Crux Epicure Habano Toro Review

2026-08-31 · updated 2026-09-02  Five-Pack · 3/4 My Money · by Eric

Filed under: Ash Management · Burn Issues · Ecuador · Tight Draw · Habano · Nicaragua · The Ash · Retrohale

Verdict: The Crux Epicure Habano Toro is a Five-Pack (3/4) at about $14 street... a nutty, creamy, coffee-and-leather cigar that gets noticeably better the more you work with it, and it makes you work with it. A draw tool, three touch-ups, and a wrapper flaw that threw the burn off for most of the first half. When it's running even, it's excellent. It just doesn't run even on its own.

Brand

Crux

Line

Epicure Habano

Vitola

Toro

Size

6 1/4 x 52

Wrapper

Ecuadorian Habano

Binder

Nicaraguan

Filler

Nicaraguan

Made in

Nicaragua

Factory

Plasencia Cigars (Estelí)

Street price

$14

The Epicure is Crux's Ecuadorian Habano line, rolled at Plasencia in Estelí. This is not my first one... I smoked one about a year ago, early enough in my palate that "nutty and good" was about as far as my notes went. This time I sat down with it properly.

The Setup

• Cigar: Crux Epicure Habano Toro (6 1/4 x 52). Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Nicaraguan filler. Made at Plasencia Cigars in Estelí, Nicaragua.
• Street price: ~$14 for a single online. MSRP runs right around $13.50 to $14, some shops list it closer to $15.50, and a box of 20 lands between $238 and $280 depending on who's running a sale. Figure a couple bucks more at a B&M.
• What I paid: don't remember. A B&M pickup a while back, no email receipt anywhere, so figure the usual B&M markup over street. My own money either way, nobody sent me this.
• Storage: main humidor at 69% RH, several months of rest on it.
• When/where: back deck by myself, lit at 8:05 in the evening. 80°F with a feels-like of 82 and 72% humidity.
• Food beforehand: Mexican about two hours before... some kind of chicken dish under a thick cheese sauce, yellow rice, refried beans, melted cheese. Water with it.
• First cigar of the day, paired with water.

Straight cut with the Xikar XO, lit with the Jetline single torch.

Light Up and First Third

Pre-light the wrapper looked good... a reddish dark brown, smooth, no tooth to speak of. Two very small dots in the wrapper that I read as imperfections rather than punctures. The foot looked clean. Hold that thought on the dots.

Cold draw was a hair too tight for what I'd call perfect, but the flavor was there: a very nice sweetness, no tingle at all on the cold retro, and no spice when you licked your lips. Toasting and lighting gave a sweet breadiness that I liked immediately.

Once it was lit: a little spice, a little leather, a little nuttiness, a little sweetness on a draw blown out of the mouth. On the retro, moderate baking spice and leather with a hint of sweetness so subtle you have to go looking for it. A light tannin showed up on the finish, and that breadiness came back on the long finish. Strength started out medium.

Then the burn went wonky, and that dot in the wrapper was the reason. That side ran a lot faster than the rest and the burn line went wavy, then crooked. I let it ride and rotated it to see if it would sort itself out.

About two inches in I used the draw tool. That tightness never got bad enough to be a problem, but it never opened up on its own either, and the tool definitely helped.

Three quarters of an inch in on the long side, the ash was tight with no flyers at all, and the burn had gone from wavy to just crooked. Flavor at that point: some light bitterness, leather, a little coffee, a touch of earthiness. Retro gave baking spice, light nuttiness, a bit of cream, a light-roast coffee, and leather.

I ashed it on purpose so I wouldn't wear it. Came off clean and stayed in one piece, and the point in the center was slightly off center, which is probably the whole story on the crooked burn. Right after ashing, a light bitterness laid itself over everything, along with a moderate pepper sitting right on the line between clean white and black, with just enough earthiness behind it to push it toward black. Nuttiness, leather, coffee, and a bit of cream on the long finish underneath it.

That's the first real lesson this cigar teaches: it wants a little ash on it to protect the ember. Everything got better once some ash built back up.

Second Third

Half an inch in, still slightly wavy, no touch-ups yet, and the flavor picked up. On the draw: a roasted nuttiness, and then after a beat, a dark red fruit sweetness. I can't name the fruit, but that's the flavor family, and it was really nice. It finished into a light leather. Retro: baking spice, breadiness, light nuttiness, cream, coffee, and leather mixed in at the end.

Here's where this cigar gets interesting, and it's the same trick the Crux Guild pulled on me. The profile changes depending on how you draw it.

• Single draw: nuttiness, cream, leather, coffee. Cleaner and sweeter.
• Double draw: leather, earthiness, a darker roasted black coffee. A little chocolate showed up on one of them.
• Retro: baking spice, cream, nuttiness, leather, coffee.

I like the single draw on this cigar considerably better, which turned out to matter for more than flavor. I'd been favoring singles, and I think that's exactly why the burn line stayed wavy. I ran a handful of doubles in a row and it corrected almost completely... one small finger left on the bottom that I expected to close up on its own.

And once it was burning even, the flavor was better. Not a little better. Double draws gave roasted nuttiness, leather, black coffee, and a light sweetness behind it. Retro turned into a clean white pepper, lightly roasted nuttiness, coffee, a touch of earth, and leather. Singles gave a very lightly roasted nuttiness, a little chocolate, cream, leather, and coffee.

Strength through here was medium-plus, drifting toward medium-full. Ash came off completely clean again, an inch and a half at least and maybe a full two inches, with that same small point in the center from the ligero.

Final Third

Fair warning on my notes here: the ash was holding on so well that I stopped ashing on schedule, and I wasn't watching the thirds closely. The line between the second and final third in these notes is probably off by a bit.

The band came off completely clean. There was a tiny crack right behind the burn line, and after ashing there were a couple of small spots that weren't burning right, so I touched it up. The crack disappeared with the touch-up. That was touch-up one, and I was already a little way into the final third by then.

Flavor: leather, coffee, a light nuttiness, a very mild creaminess... the flavor, not the texture, though the smoke had been creamy in texture the whole way through. The draw had opened up around the start of the second third and was really good from there on. Not perfect. Still a touch tight, but close.

Double draws went leather into earthiness fast, then coffee and a very light creaminess, with tannins left on the palate. The retro went back to baking spice, nuttiness, cream, leather, coffee, with no earthiness at all and a light breadiness on the long finish. A single draw right at that point gave a really nice sweetness, nuttiness, and creaminess with just a light leather and coffee behind it. Strength was medium-full, and it was drying my palate a little.

Smoke output picked up here too. It had been average the whole cigar and stepped up in the final third to better than average.

Touch-up two came because it stopped burning evenly again, about a finger's width burning deeper than the rest and the ember not carrying around the wrapper. That one made a big difference: nutty and creamy with leather and coffee, and no bitterness at all, even on a double draw.

Then it dipped. Earth and leather, not much else, and I started getting heat on my tongue and lips on the draw. My guess at the time was that the ligero was burning faster than the wrapper and the ember had gone from a cone to something closer to flat, and that's exactly what it looked like when I knocked the ash off. Touch-up three, with about half an inch left.

That brought it back partway. Earth and leather first, then a sweet nuttiness behind it, and the retro gave black pepper, leather, roasted nuttiness, and a little creaminess. More to the point, the heat died way down, which tells me it had been burning hot in the center and not around the outside.

That last ash took several firm taps to knock off and came away in one piece. Great construction on that front, right to the end.

I laid it down at 9:41 with about a quarter inch left. It had gone back to mostly earth and leather and had given me everything I wanted out of it. One hour thirty-six minutes.

Construction

• Wrapper: reddish dark brown, smooth, no tooth, good wrap job, clean foot. Two very small dots that read as imperfections, not punctures... and the burn proved at least one of them was real, because that side ran fast from light up.
• Draw: a hair too tight cold and stayed that way into the second third. Draw tool at about two inches in, and it opened up to really good from there. Never perfect.
• Burn: the weak point. Wavy, then crooked, through most of the first half, traced to the wrapper flaw and an off-center ligero. Three touch-ups, all in the final third. It also responded to draw cadence... a run of double draws pulled the burn line back straight.
• Ash: excellent all night. Tight, stacking an inch and a half to two inches, no flyers, and every drop came off clean and in one piece. The last one took several firm taps.
• Smoke output: average through the first two thirds, better than average in the final third.
• Band: came off completely clean.

Bottom Line

There is a very good cigar in here. Roasted nuttiness, cream, light-roast coffee, leather, baking spice on the retro, and a dark red fruit sweetness in the second third that I'd smoke this whole line for. It also rewards paying attention more than almost anything I've had... single draws, double draws, how much ash you leave on the ember, all of it moves the flavor around, and the best stretch of the night came right after the burn line straightened out.

The problem is how much of that was on me. A draw tool, three touch-ups, a burn that fought me for the first half, and a final third that flattened to earth and leather and got hot until I fixed it. Construction did some of that to itself: the wrapper dot, the off-center ligero. At $14 a stick I'll pay for a cigar I have to manage a little. I won't buy twenty of them.

Worth saying, since the whole point of this site is that the verdict is real: I smoked one of these about a year ago and called it a Box Buy. That was a much greener version of me with a much shorter list of cigars to compare it against. Sitting down with it and actually taking notes, it's a Five-Pack.

Would I smoke it again? Five-Pack (3/4). Yes, and a few belong in the humidor. The flavor is legitimately good and the ash construction is as good as anything I've smoked. The burn and draw took enough hands-on work that it doesn't get to box territory at $14. If you got one that burned straight out of the gate, I'd understand putting it a tier higher... I'd like to smoke that one.

Best for: an evening with time to sit and pay attention, for someone who likes a nutty, creamy, coffee-and-leather profile and doesn't mind a touch-up or two. Bring a draw tool. Medium building to medium-full, so it's not a first-thing-in-the-morning cigar.

My scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).

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