Illusione Singularé Origen

I’m braving the cold winds over here in an attempt to try and wrap up a few lingering reviews that I want to get done before the end of the year. This week I take a look at the all-new Illusione Singularé Origen.

The Good Stuff:

Last year Dion Giolito, founder of Illusione cigars, shook things up when he announced a big change to the Illusione Singularé line by introducing the Origen. Each year the company released a limited edition Singulare release, however the new release is not only a full line, but a full production one at that. Dion stated that in this full-production line, he took everything that was great about the previous Singulare releases and used that formula to blend the Origen. Produced at the Agricola Ganadera Norteña S.A. in Nicaragua the all Nicaraguan blend features a Grade AAA Corojo Cafe Rosado wrapper and Corojo ’99 / Criollo ’98 fillers. The cigar is offered in four sizes: Robusto (5 x 52), Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 52), Churchill (6 3/8 x 48), and the Gordo (6 x 56). Each come packaged in boxes of 15 running between $13 and $13.95 per cigar. Big thanks to the Illusione team for sending us a few of these to review, however I have also purchased quite a few over the past few months.

• Size: 5 5/8 x 46
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo Cafe Rosado
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 and Criollo ’98
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price: $13.35

Prelight:

The Illusione Singularé Origen starts out with a rough looking medium brown and yellow wrapper. I actually love a rough looking cigar and this one looks “rough” in the best kind of way. The wrapper’s texture is slightly toothy and very oily. The wrapper’s thickness is a bit on the thin side while the cigar as a whole feels rather light and just a little on the soft side. The wrapper is laid perfectly over itself leading up to the cigar’s round, triple-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with the new, large, blue Singulare band with the owl crest in the front in white and gold.

The wrapper on the Illusione Singularé Origen gives off a mixture of cashew and cedar aromas while the foot of the cigar is a bit more earthy with oat and grain over the cedar. The cap cut like butter using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces dry notes of wood, pear, and natural tobacco.

First Third:

The Illusione Singularé Origen Started out with a quick black pepper flash which left my tongue tingling. After the first few puffs the pepper faded allowing the cigar to release awesome notes of dry pine and cashew over lighter notes of spice and cedar with some floral and almost champagne-grape style flavors. The draw is beautiful as each puff kicks out massive clouds of thick, white smoke with ease which dissipates rather quickly, however it is pretty breezy on my patio. The cigar also releases only a slight amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burnline is a thin as it can get leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted, light gray ash which held on close to an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

The flavor profile in the second third of the Illusione Singularé Origen shifted more towards an overall woodsy/spicy mixutre of flavors leading dominantly on the cedar and spice that I picked up in the first third. There are some great dry notes underneath which remind me of cinnamon, and black tea with a nice floral aspect to them. The retrohale really brings both the spice and the black herbal tea to the front of the taste. The cigar is burning perfectly and I close out the second third with no signs of nicotine.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Illusione Singularé Origen and the cigar is now well into the full-bodied arena as it pumps out a dry, woodsy collection of flavors leading with cedar and cinnamon backed by herbal black tea, floral, and a really awesome leather type flavor. It took me about an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I was pretty sad when I finally laid it down. I experienced no sap, no harshness and no extended heat while the cigar left me with only a very minor little nicotine hit.

Overview:

In a single word the Illusione Singularé Origen is GREAT. I can’t really say it fits in with the rest of the Singulare series since this was created to be more of a standalone blend, however I can say that this cigar just feels special. And to me, thats what the Singulare always represented. Solid construction, very enjoyable and complex flavors at an excellent price point. I am also a huge fan of not having to chase down limited edition cigars and hoard them if they are good so extra points awarded there. This is absolutely a box worthy purchase and I can see myself smoking these on repeat for quite some time.