Back in 2015, Recluse Cigar Company launched its fourth regular production line, the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva. This particular line introduced a natural habano wrapper offering into the company’s portfolio. Earlier this year, the company quietly introduced a new line extension to the Amadeus Habano Reserva line in the form of a lancero. While the plans are to officially launch the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero at the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show, Smoke Inn Wellington in South Florida was given an exclusive window to carry the cigar until the trade show. This cigar also marks the first lancero introduced into the Recluse Cigar portfolio. Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to smoke this new lancero. Overall, this cigar provides a wonderful addition to the Recluse Amadeus Habano Resrva line – and one that should easily satisfy lancero enthusiasts.

The Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero is a traditional lancero – measuring 7 x 38. One noticeable thing is that is a rounded cigar. Over the past four years, Recluse has become known for its box-pressed cigars. In fact, of Recluse Cigar’s four lines, this lancero along with the 6 x 60 Recluse OTG Tarantula are the brand’s only two rounded cigars. According to Scott Weeks of Recluse Cigar, there have been blends in a size where the rounded format has worked better than the box-pressed format. For both the Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero and the OTG Tarantula, the was the case.

The inspiration for adding the lancero to the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva line came from Michael Weiss of Smoke Inn Wellington. Because of this, Weeks and Recluse made the decision to give Smoke Inn Wellington the exclusive window to carry the cigar until the IPCPR Trade Show

Without further ado, let’s break down the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva and see what this cigar bring to the table.

Blend Profile

The Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero uses the same components as the rest of the line. The cigar is produced at Tabacalera Leyendas Cubanas, the company’s factory in the Dominican Republic. Par for the course with other Recluse Cigar offerings, the tobaccos undergo eight fermentation cycles.

Wrapper: Grade A Ecuadorian Habano wrapper
Binder: San Andres Mexican
Filler: Dominican Ligero, Dominican Seco, Pennsylvania Broadleaf
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic (Tabacalera Leyendas Cubanas)

Vitolas Available

At press time, the Lancero is the seventh vitola to be offered in the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva. The challenge to making this lancero was keeping the same filler components without pulling out one of the leaves. When many lancero line extensions are introduced, either the cigar has to be rolled in a larger format (40 to 42), or some of the filler needs to be pulled out. Recluse was able to preserve the filler components while being able to release the traditional 38 ring gauge format. As for the way the Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero was rolled, Recluse keeps to its philosophy of rolling  entubado style.

The other six sizes of the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva line are all box-pressed. Three of those sizes feature the company’s signature Sidewinder format – a cigar that is box pressed on the top and bottom, but rounded on the sides.

Like the other sizes in the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva line, the Lancero is offered in 24 count boxes.

Lancero: 7 x 38
Robusto: 5 x 52
Toro: 6 1/4 x 50
Tarantula²: 6 x 60
Sidewinder 1: 5 x 57
Sidewinder 2: 6 x 57
Sidewinder 3: 7 x 57

Appearance

Recluse Cigar has prided itself on the use of the Grade A Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, and the wrapper on this cigar lives up to its billing. The wrapper has a medium brown color and depending on how the light shines, it may show a slight cinnamon colored tint to it. Upon closer examination there is a slight amount of darker marbling on the surface. There are some thin visible veins and well hidden wrapper seams. The cigas head has a spiral bun cap attached to it.

There are two bands on the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva. Both bands feature a red background with a holographic chrome font. The first band features the Recluse spider logo. Above the logo is the text “RECLUSE”. The secondary band features the text “Amadeus” in cursive font. There is also a silver ribbon on the footer.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As opposed to pulling the pig-tail cap off of the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero, I opted to use a straight cut to remove the cap as a whole. The dry draw of the Lancero delivered a mix of generic wood, nut, cedar, and a slight caramel note. Overall I considered this to be a very good pre-light draw. At this point I removed the footer band of the Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero, lit up the cigar, and moved on to the smoking phase.

Flavor Profile

The Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero started out with a mix of generic wood, cherry, black pepper, and a slight caramel note. The generic wood notes became primary with the combination of caramel, cherry, and black pepper in the background balancing things out nicely. Meanwhile the retro-hale produced an additional layer of black pepper.

By the middle of the first third, the wood notes remained in the forefront. A nut flavor surfaced. The nut flavor, along with the caramel notes began to float in and out of the forefront. Meanwhile the cherry remained grounded in the background. The black pepper was more distant providing a touch of spice on the tongue.

Around the midway point of the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero, the generic wood notes transitioned to a combination of cedar and natural tobacco. Both of these flavors gave the Lancero some additional (yet not overpowering) sweetness. The nut flavors continued to float between the forefront and background. Meanwhile the cherry, caramel, and pepper were also present in the background.

Toward the end of the second third, the natural tobacco sweetness remained grounded in the forefront. Along with the nut flavors, the cedar notes now also varied in intensity. There still were some caramel and cherry notes present.

As the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero moved into the final third, there was an uptick in the pepper and cedar as both notes joined the natural tobacco as the main flavors. There still was some nut, caramel, and cherry I could pick up. This is the way the cigar experience came to a close. The resulting nub was cool in temperature, but slightly soft to the touch.

Burn and Draw

Overall the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero scored very nicely when it came to its burn and draw. The cigar had no problem maintaining a straight burn path from start to finish. From time to time, the burn line of Lancero did have a slight curvature, but this was easily remedied with a touch-up. This was a also a cigar that did not require frequent touch-ups. The resulting ash was tight and firm with a salt an pepper complexion. As for the burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.

Recluse Cigars does pride itself on making cigars with a stellar draw. With the Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero, the company comes through with flying colors. Despite the challenge of keeping the same amount leaf used in the lancero, there was no tightness. This draw truly was low maintenance and very easy to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

The Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero is a cigar that delivers both medium strength and medium body throughout the smoking experience. During the last third, I found both the strength and body went up a slight notch, but not quite advancing to medium to full territory. As for strength versus body, I found the lancero balanced both attributes nicely with neither attribute overshadowing the other.

Final Thoughts

Last year, the Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva landed on the Cigar Coop Cigar of the Year Countdown at #19 for the Toro size. This is a cigar that excelled in the Toro’s 6 1/4 x 50 box-pressed size, but I was a little unsure what it would do in the thinner rounded format of the lancero. The good news is that the lancero format shines with the Amadeus Habano Reserva line. With the lancero, I found a little extra sweetness, and a little more in the way of complexity. The flavors also meshed quite well with the medium strength, medium-bodied profile. This is a cigar I could recommend to either a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this is a cigar I would smoke again – and it’s certainly a lancero that is box-worthy.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Good
Assessment: 4.0-Box Worthy
Score: 92

References

News: Recluse Cigar Co. Introduces Recluse Amadeus Habano Reserva Lancero; Plans Major Line Expansion
Price: $9.00
Source: Cigars Provided by Manufactuer
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Episode 190
Stogie Feed: n/a
Brand Reference: Recluse