Cohiba Spectre 2024 | halfwheel

In 2018, General Cigar Co. pushed its non-Cuban Cohiba brand into a new stratosphere of pricing. With the introduction of Spectre, the company inched closer and later blew past the $100 per cigar mark.

After the initial release in 2018 and a sophomore cigar in 2019, it seemed as if the line would become an annual limited edition, but now it seems to have fallen into a pattern of releasing the cigars during odd-numbered years. The now five different Spectre cigars have shared little in common other than the general theme of being an ultra-expensive limited edition release.

The latest release is the Cohiba Spectre 2024, though it didn’t get announced until June 2025. It’s a 6 x 52 toro—the same vitola as the previous release and the only time the series has repeated a size—that uses an all-new blend. It’s capped off by a seven-year-old habano wrapper grown in Connecticut and includes a Mexican San Andrés binder and San Andrés, vuleta abajo and criollo 98 in the filler. The criollo 98 is the tobacco that gets the spotlight from General’s marketing department. It’s grown in Mao—a northern region of the Dominican Republic that General has used for some of its high-priced releases—the first time that General has released a cigar with this seed from this region.

If there is one other theme for the Spectre releases, it’s that the packaging has been unique and outstanding. Every Cohiba Spectre release so far has finished #1 on our annual Packaging Awards list, albeit sometimes tied for first.

From the moment the box arrived, it seemed likely that this trend would continue. There’s a black cube made out of cardboard that houses the actual box, itself packaged in a felt bag.

Like previous releases, each cigar comes in its own tube, though this time the tube is made of metal instead of acrylic and has a rhombus-like shape.

The box looks like a piece of mid-century modern furniture.

When closed, it is a mahogany-colored cylinder. However, the front-facing panel of that cylinder is made of 18 different wooden slats—arranged in opposing stacks of nine—that open up to reveal the tubes that are placed vertically in the box.

The 10 tubes form a circle around a Cohiba Spectre-branded cylindrical travel humidor.

At the very bottom of the box is a metal card that serves as the certificate of authenticity—admittedly, this would be an insanely complex product to counterfeit—that shows the boxes are numbered.

All of this comes with a hefty price tag. Each box is priced at $1,499.90, meaning $149.99 per cigar.

“Spectre has always been about pushing the limits of what’s possible,” said Sean Williams, brand ambassador for Cohiba, in a press release. “Rare tobaccos, flawless construction and packaging that is in a league of its own. This year, we’ve taken it even further. The blend is unlike anything we’ve done before, and the box is truly next level. This year’s Spectre is for those who appreciate the smoking experience as much as the cigar.”

• Cigar Reviewed: Cohiba Spectre 2024
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: General Cigar Dominicana
• Wrapper: U.S.A. (Habano-seed Connecticut)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Criollo 98 & HVA) & Mexico (San Andrés)
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $149.99 (Box of 10, $1,499.90)
• Release Date: June 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: 750 Boxes of 10 Cigars (7,500 Total Cigars)*
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

*As noted above, General’s press release announcing the cigar said there were 600 boxes, the metal card in the box indicates there were 750 boxes.

I’ll have more thoughts on the presentation of the cigars from tubes in the Final Notes. While the sides have a bit more wrapper exposed, just .9 inches of the wrapper is visible when looking directly at the cigar. While the larger piece of paper has a glazed effect applied to the Cohiba text, I’m much more interested in the unique texture of the wrappers. It’s as if there are two parts of the leaf: a darker collection of small circles and then a base surface that has more reds. The overall effect is very interesting and has as much sheen as I’ve seen on any review cigar of late. The aromas from the wrappers are medium-plus and smell like a dirty pond on a muggy day. There are touches of acidity, coffee beans and roasted woods, but the flavors are muted compared to the pond water. The aromas from the feet are led by a bright woody flavor that is accented by cocoa on the second and third cigars. Again, milder than the color would suggest, around medium or medium-plus. As is explained more in the Final Notes, I suspect that these cigars dried out before they got shipped to us. Because of that, I’m not as surprised that the caps of the first and second cigars unravel upon cutting. Fortunately, I’m able to tear off the unraveled portion and avoid any further unraveling. Flavor-wise, the three cold draws are medium-full and especially dense on the first two cigars. Raisins, coffee, chocolate and woods are present in the first and third cigars, though the other flavors—pond water in the first and apple core in the third—really take the cigars in different directions. The second cigar is different: fire-cured pipe tobacco flavors, dry crackers, earth and leather.

Unfortunately, the first flavor that emerges is the dirty pond water sensation, though it’s quickly followed by bread, coffee, black pepper and then a lot of toastiness, which ends up being the strongest note on the first puff. I struggle with tight draws on the first two cigars, though once the first clump of ash falls off the first cigar, it gets noticeably better. Flavor-wise, it tends to be a mixture of dense wood and earth with a vibrant black pepper hitting a different part of the palate. Light roast coffee flavors emerge at times, and the toastiness can pick up, but the core is consistently wood and earth. The finish sees the earthiness outlast the other flavors, but it’s difficult to really peg what’s the main flavor and what’s the finish. Retrohales deliver the contrast thanks to tart fruits, flour tortillas and baker’s spices—none of which are in the same wheelhouse as the flavors I taste when just putting the smoke in my mouth. For a few seconds, the flavors are incredibly bright before drifting into some mineral terroir flavors with some mild toastiness. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus, though building. The draw on the first cigar improves enough to avoid any point deductions and the third cigar has great construction. The second Cohiba Spectre 2024 is the outlier and not for the better. Its draw is very tight, borderline plugged and is restricted enough that it’s difficult to get enough smoke to retrohale.

The first Spectre 2024 gets somewhat drier in the second third, though the flavors tend to share a pretty similar earthiness. Damp mud is now the most prominent flavor, though minerals and a generic earth are also present. The dirty pond water sticks around, while some added saltiness and tartness help to provide some much-needed contrast to the earthiness. During the third cigar, the profile is getting so dry I really want to go grab a glass of water, which I don’t do. Had I been smoking this cigar for anything other than a review, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. Fortunately, that cigar’s profile changes with nuttiness taking over for the earthiness and the black pepper sticking around. The earthy core is still there, but probably only half as prevalent as it was before. Retrohaling the first cigar reminds me of the moment when wood just starts burning, the smell that the embers fill the air with. Underneath is some cucumber, leather and earth. While there was noticeable separation between the flavors of the first cigar, the third cigar’s retrohale has white pepper, leather, bread and woods all evenly mixed together. Fortunately, the flavors are much more detailed than what’s going on in the mouth. Saltiness and minerals take over the finish of the first cigar, while bread and nuts are the remaining flavors for the third cigar. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-full or full. You may notice that there’s no mention of the second cigar’s flavor; that’s because it is plugged. The draw has gotten much worse to the point where I have to take at least four puffs before exhaling to get enough smoke to produce an attempt at a retrohale. Flavor-wise, it’s a lot of what was there in the beginning, with the only notable addition being some grape sweetness. Still, the draw is bad enough that I wouldn’t recommend anyone continuing to smoke the cigar. I’m unsure if the first cigar’s draw improves, but it doesn’t get any worse and is still in the “slightly tight” category, but more than manageable. Both the first and third cigars need help with combustion, each requiring at least one touch-up, though relatively minor, especially compared to what’s going on with the second cigar.

Fortunately, the Cohiba Spectre 2024s get less dry in the final third. The first cigar adds some leather to the profile, though outside of the flavors getting more muted and less dry, I’m unsure how much of a difference there is compared to the second third. The third cigar’s changes are much more obvious as nuttiness and starchiness lead white rice, hay and a varying amount of sharpness. The finishes are very different, the first and second cigars are toasty with woods, damp earth and leather, while the third cigar gets sharper and adds some burnt flavors, though none of the same toastiness. Retrohales are even further apart, though the profile is sharper in the nose than it is in the mouth. The first cigar has woodiness, burnt bread and leather, while the second cigar continues to have the nuttiness, now joined by a lemon tartness and some plain white rice. Flavor is full, body is medium-full to full and strength feels medium-full, though 10 minutes after I put down the third cigar, I feel the effects and revise the strength level to “full.” Again, there’s not much to say about the second cigar, I continue trying to smoke it, but the draw gets worse, and with a bit less than two inches left, I give up. Fortunately, the other two cigars had good construction, though the draw on the first cigar was a bit tight and the third cigar’s combustion gave me some concerns at times, though I didn’t have to use my lighter to fix anything.

Final Notes

• As a reminder, we don’t factor price into scores.
• This is not the most expensive non-Cuban Cohiba cigar to date. The Cohiba C8, released in 2021, had a price tag of $250 per cigar, though it came with an S.T. Dupont lighter and cutter.
• I would be surprised if the Cohiba Spectre Series’ incredible packaging streak comes to an end this year. Brooks Whittington and I debated which Spectre release has the best packaging and I think the 2024 looks the best, but I would give it to the 2022 for being more innovative and feeling much more substantial. That said, I love this packaging. Kudos to the team that created it.
• Compared to some of the more elaborate boxes of late, this box will actually fit in a standard cabinet humidor or coolidor.
• I have a long list of minor issues with certain parts of the packaging, starting with the coffins, which look cool but feel pretty cheap. Compared to the heavy and thick plastic of some previous releases, it feels like a downgrade.
• The black paper wraps have an interesting finish applied to the Cohiba logo, which is multichromatic, but overall, it also feels pretty cheap for a $150 cigar.

• Here’s what the travel humidor looks like.

• And then there are the main bands, which weren’t aligned properly on some of the cigars—though were on others—something I would not care about if this was a $12 cigar, but has to be mentioned given the premium price.

• My major gripe with the packaging is that the cigars showed up at our office quite dry. This shouldn’t be the case as each of the cigars is packaged in a tube with a small Integra Boost humidity pack. Unfortunately, the cigars felt firm in a way that indicated they were not properly humidified, the bands were looser than normal and the flavor profile only furthered my suspicions that something was amiss. After arriving and getting photographed, the cigars were removed from the tubes and spent 30 days in our review humidor before I smoked them in late July. For those wondering, the Integra Boost packs didn’t feel dried out, which is even weirder. Given the humidity packs, I’m unsure what explains the dryness.
• The ash was interesting in that it was very easy to get at least inch-long chunks of ash, however, if the ash wanted to fall off the cigar, it was extremely flaky and created a decent mess.

• Here’s a picture of the cap coming undone on the first cigar. Fortunately, with both the first and second cigars, the caps came undone but never got worse. The third cigar avoided the issue altogether.
• The second cigar was plugged. While it was manageable in the first half, by the second half of the cigar, getting enough smoke to taste the flavor required multiple puffs. While the cigar was capable of staying lit, it was not capable of providing much smoke in the mouth. The top two inches of that cigar was one giant hardspot.
• General Cigar Co. advertises on halfwheel.

• General Cigar Co. lists these cigars as 6 x 52 toros. Above are the dimensions I found for the three cigars smoked for this review. I think the ring gauge difference is another sign that these might have gotten dried out, though it’s certainly not definitive.
• Final smoking time was a bit all over the place. The first cigar took two hours and 10 minutes, I gave up on the second cigar right around the two-hour mark, and the third cigar took more than three hours to smoke.
• Site sponsor Fox Cigar carries the Cohiba Spectre 2024.

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.