Felix Assouline Havana Sunrise Reserve Prelude (4 3/4 x 52)

Video review HERE.

(Description taken from Felix Assouline website)

Havana Sunrise Reserve is our nod to the old traditions of yesterday. Havana Sunrise Reserve Cigars is a medium to full body line introduced in 5 vitolas. HSR are produced with carefully blended tobaccos from Honduras, Nicaragua and Indonesia. HSR Cigars range from a corona size Ray of 44 x 5 ½ to a Beacon at 56 x 6 ½ Toro. All Havana Sunrise Reserve come in boxes of 30 box pressed cigars.

Blend info:

Wrapper Habano Criollo 98

Binder Indonesian

Filler Nicaragua, Honduras

Type Box Pressed

Vitolas Available

Ray 44 x 5 1/2

Prelude 52 x 4 3/4 REVIEWED TODAY

Blaze 54 x 6

Brilliance 54 x 6 1/2 Belicoso

Beacon 56 x 6 1/2

This is another new cigar to me. You will recall I reviewed another of the Felix Assouline cigars last weekend, the II Saints La Petit Mort, a 5 x 52 perfecto. Today's choice, like last week's selection is a "first impression review". I have not had this cigar previously.

The cigar, for it's short size, has a nice feel in the hand.

The test draw after cutting the cap was good. The initial flavors at light up were a strawberry/cedar flavor, underlying cream, a touch of brown sugar, and a large amount of an earthy black coffee. There was also a lot of black pepper which I rated at an 8 and you really get a large dose when you retro hale. At light up the earthy black coffee is about 55% to 60% of your flavors with the sweeter flavors coming in around 40% to 45%. 

At the first third (25 minutes) there is some richness in the cigar. The strawberry/cedar has some nice buttery richness. The earthy black coffee has settled down into a 50/50 split with the sweeter flavors. The black pepper remains very good especially when you retro hale. There are faint dry oak notes in the cigar also. The cigar is medium bodied leaning toward medium to full. The finish is a sweet cream with a minor amount of lingering black pepper. The richness helped the cigar a lot. In fact, the cigar is better at this point than it was at light up. I rated the first third at an 88.

At the second third (43 minutes) I lost some of the cigar's richness. One reason may be the influx of nutmeg notes. The pepper remains very good. The flavors are the same as previously noted but they are somewhat subdued due to the introduction of nutmeg notes. The finish is unchanged. The cigar lost some of it's appeal so I dropped the second third score to an 86.

The cigar lasted 1 hour 9 minutes. The same flavor notes continued to the end. This has been a nice cigar but nothing is popping. The nutmeg definitely held down the richness and I still got flashes of dry oak here and there. The cigar reached a low level medium to full bodied. The finish was unchanged. The lingering black pepper is pretty good. The black pepper in this cigar is a high point. For the final third I maintained the score of 86.

Overall Score: 87 (86.67)