues, providing some balance to the increasingly dry profile.
Jiunn: Repeat track. The profile is still the same as the second third with cedar and citrus on the mouth palate and the same nose clearing red pepper spice on the nose palate. Strength and body finishes the same medium.

Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto

Burn

Seth: The burn is very good from start to finish.
John: As with every review, I lit the cigar with my Xikar Tactical single torch lighter. The burn was relatively straight through the first third, with a noticeably flaky ash. The burn became wavy moving into the second third and spontaneously went out, requiring a re-light. The burn remained uneven through the last third.
Jiunn: Burn performance was excellent as the burn was even, tight ashes, cool burning temperatures and ample smoke production.

Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto

Draw

Seth: The pressed cigar has a great draw.
John: As with every review, I used my Colibri SV to make a V-cut. I measured the draw with the Cigar Medics draw machine at 20 inches of water. Subjectively, I found the draw to be 1 to 2 notches towards the resistant spectrum, which puts it slightly into the resistant range.
Jiunn: The draw was perfect, giving the ideal air flow and resistance.

Overall

Seth: The Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto is an average cigar with a familiar profile. It really touches on core flavors throughout, showing change in what is dominant, and it grows in strength as well. The burn and draw are perfect from beginning to end, and it has a finish that lingers on the palate. This is an average blend that could be very good with a little more complexity.
John: Blind Cigar #1609 delivers a more compelling experience than the overall rating might initially suggest, particularly because of how much character it brings into the opening third. The cigar starts with a fairly intense combination of chocolate, sweet tobacco, spices and sharp wood, and the retrohale adds another dimension with creamy tobacco and progressively more aggressive spice. The transition into medium full, almost full-strength black pepper is particularly noticeable, but importantly, the pepper does not remain at that intensity for the remainder of the cigar. It settles down enough to allow the bread and baking spice components to become more apparent. The second third is where the cigar finds its most consistent rhythm. The initial intensity steps down considerably, leaving bread and wood at the center of the profile with baking spices providing support. There isn’t a great deal of evolution here, but the consistency works in the cigar’s favor. The profile remains balanced enough between the bread, wood and spice that it avoids becoming overly one-dimensional, even as the strength settles around medium minus. The final third is less successful. Wood begins to take over from the bread, and while the tannic sharpness that initially accompanies it eventually falls back, it is replaced by an increasing dryness. By the bottom half, the cigar is primarily wood forward, although the bread does make an effort to push back and restore some balance. That prevents the final third from becoming completely dominated by the wood, but the profile is noticeably less satisfying than what came before it. Construction was generally good, although the burn became progressively less consistent as the cigar moved through the second and final thirds. The spontaneous re-light was the most significant issue, followed by the uneven burn in the final third. The draw was slightly more resistant than ideal but remained very good overall and never interfered significantly with the smoking experience. Overall, the Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto is a cigar that peaks early and then settles into a more restrained and consistent middle before losing some of its balance toward the end. The opening third provides the most memorable portion of the experience, particularly with the combination of creamy tobacco, chocolate, baking spices and the brief surge of black pepper. The second third maintains that foundation effectively, while the final third shifts increasingly toward dry, tannic wood. Even with that decline, the cigar delivers enough complexity and balance across the first two thirds to earn a Good overall rating. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 1 minute.
Jiunn: For the last five minutes I have been sitting in front of my laptop trying to figure out a potentially new and refreshing way to say the cigar is average just like the majority of the reviews. I can’t think of one. This Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto is just average.

Seth Geise

SCORE

6.00

Cost/Point

$2.33

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

6.47

Cost/Point

$2.16

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$2.43

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Powstanie Sumatra Grand Robusto