Blue Label B2 'Cuban Wheels' Torpedo

This medium-to-full-bodied Blue Label B2 “Cuban Wheels” hails from Danli, Honduras and is the minimalist approach to the original Blue Label—basically they made the best cigar they could without the added cost of packaging. The maker is Gran Habano, the father-son team of Guillermo and George Rico, guys who are under the radar, making reasonably priced and consistently good cigars that are, like them, unpretentious. Of their various Gran Habano blends, the 3 Siglos (now known as 3 SLS) is perhaps the best known. Like it’s predecessor, the Blue Label B2 is a complex cigar that features a hearty, rich, medium to full-bodied flavor profile, but is slightly more hearty. This is one for those who favor fuller-flavored blends. With its thick, dark brown, Habano leaf wrapper and carefully applied caps, it's definitely a handsome cigar. Its silky chocolate wrapper (with a tint of red) is leathery to the touch. This one is well-packed, sits heavy in the hand, and feels firm from head to toe. The wrapper cloaks a long-filler combo of Nicaraguan, and Panamanian tobaccos. The cigar opens with rich notes of earth, coffee and leather which coat the palate, as sweet and peppery nuances round out the mix while remaining light enough to not overwhelm the other flavors, but assertive enough to make a noticeable and pleasant contribution. Pair this smoke with a good lager.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.