Atabey Black Delirios | halfwheel

Of all of the baffling trends of the last decade, I’ll never understand how anyone took NFTs as anything with legs. You can buy a .jpg! said someone who has clearly never had their photographs stolen on the internet.

For those unfamiliar with how this COVID-era, crypto-propelled fad went: pretty shortly thereafter—months, I suppose—the NFT thing transitioned from collectible .jpgs to celebrities cashing in, to eventually, digital tickets. You pay crypto for an NFT, which includes a digital piece of art that is so valuable the entity selling it has paired it with non-digital benefits, often including both items and access. It’s as if the people who design casinos got to design the business model. That said, a lot of people made money, including a couple of cigar companies.

I suspect that at some point, NFTs will return as some sort of en vogue satire of a very specific moment in human history. After all, everything that is cool gets to be cool once more. Whenever that time comes, it will be interesting to find out if all the people currently holding NFTs will be rewarded for their patience.

In 2021, Selected Tobacco S.A. introduced the Atabey Black, described as the first NFT cigar. I don’t know if it was the first, but I don’t know of another before it. At the time, it was just an NFT, well, 11 NFTs. People paid around $1,000 worth of crypto to get these digital files.

Two years later, in 2023, they were rewarded. Selected Tobacco S.A. introduced a smokeable version of the Atabey Black, and the people who had the NFTs were rewarded with the ability to purchase the cigars.

Of note, the Atabey Black Ritos NFTs were delisted from OpenSea due to a suspected violation of the terms of service. Art!

Back to the actual cigars. Since 2023, the Atabey Black Ritos has returned to market each year, always in a limited batch that has typically sold out before the next year’s batch is ready for sale. In August, the second Atabey Black vitola, the Delirios, went on sale as an exclusive for the 30th anniversary of 8 to 8 Cigars, an Illinois-based brick-and-mortar store owned by the Khalil family. In October, Two Guys Cigars of New Hampshire became the next retailer to sell the Black Delirios, this time as part of the store’s 40th anniversary.

Two Guys Cigars is owned by Dave Garofalo, who also owns United Cigars. In the U.S., Selected Tobacco S.A. is distributed by United Cigars.

In this case, it’s part of a 10-count box, which Selected Tobacco S.A. describes as a humidor. Inside the Atabey Delirios Two Guys 40th Anniversary 10-Count Humidor are five Atabey Delirios and five Atabey Black Delirios.

As with many of the company’s cigars, these cigars were rolled in Costa Rica and then shipped to Spain for further aging. Selected Tobacco S.A. says these were aged in rooms lined with different types of cedar and French oak.

• Cigar Reviewed: Atabey Black Delirios
• Country of Origin: Costa Rica
• Factory: Tabacos de Costa Rica
• Wrapper: Ecuador
• Binder: Undisclosed
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Peru
• Length: 5 3/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 55
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $45 (Box of 10, $450)
• Release Date: August 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: 4,000 Total Cigars**
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

*To date: there were 3,000 cigars released as part of the 8 to 8 Cigars release and 1,000 for the Two Guys Cigars release. There will almost certainly be future releases after this review is published.

While there are now darker cigars from Selected Tobacco S.A., it’s still somewhat odd to see the Atabey band atop a wrapper that is this dark. That dark, muted umber color does well to hide the veins. Selected Tobacco is one of a handful of companies that has a non-standard approach to cellophane, opting to cut off the end near the foot so it is completely open. The aromas from the wrapper are medium-plus and have a barnyard smell. It’s neither as foul nor as fresh as some cigars; instead, it smells more like how that sensation would get used for a cologne. All three cigars are remarkably similar. The feet are similarly monotone, perhaps even less detailed. There’s a medium-plus aroma, but outside of tobacco, the only thing I can get is some distinct oak smells. While consistent, the cold draws aren’t identical like the aromas. The first two cigars are pretty similar: medium-full, led by grains atop caramel, graham cracker and, at times, some sweet Old Fashioned cocktail flavors. The third cigar has more barnyard and tree bark, while the sweetness is like chocolate pudding. It, too, is medium-full, but compared to the other two, the flavors are more balanced.

The first two Atabey Black Delirios start as if they are trying to mimic a Cuban cigar. There’s a dense, semi-sweet wood and tobacco flavor but no real pepper, just a compact mixture of woods, caramel and sugar,  around medium-full. The third cigar has a deeper wood flavor, a lot less sweetness, but more irritation due to some rye whiskey flavors, which also bring out toastiness. While the woody flavors stick around for the first inch, the core gets saltier, which presents it more like a nuttiness. There’s also strong sunflower seed flavors, dry hay, and an isolated saltiness. After about 10 seconds, the finish kicks in, and it’s generally creamy with some light roast coffee flavors as well. The third cigar is a bit different: the whiskey flavors reemerge, though they are a bit sweeter—not quite a rum—and that creates a sharper finish. Retrohales are remarkably similar: buttered crackers over sawdust, white pepper and leather. All three are quite crisp, and each has at least one unique flavor: the first has some pumpkin, the second has more saltiness, and the third keeps the toastiness. As the retrohale finishes, there aren’t any new flavors; instead, it’s a matter of what lasts the longest. Typically, that’s saltiness, wood and white pepper. Flavor is full, body is medium, and strength is medium. Outside of the burn line on the first two cigars, construction is excellent.

It’s a story of two halves for the second thirds of the Atabey Black Delirios. Throughout almost the entire middle section, the profile gets incrementally sharper. However, the sub-section before the halfway mark isn’t overwhelmed by the sharpness. Creaminess and dry cracker flavors are stronger than the sharpness, keeping it as the clear second flavor. As the final third nears, those roles have not only reversed, the sharpness relegates pretty much everything else to distant secondary flavors. Earthiness, salty tobacco, paprika and even some soy sauce make that list, but at a certain point, it feels like each puff of the Atabey Black Delirios is sharper than the previous one. The finish mimics this, starting out as a more balanced mixture of nuttiness, leather and a sharp white pepper, though as the cigar burns down, there’s a lot more pepper, sitting atop some starchiness and creaminess. Retrohales are a lot more intense, though it’s not entirely due to the sharpness. There’s more sharpness, but there’s more of everything else, too. The nuttiness is the star of the show, ranging from a generic nuttiness on the third cigar, a softer macadamia nut on the first, and in the second third, a distinct crushed peanut flavor, like the peanuts that are included in a McDonald’s sundae. For the five minutes it is present, that crushed peanut flavor is remarkably lifelike, tasting as if I actually just had those peanuts, as opposed to reminding me of them. Other flavors include green tea, saltiness, cinnamon and leather. The finish tends to smooth out, though there’s barely any new flavors. I taste some potato chips on the second third and woodiness on the third cigar, but it’s quite possible both were secondary notes during the initial retrohale. Flavor is full, body is medium to medium-full, and strength is medium or medium-plus. Unfortunately, each cigar needs one touch-up for an uneven burn line, although the first cigar needs a second one for combustion.

At the end of the second third, all signs were pointing towards a very sharp and spicy final third. Somehow, that’s not what happens. For the most part, the sharpness just goes away. There’s not a gradual reduction, more of a two- or three-puff goodbye. In its wake are three cigars that taste a bit different. The first Atabey Black Delirios is the toastiest of the bunch, with the toastiness almost on par with a bready mixture of crackers, butter, earth and saltiness. The second cigar tastes pretty Cuban, a bit more bitter than the first cigar, but with a deep and complex woody flavor that has some sawdust accents that give it a lot of depth. There are secondary flavors of wet leaves, leather, and black pepper, with some underlying sugary sweetness. The third cigar has nuttiness mixing with the woody flavor that is similar to the second cigar, but there’s no sweetness, which would go a long way at this point. As inconsistent as the flavors in the mouth are, the retrohales of the second and third cigars are nearly identical: roasted flavors atop nuttiness, sawdust, juniper, flat ginger ale and some starchiness. The first cigar is far less interesting but has earth and barnyard over some of the starchiness. During the finish, the first sign of acidity emerges—solely on the side of the tongue—while there’s toastiness, woodiness, nuttiness and pepper. Flavor is full, body is medium to medium-plus and strength is medium-full. Construction is great in the final third.

Final Notes

• This is a pretty unique vitola, though it has been used for one Cuban cigar: the Hoyo de Monterrey Monterreyes No.4 Edición Limitada 2021. That’s a cigar I have not yet had.
• One of the advantages of our approach of having one person smoke three cigars for a single review is that the one person can figure out whether something they experience is unique to a single cigar or present in all three cigars. In each review, there are many of these things that get tested for repeatability. For example, the crushed peanut flavor in the retrohale of the second cigar’s second third was unique to just the second cigar, nowhere to be found in the other two. However, the ability of the cigar to get sharp in the latter part of the second third and then reverse that development in the final third was something that happened in each cigar. A unique feature in that most cigars I smoke won’t do this, but not unique as in a one-off occurrence.

• The majority of the time that companies call their boxes “humidors,” it just means a fancy box. Credit to Selected Tobacco S.A., which actually includes a humidifier and hygrometer.

• I really like the secondary band. On the sides, part of the Two Guys logo is subtly in the background. One note: while the bands say “Two Guys Smoke Shop,” the retailer rebranded itself to “Two Guys Cigars” in September.
• Selected Tobacco S.A. advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars used for this review were purchased by halfwheel. In September, Nelson Alfonso of Selected Tobacco S.A. gave me some samples, but those weren’t used for this review.

• The cigars are listed at 5 3/4 x 55. Above are the measurements I found for the three cigars smoked for this review.
• Final smoking time varied quite a bit: just two hours and 10 minutes for the first cigar, but more than three hours for the other two.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.