Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2024 LC52

While there’s a new Las Calaveras-adjacent release coming any week now, it won’t be the standard Las Calaveras we have seen every year since 2014.

That approach is a different blend each year, offered in what is now four vitolas. Three of the vitolas are sold in 24-count boxes, while a fourth is only offered in a four-cigar sampler. Each year, the blend and vitolas change, though all of the cigars have been produced by My Father Cigars in Nicaragua. Similar to the change in blend, the packaging is the same design, just with a new color scheme each year.

The original Las Calaveras remains the best Crowned Heads cigar I’ve smoked, part of what was one of the most insane years of new cigars. While not every Las Calaveras has made our annual Top 25 list, many have.

This cigar scored 92 points when I first reviewed it in September 2024, a rare score for this site these days. However, my halfwheel colleagues didn’t score it as highly as I did, so it just missed out on our Top 25 list that year.

Here’s how I concluded that original review:

I have not forgotten that the Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2014 LC550 finished fourth on the Top 25 list that year. Given that it was released the same year as the Davidoff Oro Blanco, perhaps it was never going to win that award. That Las Calaveras was sublime, but a decade later, I still find the Oro Blanco to be a bonafide one-of-one cigar. I didn’t enjoy this Las Calaveras as much as I did the 2014 release, but this is perhaps the second-best Crowned Heads release I’ve smoked to date. My Father—as a brand and factory—has done very well in placing cigars in the top five of our Top 25 list. If the other three members of our tasting panel get cigars that taste similar to the three I smoked,  I won’t be surprised to see this cigar in one of those spots come January. For your sake, I hope the ones you smoke are similar to what I tasted.

• Cigar Reviewed: Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2024 LC52
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Habano)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $14.95 (Box of 24, $358.80)
• Release Date: July 11, 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,500 Boxes of 24 Cigars + 3,000 Samplers of 1 Cigar (39,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 1

This particular cigar has been stored without cellophane in my redux humidor. That lack of cellophane probably explains why one tiny piece of the wrapper has been nicked; fortunately, it’s not a beetle hole. The wrapper has a light milk chocolate color with some great red tones, but no visible oil. I can spot some wrapper stretching, but the seam lines are almost flat. The wrapper has a medium aroma and smells a lot like the sweet cedar smell of the inside of the humidor. The foot is an even stronger and denser version of that smell. Similarly, the cold draw is medium-full with a super sweet floral flavor, almost like bubble gum, along with some dry pasta.

The Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2024 LC52 starts with a mixture of waffle cone, salty walnuts, and some woods. It’s full in flavor but very thin in body, matching the airiness of the flavors from the cold draw. It’s also a harbinger of what’s to come, at least conceptually. The flavor settles to a mixture of earth, creaminess, leather and white pepper over some dry minerals. The finish has lots of nuttiness with a touch of mild yet harsh toastiness. None of that sounds like the cold draw; it isn’t. Rather, the similarity is that the cigar is full in flavor but very thin in body, a sign that the aging has taken over whatever was once there. Cold draws offer a more enjoyable mixture of floral flavors and nuttiness over some toastiness and saltiness, the latter leads the transition into the finish, where some metallic and grain flavors emerge underneath. Flavor is full, body eventually gets close to medium, while strength is non-existent. Construction is great, with the smoke production being the high mark.

Around the halfway mark, things are getting a lot toastier and saltier, though the more concerning change is that the profile has really hollowed out. Overall, the flavor level is strong, but there’s just not much to the flavor profile. Fortunately, it seems like that was just a rough spot for the Las Calaveras, as right around the end of the second third, things change. Nuttiness leads creaminess and a much more restrained saltiness; there’s also some mild white pepper. It finishes with rice cakes and saltiness, long-lasting flavors, but super clean on the palate. Retrohales late in the cigar are probably the most complete part of the experience: nuttiness and generic pretzels over white pepper, which carries over to the finish where minerals and a more bitter nuttiness emerge. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium. Construction is great for the entirety of the hour and 50 minutes.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. Previously, I started TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors blogs of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry since 2010, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. Beyond writing, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff from weighing cigars to coordinating the tech. Outside of work, I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.