1 review for Panacea Red 560 Maduro/Habano
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Panacea Red 560 Maduro/Habano
Overall Score
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Matt
Origin : Dominican Republic
Format : Robusto
Size : 5.0? x 60
Wrapper : Brazilian Maduro
Filler : Seco Cubano, Ligero Piloto Cubano, Ligero Olor Dominicano, & Ligero Nicaragua
Binder : Dominican Habano
Hand-Made
Price : $7 each
The Panacea Red is the second blend from the Flatbed Cigar Company. Billed as a bolder, more full-bodied blend their website tells us we can expect all the great flavors of the Panacea Black Maduro only in a fuller, stronger experience. Read about my experience with the Black Maduro here, and if you are unfamiliar with the Flatbed Cigar Company and Panacea cigars, check out my review of the Panacea Black Natural here. The Red changes things up a bit with the introduction of a Habano binder and plenty of Ligero tobacco. The wrapper is the same dark Brazilian Maduro that is used on the Panacea Black Maduro. The 560 is a big beefy cigar and the guys at Flatbed decided it needed its own band that is more appropriate for a cigar of this girth, “We also gave it a different style Black Label band better suited for a big-ole cigar.”
Now it is no secret I think a 60 ring gauge is just too damn big. I don’t like it. I find cigars this large awkward and uncomfortable to smoke. At 5’11? and 225 lbs (the gym is paying off, I’m smaller than I used to be, but yet), I’m not a small guy. I just think a 60 ring is excessive. I also have found in my own experience that cigars often lose something when they are made this big. Flavors become muddled, the subtleties of a blend get lost in the massive amounts of filler it takes to make a cigar this large. I also acknowledge though that there are some examples of blends that just “work” in these larger formats. I hope the Panacea Red is one of those blends, but we’ll see. Regardless I think I may order myself a sampler of the reds in one of the more standard sizes to see what I think of the blend regardless of what my opinion turns out to be of this particular vitola.
The Panacea Red 560 has a noticeably “light” dark brown wrapper for a Maduro, especially for a Brazilian maduro. It has a handful of small veins running across its surface. The draw is excellent but predictably the ring gauge is a bit awkward. It starts off very light and almost mild but quickly bolsters. The flavors were medium-full with a light to medium strength. It is a very well-balanced cigar with creamy notes of toasted wood and a hint of sweetness complimented nicely by more robust flavors of earth and coffee. The finish is medium bodied and doesn’t linger long. The flavors stay pretty consistent from start to finish. What it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in just good solid flavors and a nice finish. It did seem to pick up in strength a bit in the last third adding a bit of peppery spice to the mix. I was surprised that this wasn’t a stronger cigar given all the ligero that is in the blend and the Habano binder. I wonder if that was a side effect of the exaggerated ring size. I really enjoyed this cigar and very much want to try this blend in a more traditional size like a corona or robusto. If you are a fan of big girthy cigars than I think you’ll love this one. It is an excellent smoke.