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Cigar Review: CroMagnon Cranium

25 May 2011

If you haven’t heard of CroMagnon Cigars, you can be forgiven since this brand hasn’t been around long. You also probably aren’t on Twitter where brand owner Skip Martin, @ChiefHava/@HavaCigarShop/@CroMagnonCigar, has been Tweeting about it non-stop since earlier this year.

Martin owned the popular Hava Cigar shop in Galveston, Texas, until Hurricane Ike wiped out the store, and a lot of the rest of Galveston, in 2008. Now re-opened as an online storefront (at least for now), it features exclusively CroMagnon cigars and other cigars by Adrian’s Costa Rican (Martin’s co-creator on the CroMagnon).

The cigar features an extremely oily Connecticut broadleaf wrapper. Underneath is a Cameroon binder that surrounds three types of Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. Available in five sizes, all but one are 52 ring gauge or thicker: The Knuckle Dragger (4 x 52), The Mandible (4.5 x 60), EMH “Early Modern Human” (5 x 56), Anthropology (5.75 x 46), and Cranium (6 x 54). The sizes sell for $6-8 each and are available in 5-packs, 10-packs, and “cubes” of 35 cigars.

I smoked my way through a five-pack of the the Cranium for this review. The dominant and most unique flavor is a charred, smokey oak flavor that you’re more likely to find on a barbecue than in another cigar.

But there’s a lot more going on, too. Sweet milk chocolate, dark roasted coffee, black pepper, and a little tar are all apparent. The cigar’s full-bodied flavors coat your mouth.

I’ve also smoked a few of the Anthropology (at 46 ring gauge, the thinnest of the line) and while I usually prefer a more classic size, in this case the blend seems better suited towards the thicker smokes. In addition, the construction issues were far less apparent in the thicker cigars than the Anthropology, which required multiple re-lights. The draw on the Craniums was a bit tight, but no touch-ups were required.

CroMagnon is definitely a true full-bodied cigar. That should be no surprise given that the tagline on its packaging is “rustic, strong, and primal.” Still, those flavors offer more than just a club of strength across the palate. The depth of the flavors, particularly brought about by the sweetness of the Cameroon binder, make this CroMagnon a welcome addition to my man-cave. That earns the CroMagnon Cranium a rating of four stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

3 Responses to “Cigar Review: CroMagnon Cranium”

  1. @dannysguitar Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 9:54 am #

    Great review. I've only smoked 1 of these and already I'm a big fan. Great full body smoke with lots of depth. Great pricing if purchased by "the cube" as well!

  2. Danielle Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 1:16 pm #

    Getting my boyfriend some of these – he will love them! thanks for the good review

  3. nextset Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 11:44 pm #

    Dang! Interesting.. thanks