Crux Cigars now introduces a brand new wrapper offering to its well established Epicure line, the Crux Epicure Habano. It has been three years since Crux added a line extension to the Epicure line which was the Epicure Maduro in 2019. Originally the Epicure brand was introduced in 2017 and adorned a brand new look for Crux which got the ball rolling for their eventual re-brand in 2019. The Epicure Habano is wrapped in a Nicaraguan Habano Seco, which is a newer wrapper that Crux has not worked with in the past.

Under the Lid

The Crux Epicure Habano comes in a twenty-count box with a nice white and creme color theme. There is a spot inside giving you some base core flavors, strength, and general profile of the cigar. The band is a nice creme, white, and gold motif with lettering in black for Crux and Epicure and then red for Habano. The wrapper is a slightly reddish hue of medium brown and is very smooth with a slight sheen of oils. The veins are small, and wrapper seams are tight. The cap is well placed on the cigar.

• Wrapper: Nicaragua Habano Seco
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Vitola: 6 1/4 X 52 Toro
• Factory: Plasencia Cigars S.A.
• Release Date: June 2023
• Number of Cigars Release: Regular Production
• MSRP: $13.49 ($269.80 for a box of 20)

The draw on the prelight was very good for all the samples with only one sample having a slightly open draw. The cold draw gave me notes of barnyard, must, and a zest that tickled the throat a bit. The wrapper was mainly barnyard and mustiness, while the foot offered barnyard with some mild sweetness.

Performance Notes:

First Third: The Crux Epicure Habano Toro opened up with notes of Pepper, oak, earth, leather, and mild sweetness. The combination of flavors is quite pepper and oak forward and everything else holds slightly farther to the back of the profile. The pepper develops into a black pepper, while the oak moves up forward on the palate and holds strong. The leather and oak linger a bit on the palate and cause a slightly drying effect. The sweetness develops and reminds me of a torched brown sugar on top of a creme brulee. As the first third comes to an end the profile is Oak and black pepper forward with hints of leather and brown sugar. The combination gives me a mild charred meat note as we transition out of the first third. The retrohale offers notes of Citrus, pepper, and oak.

Second Third: The second third continues and the oak takes on a slight toasted note, and the black pepper sits up front on the palate, the leather transitions and is overtaken by more of an earthy note and the mild sweetness really falls far in the background and is more of a vague general sweetness compared to the brown sugar I was getting before. This flavor profile of toasted oak, black pepper, and earth carry on through the entire profile until the end of the second third where a bit of a bitter note comes in. The finish is still slightly drying with lingering oak and earth. The retrohale is consistently adding citrus, oak, and pepper.

Final Third: The final third holds much of the flavor profile the second third did as it starts out with charred oak and black pepper forward. As it progresses the overall profile muddles quite a bit and becomes mainly char oak, pepper, and earth but are all hard to really distinguish from each other. The bitterness that was creeping in during the end of the second third starts to ramp up a bit and dry the palate out moderately and I find myself reaching for water a bit more often. The retrohale is mainly pepper at this point with a mild oak in the background.

Core Flavors: Oak, Black Pepper, Leather, Earth, Mild sweetness

Strength: Medium – Medium+

Body: Medium

Complexity: Medium

Smokin Experience: The Crux Epicure Habano Toro started out with a classic habano flavor profile that had a bit of nuance that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately as the cigar developed a lot of that interesting nuance disappeared and the profile became quite linear and then eventually had some off putting bitterness halfway through the cigar. In terms of construction the draw was very good for all the samples, and the burn was very good with only one touch up needed through the samples, but there was always a bit of waviness and a slight angle to the burnline. One of the bands also had quite a messy glue job causing some scrunching on the band that was a bit uncomfortable to hold while smoking, but no points were lost for that.

Purchase Recommendation: Try a Sample

Smokin Facts:

• Crux used to have a brand slogan of “Go Crux Yourself”, but has since changed with the rebrand to “Find your Crux”
• The Epicure line has all the same binder and fillers but just different wrapper offerings

Smokin Wrap:

Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

Average Smoking Time: 1 hour and 46 minutes

Score: 87

Mitchell Santaga – Product Reviews

Mitchell Santaga started his journey into tobacco in 2010 by trying different flavored and machine-made cigars while enjoying a handle of Jack Daniels. Shortly after that he yearned for a more premium experience and dove headfirst into pipe tobacco that his local tobacconist blended, and shortly after started trying premium cigars.