Background
Cohiba started out making cigars for Castro. Those cigar sizes plus a few others are the ‘linea clasica’ (or something like that) of today’s Cohiba. Then there was the ‘Siglo’ series, which started out as the same-sized-Davidoff. (Cuba wanted (essentially) control of Davidoff. Davidoff burned all his Cuban cigar stock and moved production to Henke Kelner in the Domincan Republic.) A ‘Maduro 5’ (or ‘Maduro $’) line was added a few years ago.
Also a few years ago, Cohiba celebrated some anniversary by making a few humidors of cigars at roughly $500 of today’s dollars. Per cigar, before tax. This was the original Behike.
Last year, Cohiba brought out the $150 (or so) Gran Reserva Cohiba. (This year it is the Monte#2, using tobacco from 2005). While both the Behike and the Gran Reservas are supposed to be awesome cigars, who gives a flying f*ck at those prices!
However, there is a market for ultra-premium cigars at high-end Padron prices (before taxes), and the new ‘Behike’ line is priced for that market. The line is not a limited edition; Behike's will be a regular Cohiba line.
The claim to fame for the Behike (besides the price) is that upper leaves of the tobacco plant are used, i.e., it is a ligero cigar. (Ligero in the usual sense, not the Cuban shade-grown sense.)
Review
This box is from December 2010 and thus isn’t part of the original release (spring 2010).
The cap had a creamy, buttery taste, quite rich. The foot smelt of damn good tobacco.
Draw and construction were perfect, and, unusually for a Cuban, the band un-did easily.
Upon toasting, the room scent of the cigar was of, well, damn good tobacco. Nothing artificial.
First impression was that this was a strong cigar, not as strong as a JdN Antano 1970, but getting there. Next was the powerful ligero-ness of the cigar, like an Oliva V or a LGD.
But neither strength nor power is the dominant characteristic of the BHK.
In a nutshell, the BHK was an incredibly complex cigar with absolutely no harshness. However, it didn't seem to be a deep cigar – there was a breadth of flavours, but not a depth of flavour. This lack of depth may change with age. While the cigar had an every-changing harmony of flavours, I didn’t nub it.
The Behike is a very accessible cigar – I think that almost anyone can smoke it and enjoy it. It smoked well at two months after the box date. Whether it is worth the price - well, if a Padron 80th is worth the money, then the Behike is worth the money as well. Myself, I’ll probably wait five years before I smoke the next one from this box.
Pics descriptions:
- cute box, heavily lacquered
- yup, cigars in a box
- five minutes after lighting
- about 80 minutes later
Update October 2016:
My memory is far from perfect, but this one seemed to be pretty much like the one I smoked in 2011 ROTT - but possibly more intense.
First third - trademark Cohiba "grassiness" very evident. Very enjoyable. Band glue tore the wrapper, annoying.
Second third - much less grassiness, predominant taste almost like an aged Opus X crossed with an aged JdN 1970, but smoother. Felt like the cigar needed a complement, went with Courvoisier V.S.O.P.; good pairing.
Last third - honestly, a bit too buzzed by then. Put the cognac aside. Cuban "twang" - yeah, I know, WTF is that taste - built up slowly and then came on strong like a freight train and then slowly subsided into, well, just plain damn good tobacco, best taken in very slow puffs - but the "show" was over by the last inch and a half. Like before, not a cigar that makes you want to burn your fingers on the nub, but smooth and silky right to the end.
Cigars-review.org ranks the BHK 54 in 50th overall, and I think that is a fair assessment at this time, given the cigars that are ranked higher/similar/lower that I've smoked. I think that I'll put the rest of the box back to sleep for another five years.
