Zino Platinum Scepter Grand Master by Davidoff - Cigar Reviews by HB Cigars

Who hasn't wanted to smoke a cigar named after a medieval weapon that costs more than your monthly Netflix subscription? Nobody, that's who. After a two-week vacation where I questioned all my life choices, we're back with another review that'll probably make you rethink yours too. Today we're tackling the Zino Platinum Sceptor Grand Master - a name so pretentious it makes artisanal toast seem humble.

🔥 THE VITALS 🔥

Cigar: Zino Platinum Sceptor Grand Master

Master Blender: Eladio Diaz

Size: 5.5" x 52 (Robusto disguised as a "Grand Master" - fancy!)

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade

Binder: Connecticut USA

Filler: Dominican and Peruvian blend (exotic, right?)

Price: let's just say it's offensive

Aging: 4 years

🚀 WE ARE LIT!

Construction? This thing is looser than your mom after four years at State College. What? Yeah, I said it. This is one of the loosest draw cigars I've ever encountered - like sucking exhaust through a tailpipe with zero resistance. Mixed filler strikes again. If you take draws less than 90 seconds apart, this baby overheats faster than a laptop running Cyberpunk 2077.

🎯 FLAVOR JOURNEY

FIRST THIRD: The False Hope

We're getting nutty cashew notes, some sweet hay, and cedar on the retrohale. Pretty nice cream cigar, though not a whole lot of cream happening. It's a fairly good but completely generic Connecticut shade experience. The draw is absolutely killing me though - this thing requires the patience of a monk on meditation retreat. Short finish, smoky texture, and honestly? Pretty disappointing for the price of admission.

SECOND THIRD: The Slight Redemption

Light cream makes an appearance along with peanut notes, which I actually dig in Connecticut shades. Love me some nuts (the flavor, people). Getting hay and slight pepper on the retro that adds some interesting spice to this mild-plus body situation. I've smoked other cigars with Peruvian tobacco and honestly can't tell much difference - maybe my mid-palate just isn't sophisticated enough for this exotic leaf action.

FINAL THIRD: The Burned Disappointment

Charred cedar, some nuts, and burnt caramel finish this mediocre journey. The loose draw completely killed any potential this cigar had. Smoke time was about 60 minutes, but only because I had to smoke this thing slower than government bureaucracy to prevent overheating.

🏆 THE VERDICT:

C- TIER

Here's the deal with these mixed filler cigars - they're hit or miss, and this one's a definite miss. Sometimes you get one that's perfectly constructed and tastes amazing for the price. Sometimes you get this loose disaster that makes you question why you didn't just buy three decent cigars instead. The construction is terrible, the price is offensive, and for what you pay, you deserve perfection.

💨 BOTTOM LINE

Taking into account flavor (eh), construction (awful), availability (everywhere), and price (highway robbery), this gets a solid C-. It really grinds my gears that the cigar industry thinks it's acceptable to sell bad cigars at premium prices. Imagine buying a $20 bottle of alcohol that tastes terrible - that's exactly what this is. Mixed filler can work, but not when the draw is looser than airport security pre-9/11. Save your money and buy something that actually works properly. As always, if you like getting disappointed by overpriced tobacco, this one's for you!

TLDR: Pass. You'll have a better time at Medieval Times.

JC Newman The American by JC Newman - Cigar Reviews by HB Cigars

It's America's birthday again, which means it's time for overpriced beer, questionable firework safety decisions, and smoking cigars that cost more than your monthly streaming subscriptions combined. Today we're diving into the JC Newman The American—a cigar so patriotic it probably pays its taxes early and tips 20% at Applebee's.

🔥 THE VITALS 🔥

Cigar: The American

Master Blender: JC Newman + the ghost of manifest destiny

Size: Robusto (4.5" x 50)

Country of Origin: USA (shocking, I know)

Wrapper: Florida Sungrown

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Filler: USA blend

Price: More than your patriotism budget

Aging: 12 months at 65% RH, 68°F

🚀 WE ARE LIT!

The construction on this American dream started with a draw tighter than airport security after a three-day weekend. Had to break out the perfect draw tool like I was performing emergency surgery on democracy itself. Once we got past the initial resistance (very American behavior), the smoke production was solid enough to signal the next wagon train. The band design screams "I shop at Bass Pro Shops and have opinions about imported beer."

🎯 FLAVOR JOURNEY

FIRST THIRD: MANIFEST DUSTINY

Right out the gate, this stick hits you with earth notes so pronounced you'd think you were taste-testing a community garden. The mustiness factor is real—imagine the gym locker of every high school football player who peaked in 2003. Cedar comes through on the retrohale like a Home Depot employee trying to upsell you on premium lumber. The spice profile adds just enough kick to remind you that freedom isn't free, but apparently it tastes like a combination of regional tobacco pride and marketing genius.

SECOND THIRD: LEATHER AND REGRET

The earth train keeps rolling through flavor town, though thankfully not as aggressively as a Sumatra wrapper having an existential crisis. Leather notes join the party like that friend who shows up uninvited but brings good snacks. The real highlight here is what I can only describe as "convenience store parking lot at 2 AM energy"—you know, that distinct combination of questionable life choices and Marlboro Lights that somehow works in context.

FINAL THIRD: PEPPER DECLARATION

Charred cedar dominates like a backyard BBQ dad who insists his grilling technique is superior to everyone else's. Burnt tobacco flavors emerge with the subtlety of a monster truck rally, while eye-watering pepper on the retrohale will clear your sinuses faster than mentioning student loan forgiveness at a family dinner. Fair warning: retrohaling this section is like volunteering to be pepper-sprayed by the founding fathers themselves.

🏆 THE VERDICT:

B- TIER

Final Rating:

This American puro delivers exactly what you'd expect from a cigar that's more concerned with patriotic marketing than flavor innovation. It's interesting without being impressive, smokeable without being memorable. The novelty factor is strong—finding these on sale is harder than finding bipartisan agreement in Congress—but the premium price tag makes this feel like paying luxury car prices for a pickup truck experience.

BUY THE AMERICAN HERE

💨 BOTTOM LINE

The JC Newman The American is the cigar equivalent of buying a $200 "authentic vintage" band t-shirt at Urban Outfitters. It's technically American-made, definitely overpriced, and will give you something to talk about at parties where people pretend to care about tobacco terroir. Perfect for when you want to feel patriotic but also slightly disappointed in your purchasing decisions—which is basically the most American experience possible.

Aganorsa Leaf Rare Leaf Reserve | Cigar Reviews by HB Cigars

Sometimes you open your humidor and it's like that scene in Pulp Fiction where they open the briefcase. Golden light emanates, Travolta's ponytail gets backlit, and you're holding what appears to be a cigar wrapped in the skin of a particularly well-moisturized Instagram influencer. The Aganorsa Rare Leaf Reserve Toro gleams like it just finished a 10-step Korean skincare routine. This thing is oilier than a Silicon Valley pitch deck about disrupting the toothpick industry.

🔥 THE VITALS 🔥

Cigar: Rare Leaf Reserve

Size: 6 x 54

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Corojo from Jalapa

Binder: Double Criollo '98 (because one binder is for peasants)

Filler: Criollo '98 and Corojo '99

Price: $11.50

Aging: 2 years using Cuban pilónes method (fancy dirt piles)

🚀 WE ARE LIT!

The construction on this thing is tighter than your friend's explanation of why NFTs were "actually a good investment." Draw is perfect - not too loose like a Tinder bio claiming to love "adventures," not too tight like parking in downtown Austin. Smoke production is generous, billowing out like the ego of a CrossFit coach who just discovered podcasting. This wrapper is slicker than a Tesla owner explaining why they're actually saving money.

🎯 FLAVOR JOURNEY

FIRST THIRD: The Pancake House of Existential Dread

maple syrup, butter, back of throat spice

Right out the gate this thing hits you with maple syrup notes so intense I checked to make sure I wasn't accidentally smoking an IHOP menu. There's butter - actual butter - mingling with a back-of-throat spice that creeps up like your student loans at 3 AM. It's breakfast for dinner but your dinner is on fire and costs more than actual breakfast. The smoke texture is CHEWY, like drinking molasses through a Twizzler straw while your Hinge match explains their "entrepreneurial journey" selling essential oils.

SECOND THIRD: Burnt Offerings to the Flavor Gods

burnt caramel, syrup, cedar

Now we're cooking with gas - literally. Burnt caramel comes crashing through like that friend who "just needs to crash for a few days" and stays for three months. The syrup evolves into something darker, more complex, like when you realize your favorite craft brewery sold out to InBev. Cedar joins the party fashionably late, wearing a leather jacket and asking if anyone's tried microdosing. This is where Aganorsa shows they're not just another pretty wrapper.

FINAL THIRD: Graham Cracker Nirvana

butter cream, charred cedar, graham cracker

The finish brings buttercream so rich it could qualify for a PPP loan. Charred cedar dominates like a divorced dad's new personality is just "grilling." Graham cracker notes appear, reminding you of s'mores and simpler times before you knew what a 401k was. The complexity here is like trying to explain to your parents why you need a $200 mechanical keyboard for "productivity." It all comes together in a crescendo of flavors that makes you forget you're basically burning money, but at least it tastes incredible.

🏆 THE VERDICT: S-TIER ACROSS THE BOARD!

S TIER

Look, Aganorsa can be like that one friend who's either the life of the party or passed out in the hedge maze by 9 PM - no middle ground. But when they hit? Brother, they hit harder than the realization you're too old for music festivals. This Rare Leaf Reserve is them at their absolute peak, like catching lightning in a bottle, if the bottle was hand-rolled by Cuban expats and the lightning tasted like pancakes. At $11.50 it's practically stealing, assuming your

definition of stealing is "still more expensive than a streaming service you'll forget to cancel."

💨 BOTTOM LINE

If you see these sitting in your local B&M, grab them faster than a venture capitalist grabbing the last cronut at a pitch meeting. The Rare Leaf Reserve is proof that sometimes, just sometimes, the hype is real and the emperor is actually wearing clothes - really nice, oily, Nicaraguan clothes that taste like breakfast dessert. Your palate will thank you, your wallet will judge you, and your Instagram followers will think you've made it. In a world of disappointing sequels and underwhelming reboots, this is The Empire Strikes Back of Nicaraguan tobacco - somehow better than you expected and worth every penny of that Disney+ subscription you're sharing with four other people.

TLDR: Buy it ans smoke it. Thank me later.