Stogie Reviews: Sancho Panza Glorioso

Welcome back to the Stogie Guys Week in Review. For the second installment in our four part series, I’ve chosen to evaluate a Sancho Panza. No, not Don Quixote’s pot-bellied squire…the Glorioso cigar.

This 6.12 inches by 50 ring gauge box-pressed stick is made from a mixture of Dominican, Honduran, and Nicaraguan fillers, and comes adorned with a smooth, light brown Connecticut Shade wrapper. Impressively, despite keeping this particular stogie in my humidor for well over one year, the cigar had a firmer-than-average feel.

Upon initial lighting, the medium-bodied stogie gave off excellent woody notes – enough to prompt an acquaintance to remark that it smelled better to her than most I have smoked.

As the cigar progressed, I noticed a strong interplay between bitter oak flavors and sweet honey tones. That flavor relationship was very pleasing (albeit enough to keep me interested in the smoke), but this cigar lacks the complexity and balance I’ve come to expect from premium smokes, and I felt as though several key areas of my palate were ignored.

What’s more, in the second and finishing phases, the stogie became aggressively spicy. I love strong flavors just as much as the next cigar enthusiast, but this quick transition from sweet woody flavors to spice was more harsh than pleasing.

Much to my surprise, however, the construction of this cigar was near perfect. The draw was easy (producing a lot of smoke) and the burn was even throughout the hour-long ordeal.

Overall, this was a pleasing smoke – I just wish the flavor was a little more balanced and the transition from light to heavy was a little smoother. For mediocre taste and outstanding physical characteristics, I give the Sancho Panza Glorioso three and ½ out of five stogies.

–Patrick A