Some cigars take the spotlight. Others fly under the radar. The Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey Elegantes is the latter, and it might be one of those smokes that you missed when perusing cigar shops around the world. To understand why, let’s go back to 2016. It was the year that Cohiba turned 50 years old and Habanos turned all its attention to this flagship brand. At the Habanos Festival that year, the theme was overwhelmingly Cohiba. But on one of those nights, Habanos quietly introduced the Hoyo de Monterrey Elegantes. It was done so without fanfare or ceremony and simply included in a sampler pack. Its secondary band told us that the Elegantes was exclusive to La Casa del Habano franchise shops.

The cigar was a bit of a head scratcher. This thin, old-fashioned figurado shape–known as tacos in Cuban cigar factories—wasn’t particularly popular. And early releases were quite underwhelming. More current releases, however, proved to be outstanding. When we smoked the Elegantes this year, it gave us an entirely new, unexpected expression of the Hoyo de Monterrey brand. The tapers bring together notes of nutmeg, candied apple and vanilla in a concentrated way we don’t find in Hoyo’s rounder parejo shapes.