Illusione Original Documents Habano

After taking a few weeks off to rest, relax and recharge (the 3 R’s!), I am back with a review I’ve been pretty excited about. This week I take a look at Illusione’s all-new Original Documents Habano.

The Good Stuff:

It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen Dion Giolito, founder of Illusione expand his core line. Last year the Original Documents Habano made its debut at the 2022 PCA show before finally shipping to retailers this month. In another pivot, the company paired up with the famed Master Blender AJ Fernandez to create the Original Documents Habano. Dion has mentioned that his relationship with the new factory is over a decade old as he had worked with Alberto Padilla at Aganorsa before he moved to Ocotal to manage the San Lotano factory. Created at the San Lotano factory in Nicaragua, the blend features a Nicaraguan sun-grown habano-seed wrapper grown by AJ Fernandez over a Nicaraguan binder and an all Nicaraguan filler mix from the Esteli, Condega, and Jalapa regions. The cigar is offered in six sizes: The Corona Minor (4 x 44), The Robusto (5 x 52), the Lancero (7 1/4 x 40), The Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46), The Churchill (6 3/4 48), and the Gordo (6 x 56). Each come packaged in boxes of 25 ranging between $8.35 and $12.30 per cigar. Big thanks to the team at Illusione for sending a handful of these my way to review.

• Size: 5 5/8 x 46
• Wrapper: Sun Grown Habano
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $12.30

Prelight:

The Illusione Original Document Habano starts off with with a gorgeous looking medium brown wrapper with tons of lighter, orangish ares and darker brown areas scattered throughout the wrapper. The wrapper’s texture is slightly toothy with a good amount of oil coating it. The wrapper features a bunch of smaller veins and lots of natural tobacco webbing as it’s laid seamlessly over itself leading up to the cigar’s round, triple-wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with the first updated Illusione band that I have had in my hands. The new branding is a huge departure from the simple, elegant bands as it now features a very large eye symbol that marries up beautifully with the branding of Illusione. This particular band is blue in color with silver and white accents, the Illusione logo on the front, “Original Documents” on the sides, and “Habano” embossed on the bottom.

The wrapper on the Illusione Original Documents Habano gives off a very nutty and floral aroma while the foot of the cigar releases a nice sweet-molasses type aroma over more natural tobacco undertones. The cap cut like butter using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces notes of pecan, honey, and earthiness.

First Third:

The Illusione Original Documents Habano starts off with a nice subtle cayenne pepper spice which starts subtly but builds up through the first few puffs before dropping out completely. Once the pepper made its exit the cigar releases notes of molasses, pecan, honey, creamed coffee and lots of earthiness/natural tobacco flavors with subtle spice notes and a nice citrus/orange aftertaste. The draw is absolutely perfect as each little puff kicks out huge clouds of thick, gray smoke which hangs out with me on my porch for a good amount of time before dissipating while the cigar releases a very minor amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted white ash which held on for a little over an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

A really great floral flavor has slowly crept into the Original Documents Habano’s flavor profile in the second third while the molasses, pecan and honey still lead the way backed by coffee, earthiness, spice, and natural tobacco. The retrohale brings back a lot of the pepper I picked up at the start along with a rush of spice so I don’t find myself doing it too often. The cigar is still burning like a champ while I close out the second third with no nicotine kick at all.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Illusione Original Documents Habano and this cigar is a banger. The flavor profile hasn’t changed up much, and I am glad that is hasn’t as I really enjoy it. The main flavors are still the molasses, pecan and honey with lighter notes coffee, earthiness, and spice with a great little ginger and citrus making their way in for an encore of flavor. The cigar took me an hour and a half to smoke down to the nub. I experienced no harshness, nor any extended heat. I close out with only a very slight nicotine kick.

Overview:

All the hype I built up for myself leading up to The Illusione Original Documents Habano was fulfilled as I not only enjoyed it, but couldn’t stop smoking them right off the truck. The flavor profile is great, well balanced, and complex enough to keep me interested in the blend from start to finish. Not to mention it hit on everything my personal palate looks for in a cigar. The construction was flawless and the cigar burned like a dream from start to finish. This blend is box worthy for sure and something that I can see myself smoke a whole ton of going forward.