Happy Veteran’s Day everyone! For this week’s review, I thought I should review a cigar with a military heritage to it. I found the perfect cigar in my humidor for today in the Southern Draw IGNITE Navy SEALs Foundation Habano No. 3. We were introduced to the IGNITE series for 2019 at this year’s IPCPR. Southern Draw uses the IGNITE line to introduce special cigars were their sales have a portion go to a charitable foundation. For 2019, Southern Draw teamed up with Navy SEALs Foundation that supports the families of Navy Special Warfare community while they are deployed. As a Navy family, I loved this idea and was excited to get my hands on this cigar. You can hear more about this line and all the other new additions to the Southern Draw line in our interview with Robert Holt, here, at IPCPR. Today, I’m reviewing the Habano No. 3.
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
- Binder: Nicaraguan
- Filler: Brazilian and Nicaraguan
- MSRP: $9.99
- Factory: AJ Fernandez
- Sold in jars of 10 with $.75 per cigar donated to the Navy SEALs Foundation
Cigar provided by Southern Draw Cigars for review
Pre-Light
The IGNITE Habano No. 3 is a very good looking cigar with a mocha brown wrapper that is silky smooth. The bands are gorgeous with the Navy SEALs Foundation logo on the main band and Habano No. 3 on the secondary band. The draw is perfect with a little resistance with that “milkshake” draw that I like. It has notes of leather, earth, and almonds.
First Half
The IGNITE Habano No. 3 has notes of leather, a strong almond note, caramel sweetness, nutmeg, black pepper, and dried apricots notes as an underlying flavor. I get mostly black pepper on the retrohale with a hint of the almond note. The cigar is smoking wonderfully with a full body and full flavor.
Last Half
For the last half of the IGNITE Habano No. 3, I get much stronger spice notes with more black pepper and nutmeg, especially on the retrohale. The caramel sweetness has faded a bit but is still there. The almond note is still the backbone of the flavor profile with the dried apricot note. The IGNITE Habano No. 3 gets slightly floral in the last half as well.
Conclusion
This is a lovely cigar with savory and sweet notes of almonds, spices, leather, and dried fruits. I loved the flavor of the IGNITE Habano No. 3 and I liked how Southern Draw released it in a size that doesn’t get much use anymore in the double corona. My preferred size is the corona gorda, but every now and then, I like a larger cigar like a churchill or double corona. As I stated earlier, we are a Navy family as my wife is a Naval officer in the Navy Reserve so I loved seeing some of the proceeds of the sale of this cigar going to an amazing military/veteran foundation like the Navy SEALs Foundation. Robert Holt is a veteran himself so it’s no surprise that he would be doing something like this to help military families. Not only are you smoking a really good cigar, but you can feel good knowing that you helped out a military family in the process.
