Gran Habano 3 SLS | Cigar Review

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo Shade Grown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, Colombian Ligero
Size: 6 x 54 “Toro”
Body: Medium/Full
PRICE: $8.40 MSRP (On Close Out at CI for $2.75 box of 20/$6.40 for 5 Pack)

Today we take a look at an oldie but goodie: Gran Habano 3 SLS.

It has been around since 2006 and is now being closed out. So specials galore. While I only checked out a few online stores, CI seems to be the winner. Most stores are $20 or more per box than CI. Go to Cbid and get these cigars for next to nothing.
Cigar Aficionado thought quite well of this blend.
For a cigar that got such a high rating in 2007, the number of reviews can be counted on one hand. So maybe this one is just in time to take advantage of the closeout pricing.
This was a gift from reader Darryl Martin. Thanks brother. If I got that wrong, may the right party please contact me.

BACKGROUND:
Factory: G.R. Tabacaleras Unidas S.A.
Cigar Aficionado made the Gran Habano 3 Siglos Gran Corona #20 in their “25 Best Cigars of the Year 2007.”

From Cigar Aficionado:
“Gran Habanos have become the quiet brand that always seems to score well in Cigar Aficionado taste tests. The young company has had several ratings in the 90s, and we’re quite enamored with its latest creation, the Gran Habano 3 Siglos, which translates to “three centuries.”

“The cigar line debuted in December 2006, and we were especially taken with the Gran Robusto, which only seems to have gotten better since its initial release. The 6-inch x 44-ring cigar has a complex blend and lots of leather and earth. G.R. Tabacaleras Unidas S.A., the factory owned by George and Guillermo Rico, is proving itself to be one of the leading rollers of smokes in Honduras.”

DESCRIPTION:
A very rustic looking cigar. Lots of wrinkles, huge veins, and tight seams. A perfect triple cap. Very light in the hand but solid.
The wrapper is an oily, light caramel brown color. Fairly smooth to the touch.
The top band of the double cigar bands is very ornate.

SIZES AND (Closeout) PRICING:
Churchill 7 x 50 $3.00
Robusto 5 x 52 $2.50
Toro 6 x 54 $2.75
Gordo 6 x 60 $3.00
Torpedo 6.125 x 56 $3.00

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell lovely floral notes, sweetness, caramel, black licorice, nuts, coffee, and buttermilk.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell strong barnyard, spice, and hay.
The cold draw presents flavors of hay, sweet grass, black licorice, and creaminess.

FIRST THIRD:
We start off with Van Halen doing the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” Great start.
The draw is terrific.
Flavors pour down the chute: Red hot pepper, creaminess, chocolate, coffee, floral notes; all packed into the strength of a medium body cigar.

Smoke pours up my schnoz like a 5 alarm fire. I sneeze a quadruple special. I think I wrenched my neck. LOL.

As light as this cigar is, I don’t expect to experience a 90 minutes spectacle. Probably an hour or so at the most.
But it is tasty. I’m very so so about Gran Habano products. I’ve certainly reviewed my share of them. Some are very good and some are very ordinary specializing in targeting the poor schmuck market with $60 bundles. Wait…that’s me.

This was a gift and I hadn’t planned on reviewing it but as I come to a close on my ability to review cigars shortly, I thought…”What the blow job?”

Then the flood gates open with only 1-1/4” burned: Spice, creaminess, chocolate, nuts, black licorice, sweetness, cedar, caramel, wood, hickory elements, and the MALTS (Chocolate Malt, Cara Munich Malt, and Coffee Malt) [See Malt Chart].

The Gran Habano 3 SLS has maybe half a dozen online reviews to choose from . Half are video reviews which I cannot watch. Unless someone entertains me at the level of Richard Pryor, they bore me. I think I could be funny but that’s just hubris talking.

Chrissie Hynde is playing now. Man, I had a crush on her in the early 80’s. She is still pretty good looking at the age of 64 (Below):

The Gran Habano 3 SLS is a nice cigar but not a barnstormer. No complexity. So so balance. Short finish. Damn, I wish I could have reviewed a good cigar for you today.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 20 minutes.
I know where the Gran Habano 3 SLS is heading. Rightfully, the clearance aisle of the CI Conglomerates.

It’s not a bad cigar. But no one in their right mind would pay over $8.00 for this cigar. What was George Rico thinking? I’m insulted that he thought this focakte blend would bring that kind of dough. Now that it is being sold at $2.50-$3.00 per stick it is like water seeking its own level. Right where it should have been all along.

On Cbid, water has found its own level as these cigars are going for $1.75 apiece.

My crazed stalker, Magyud, commented on my UFO encounter on the Gurkha Xtreme review that what I saw happens all the time in New Mexico and Colorado. And you thought I was fucking nuts.

The wrapper is cracking. The char line needs several touch ups. What a waste of my time and yours.
I’m going to review the Arandoza Defcon tomorrow. I don’t care if it is ready or not, I’m an artist and I can get art from a tuber. (What movie is that from?)

HALFWAY POINT:
Smoke time is 30 minutes.
Santiago Cigars promised to send me the full complement of their 3 blends. Guess what? Nada, nothing, no sale. I don’t get it. More than half the people who VOLUNTEER cigars for review never come through.

Joey Holub of Summit Cigars sent me a couple of the Connie blends but I am not going to review them. Why should I? Roberto Lopez made a promise. He bothered me for an hour on the telephone telling me his story. I hate when manufacturers do this. They all end up saying the exact same thing. “I started off as a poor black child. I used my passion and true grit to become the man I am today. Except I don’t keep my promises.”
I have a list a mile long from manufacturers just like Lopez’s.

The 1” from the char line looks like Dresden after the fire bombing.
The flavors improve. Not quite complex yet. But a nicer balance. And a long finish. Finally.
Strength is medium/full.

Oh lord. If I have to listen to “Show Me the Way” by Peter Frampton one more time, I’m going to climb a tall clock tower and start mowing down students.

The removal of the main cigar band has too much glue and takes a large swath of wrapper with it. Out comes the cigar glue. Should hold it.
LOL!!
This is like smoking a joke cigar.

And then, the char line straightens out.
Flavors are now more impressive: Malts, creaminess, chocolate, spice, caramel, nutty, toasty, black licorice, gingerbread cookies, cinnamon, and vanilla bean.
Now we’re talking. About fucking time!!!!!

Can you rate a cigar a minus number? For the construction reasons alone, the Gran Habano 3 SLS doesn’t deserve much.
But in the last half, flavors have perked up. Even some complexity appears. The balance is nice. Long finish.

But this should have happened from the start. Lots of transitions. Loads of complexity from the start. But it didn’t happen. It was like Moses roaming Palm Springs for 40 years.

Strength ratchets down from medium/full to medium body.
Not quite the transition I was looking for.

Even though the CI Conglomerates are dumping the Gran Habano 3 SLS, it is still too expensive. Boy, I bet the poor fools who bought this cigar for full price when it came out were really pissed off. Remember, Rico was charging $8 back in 2006 for this cigar. Haha. He was lucky not to be ridden out of town on a rail.
But then Rico milked the hell out of this cigar until every poor sucker was taken alive.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is 45 minutes.
The red pepper returns with a vengeance. And C-4 strapped to its chest.

Some bitterness shows up. Not in the cigar..ME.

The thing is that the Gran Habano 3 SLS shows this little hint of promise with some nice flavors in the last half but can’t sustain them. Nor make them big and powerful. No nuance. No subtlety. Barely complex. No transitions.

I’m not even sure that the Gran Habano 3 SLS qualifies as a yard ‘gar. If you want a good yard ‘gar, CI sells the Alec Bradley 90+ Rated 2nds. And then I notice that the original pricing has been jacked up. They used to go for around $22 for 10. Now they are averaging $25-$30. I guess their popularity gave CI the go ahead to hi-jack the consumer. I’ve bought 2 or 3 bundles in the past and was very pleased with them.

But the best deal of all time for a great inexpensive cigar is the Ezra Zion Blending Sessions. 5 packs, 10 packs or 20 packs. The 20 pack goes for $80. $4.00 per stick. I still have some and they are killer. With all the promotion I’ve given EZ, they should be sending me a bundle every month. Instead, they sent me 3 sticks along with my “purchase” of the bundle.
OK. Back to the Gran Habano 3 SLS.

This is not a cigar you want to hand to even your mooch friends. Unless you want to end your friendship.
You give them to those homeless blokes standing at an intersection with a perfectly lettered sign asking for money. Might as well let them smoke a cigar while they stand there. I think I will take a travel humidor and put some sticks in there and just leave them in the truck for just that. Besides, I never have any money on me.
Well folks, this fine example of mediocrity is about over.
If you buy them…just think of that red rubber enema bag with the long red rubber hose. I’m not afraid to use it.

RATING: 75

I was asked in a comment, by Anonymous Stogie, on the Gurkha Xtreme review to list some cigars I’d like to review. So here is my wish list:

Don Cirilo Habano RF3
Luchador El Gringo Chin Music
Rocky Patel 20th Toro
Gibraltar Extra Gran Robusto Iberian
Undercrown Shade Robusto
Meridian Sopadre (Robusto)
Espinosa Especial No. 5
El Cedro Cigars Maduro
Camacho Shellback
Padilla La Pilar
My Father La Antiguedad TAA Exclusive 2015
Romeo by Romeo y Julieta Aging Room Small Batch F25
Sublimes
Rocky Patel Decade Cameroon
Las Calaveras Edicion Limitada 2015
Tortuga 215 Reserva El Coyote Negro
Tatuaje Hyde
Crossfire Cigars Library Series
L’Atelier Extension de la Racine ER15
El Cedro Cigars Habano
E.P. Carrillo Seleccion Oscuro Especial
El Centurion H-2K-CT
Crowned Heads The Angel’s Anvil

OR! If you have something in your stash you would like to see reviewed, check to see if I’ve reviewed it, and if not; send it on and I will review it.

Thanks
Phillip Kohn
3854 S. Marcy St.
Milwaukee, WI
53220