Ohana Nui- A Family Cigar

Today I chose another aged cigar to smoke- the Ohana First Generation Reserva Limitada by Ohana Nui Cigars. It’s pouring outside, but the First Generation has a lovely Habano Rosado wrapper which I can nearly smell from across the room. The wrapper itself is firm, with a sort of medium brown-bag color and a satiny sheen. The seams are entirely invisible with only a few lines. That smell, strong but not overpowering, gives off citrus and baking spice notes, and after I clipped it with a straight cut the cold draw solidified those flavors, giving a crazy orange taste, some pepper, and a deep earthiness. Lighting it up continues those notes- though the website says the cigar is a medium, it seemed to be at least a medium-full to me. Perhaps that is a result of the aging process. That pepper stays consistent, and the baking spices are stronger than the cold draw promised. The orange taste faded, except on the retrohale. That gave an intense orange flavor- almost like those candy orange slices, with the sweetness coming from a brown sugar taste. The pepper was still there, and I think I caught a hint of root vegetable, caught along in the earthiness. 

The first third was a touch nutty, and that medium-full strength overpowered the flavor just a bit. The brown sugar and earth stepped up to take the place of that white pepper, which faded way down. Overall the burn has been even so far, with a flaky gray ash and a thick smoke that coated my mouth. The pepper burned a touch around my mouth but not too terribly, so that was fine. So far it’s not been that surprising or interesting of a cigar, except for that orange taste near the beginning. Though that isn’t exactly a bad thing. Having a solid performing cigar that gets the job done is a must for any full humidor, and perhaps some people will like its full body and steady flavor more than I do.

The second third keeps that flavor, but it adds a creaminess to it that rounds the experience out a bit more. It went out near the start of the final third, though that was my fault- smoking it at work means I need to pause every once in a while to help customers out. I knocked the ash off- so far it had stayed solid, only crumbling off twice- and lit it back up. That final third really pushed the nicotine, and the sweetness all but disappeared. That’s always the danger of a relight though, so maybe I shouldn’t take that into account. Well, whose review is it anyway? I’ll keep it in. The flavors have all melded together, and the only real notes I can gather are a dry wood and that earthiness. All told, it's a bit heavier than I would normally like, but not so bad that it kills the experience. As I said up above, it’s mostly just a run-of-the-mill cigar, without any exciting bells or whistles. But for the price, it’s worth it. If you want a cigar that does exactly what it promises on first light, this is the stick for you.