Atabey Spiritus Lancero (7 1/2 x 40) Cigar

Atabey is one of the most exclusive and expensive cigar brands in the world — the flagship line of Selected Tobacco S.A., founded by Cuban designer and blender Nelson Alfonso, whose design work includes the branding and packaging of the Cohiba Behike. The brand is named after the supreme goddess of the Taino people, the Caribbean deity of fresh water and fertility, and every vitola in the line carries a name drawn from Taino spiritual tradition. "Spiritus" is the lancero of the Atabey line — released in March 2018 and rolled at the Tabacos de Costa Rica factory in Costa Rica, presented in boxes of 25.

The Spiritus carries the same blend as the rest of the Atabey line, pairing an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade-grown wrapper over binder and filler leaf that Selected Tobacco keeps deliberately undisclosed, saying only that the tobaccos have many origins in Caribbean and Central American countries. Nelson Alfonso is the blender, and the cigars are rolled at the Tabacos de Costa Rica factory, where every Atabey rests in cedar-lined aging rooms before release. Handmade long-filler lancero, offered as singles and in boxes of 25.

The Spiritus opens surprisingly light, with sweet cream and espresso bean dominant over leather, almonds, hay, earth, cedar and slight citrus, plus a faint cookie-like sweetness on the retrohale alongside white pepper. Through the middle the profile settles into a creamy cedar note backed by almonds, leather, cinnamon, earth and hay, and the final third adds a stronger baked-cookie sweetness. The slim 40 ring gauge keeps the smoke cool, with excellent burn and draw from light to nub.

An elegant smoke that suits any hour of the day, though reviewers single it out as a morning cigar or as the last one of the evening.