JC Newman

June 01, 2021

Bongani Robusto (5 x 50)





Video review HERE.


(Description taken from  Bonganicigars.com website)

Bongani is the first African Cigar brand. Our cigars are made in Mozambique and we are gradually growing our presence across Africa, the US and Europe.

Africa is very well positioned to produce excellent cigars as we haves rich soils, lots of water and sun and a long history growing tobacco.

Bongani means “Be Grateful”. Be grateful for life, family and friends. Be grateful for Africa, our people and Africa’s resources.

We brought a team of cigar rollers from the Dominican Republic to train our team of Mozambican cigar rollers to the same level of expertise as in the D.R.

The first team of accomplished cigar rollers graduated in 2017 and we are now training a second generation.

Our wrapper comes from Cameroon; it is one of the best cigar wrappers in the world.

We grow our tobacco in Manica Province in Mozambique and soon in Nigeria and also use some of the best tobacco from around the world.

Our cigars are aged in cedar from Ghana. This gives them a unique and rich flavour as Ghanaian cedar is very richly and heavily scented.


The cigar is very well made and has a nice feel in the hand. 




The test draw after cutting the cap was very good. The initial flavors at light up were cedar, tangy apricot, brown sugar, a wisp of caramel at the end of those flavors, thick nutmeg, and earthy black coffee. There was nice black pepper rated at 7 1/2. The flavors are very nice when retro-haled. Nice start.



At the first third (31 minutes) the cigar is ramping up. There is a little more sweetness from the apricot notes. The cigar has the same flavors, just a little more intense. The black pepper on the finish is very good. The finish is apricot, nutmeg, and a lot of lingering black pepper. The cigar is medium bodied. The cigar is very nice. I rated the first third 93.




Moving through the second third (58 minutes) there was an elevation of the earthy black coffee. The same flavors are still there but the coffee is elevated. The cigar is still medium bodied. The finish also has some earthy black coffee to go along with the apricot and nutmeg. The lingering black pepper is still very good. I rated the second third 92.




The cigar lasted 1 hour 20 minutes. The flavor notes bounced back to what they were in the first third. The sweetness returned. The black coffee went back to it's manageable amount. The cigar is still medium bodied. The finish also went back to apricot and nutmeg with a very nice amount of lingering black pepper. With the bounceback I raised the score back to 93. This is a very good cigar. I found them at luxurycigarclub.com.




Overall Score: 92.67

No comments: