Macanudo Emissary France

By Tony Casas | May 12, 2025

This week I take a look at a cigar I’ve been smoking quite a bit of. The Macanudo Emissary France.

The Good Stuff:

The Macanudo Emissary brand was created to showcase European tobacco. As the name suggests, this version celebrates a filter tobacco from France. Blended at the STG Danli factory in Honduras The insane makeup of the Macanudo Emissary France starts with a 10 year aged Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over a 10 year aged USA Broadleaf binder and the filler makeup: Dominican Piloto (10-Year Aged) USA Broadleaf (8-Year Aged) Brazilian Arapiraca (7-Year Aged) French (4-Year Aged). The cigar is offered in four size: Robusto (5 x 52), Toro (6 x 52), Churchill (7 x 48) and the Perfecto (5.7 x 50). Each size comes packaged in boxes of 16 running between $14.99 and $17.99 each.

• Size: 5 x 52
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano (10 year aged)
• Binder: USA Broadleaf (10 Year Aged)
• Filler: Dominican Piloto (10-Year Aged) USA Broadleaf (8-Year Aged) Brazilian Arapiraca (7-Year Aged) French (4-Year Aged)
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium / Full
• Price: $14.99

Prelight:

The wrapper on the Macanudo Emissary France starts out with a very dark brown wrapper that carries a ton of color variances from medium brown to yellow. The wrapper’s texture is thick and dense with only some slight tooth and a whole mess of oils coating it. The cigar feels very dense and tightly packed. There are some larger veins running pretty much everywhere throughout the cigar’s body. The wrapper is laid carefully over itself leading up to the cigar’s double wrapped cap. The cigar carries the standard Gold an Blue Emissary band with the Macanudo crest on it, as well as a secondary band with a great cut out portion of France as well as the title on the foot of the cigar.

The wrapper on the Macanudo Emissary France gives off floral and chocolate mixtures of aromas while the foot of the cigar is much more earthy with only musk and tobacco scents. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces notes of musk, saddle wood, and earthiness.

First Third:

Woah! I wasn’t ready for the amount of black pepper punch the Macanudo Emissary France started out with. It only took a few puffs to subside, but it was a powerful little punch. After that the cigar left me with bold notes of dark chocolate, espresso, sweet spice, musk, and deep oak. The draw is a little tight, but manageable as each puff kicks out a decent amount of dark gray smoke which dissipates very quickly while the cigar releases a ton of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line started pretty wild on one end, but has been correcting itself while I progress. The burn line itself is pretty thin and the ash left behind is a tightly compacted mixture of lighter and white gray ash which held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the of the Macanudo Emissary France and this great, bold spice has really taken over the experience backed by dark chocolate, espresso, almond, musk, and oak. This is a deeply complex cigar with some great flavors. The retrohale brings even more of that spice out which I find a bit overpowering so I don’t find myself doing it too often. The cigar is now burning like a dream without any help from my torch as I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

The final third of the Macanudo Emissary France is quite unique compared to the rest of the experience. The spice and dramatically dropped out and the musk and oak has ramped up making for a very balanced, and much more creamy experience with lighter notes of espresso and dark chocolate. It took me an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub. There were no harshness, no extended heat, and never once needed attention from my torch to touch up or relight the cigar once. I close out the cigar with a little bit of a nicotine kick.

Overview:

The Macanudo Emmisary France line not only showcases rare tobacco from France, but also a collection of rare tobacco from all over the world and the result is an absolute banger. The cigar is complex, with deep, dark flavors. The burn, despite being a bit tight initially burned flawlessly from start to finish. Sure, it’s a bit pricey, but you are paying for top-shelf and rare tobacco. This is a great cigar that I will likely keep a few on hand when I am looking for something a bit more premium.