Rolando Soto Midnight Habano Limited Edition Cigar: An out-of-this-world cigar?

When Shaun and Mandi from Rebellion Cigars were kind enough to send me a sampler of Rolando Soto cigars, I was excited to try a new boutique cigar brand, but also intrigued to see just how good a New World cigar blended by a Habano cigar sommelier could be. Being a film lover, and knowing that film critics don’t tend to make the best film directors, this was going to be an interesting cigar smoking experience. Of the three cigars in the sampler pack – this one, the Paradise Connecticut, and the Soul Maduro, I chose to review the Midnight Habano first.

The first thing that struck me about the Rolando Soto Midnight Habano cigar was the elegant simplicity of the band. The Honduran Natural Habano wrapper looked like it had been crafted out of milk chocolate and aromas of marshmallow and marzipan tickled my nose, enticing me to cut and start savouring the cigar. The cold draw was nice and easy, hinting to flavours of light coffee and almonds so I didn’t hang around very long before lighting up.

My first draws were very smooth and the wrapper left a gentle, natural sweetness on my lips. The smoke was creamy and light, reminding me of the hot and frothy malted milk drinks I used to enjoy before bed when I was younger. Complementing this milkiness was the taste of an egg custard tart with fresh nutmeg grated over the top. The burn was impeccable at the start, although the ash didn’t want to hold for much more than a centimetre. As the cigar burned, the heat from the ember released the oils in the wrapper making it glisten in the light.

With the subtle and nuanced flavours in the cigar, I wanted an uncomplicated cocktail that wouldn’t compete with the tastes and aromas but rather enhance them. My first thought was a Godfather or an Old Fashioned, but both of these would have almost certainly overpowered the cigar. Sticking with a bourbon though, I chose to mix myself a Kentucky Goldrush – a combination of double bourbon (I used Bulleit) and vanilla liqueur (Licor 43). This was the perfect pairing; the Bulleit enhancing the natural sweetness in the wrapper and the vanilla balancing the baking spices and nuttiness.

As I got the the middle third of the Rolando Soto Midnight Habano cigar the flavours segued from the nutmeg and almonds to a warmer cinnamon and caramelised walnut. At the halfway point, there was a definite undercurrent of warming winter spiced biscuits that were somewhere between ginger thins and Biscoff biscuits. This was a cigar that I wanted to spend time with and it rewarded me with deliciously subtle yet somehow rich flavours.

In the final third, the flavours started to get more earthy starting with a gentle note of raw liquorice. This was fleetingly followed by a tickle of venison and red wine stew. By this point the burn had got slightly uneven, but a couple of judicious draws reset the course of the burn. The predominant flavours in this third of the Rolando Soto Midnight Habano cigar were an earthy black cardamom and warm, rich pecan.

Throughout the cigar the smoke remained smooth and creamy with no burn or pepperiness to it. The ash was a little crumbly when it dropped into my ashtray and even with the slight burn issue in the middle third, I really did enjoy every moment that I spent with the cigar as I smoked it right down to the nub.

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Rolando Soto Midnight Habano Limited Edition Cigar Details