Cohiba Macassar is a super premium cigar made in Dominican Republic with aged proprietary Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, Broadleaf binder and Connecticut Havano wrapper. These cigars became available during August 2016 in three sizes, including the Toro Grande (6 x 52) priced at $21.99 per cigar, which was sampled for this review. When shopping around online, single sticks could be found for $15, while 5-packs were priced at $70. For more information about these cigars, please refer to the press release.

The sample Cohiba Macassar Toro Grande began with a sweet peppery flavor. The sweetness faded within five minutes, but the pepper lingered for about 15 minutes as the cigar became smoother. The smoke was medium bodied (but almost medium-to-full) and had a rich tobacco flavor that was not too deep. I detected hints of spice and wood along with other subtle flavors that could not be conveniently characterized. However, the taste of Cohiba Macassar is definitely superior to General Cigar's venerable Cohiba Red Dot cigars, which are priced about $3 less per stick, depending on size and quantity purchased, as well as where they are sold.

The Cohiba Macassar cigar had a great draw and held a long ash. The burn was even for the first 20 minutes, but after that point, a couple of minor touch-up lights were applied before a relight was needed at the 70-minute mark. It took me one hour and 40 minutes to smoke the cigar down to two inches remaining, without any detrimental construction issues.

Although not comparable to a Cuban Cohiba, the Dominican Cohiba Macassar is still a super premium cigar that is superior to the Red Dot. They are not cheap at $21.99 per stick, but at an average price of $14 per cigar when purchased in a 5-pack, they are a good value for super premium cigars that can be enjoyed on special occasions. I rate them 4.25 points on a 5-point scale.