Review of The Banker H. Upmann Cigar

The Banker is an H. Upmann brand of cigars by Altadis, made in the Dominican Republic with a blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, Nicaraguan binders, and Ecuadorian Habano wrappers. These cigars are available in three sizes, including the Annuity which was sampled for this review. The Annuity is a Toro-size cigar that measures six inches in length with a ring gauge of 52. Each individual cigar came packaged in a paper wrapping that was secured by two bands, a normal head band and a foot band. Since both bands have to be removed along with the paper wrapping prior to lighting the cigar, the cigar itself was also adorned with a duplicate head band, making for an unique presentation.

The Banker Annuity cigar began with a peppery flavor that was medium-to-full bodied. After about ten minutes into the smoke, the taste became less dry and peppery, but pepper was still the predominate flavor. A few minutes later, the cigar became smoother and started to exhibit more of a mild-to-medium leathery flavor. Although I found the flavor to be somewhat nondescript, the construction of this cigar was excellent. The cigar had a great draw, razor-sharp burn, and held a long ash. No relights nor touch-ups were required during the 65 minutes that it took me to smoke the cigar down to 2½ inches remaining.

I rate The Banker with a decent 3.25 points on a 5-point scale. Although the average price of $7 per stick when purchased in a 5-pack is not unreasonable, I would not recommend investing in an entire box of Annuity cigars until trying one first.