Today’s review is brought to you by whom else but my mother. Thanks mom for buying this stogie for me and the whole giving birth thing. My mother isn’t very different from other mothers out there. She doesn’t approve of her son smoking cigars just like she doesn’t approve of her son doing anything that can be potentially risky. So when my mom returned from a recent family reunion in Las Vegas I was surprised when she handed me a box of Havana Honeys. Now, this was a huge step for my mom. Such a huge step that I figured that it wasn’t important if they were flavored cigars. After all, it’s the thought that counts right?

I’m not a snob. I’m a true believer that there is a cigar out there for everyone and that flavored cigars have an audience. I mean, they have to right? It seems every day we wake up and there is a new flavor by Drew Estates or CAO along with the plethora of concoctions produced by Phillies Cigars (an Altadis company). For whatever reason though, I had to keep telling myself to keep an open mind.

The Honey Del Sol by Havana Honey comes to us from the Dominican and weighs in at 5½ x 42 and consists of an Indonesian Sumatra wrapper and a mild blend of aged Seco and Olor long filler tobacco. On the construction front the Honey Del Sol is on par with a lot of premium handmade stogies. Easy lighting, smooth, wrapper stayed intact throughout, slow even burn and no relighting was needed. Pretty close to flawless construction properties.

No surprises on the flavor profile. It’s a sweet honey flavor. You don’t seem to get much flavor or aromatics from the filler as it’s a pretty standard tobacco taste and smell. Everything comes from the wrapper. Sweet smelling light colored smoke and deep honey flavored is imprinted on your lips that stay with you for awhile making for a long finish to the Honey Del Sol.

Final impression on the Honey Del Sol by Havana Honey is pretty positive. While it wasn’t great, it wasn’t horrible either and I was pretty impressed with the solid construction. I’m not sure I can bring myself to buy a box or a single with my own money but I wouldn’t frown on being gifted with these or have these involved in a trade. Havana Honey offers many other flavors. In addition to the honey flavor they also have rum, vanilla, and chocolate, blackberry, cherry and peach. All flavors are offered in boxes of 10, 25 and 50.

P.S. While this isn’t cigar related, for you Crackbuck (Starbuck) lovers out there; give the new Maple Macchiato a try; I think I’m in love.