The Perdomo 30th Anniversary Maduro Epicure is a cigar that honors Nick Perdomo’s 30 years in the cigar industry, celebrated in 2022. Each of the three blends in the line features 15-year-old tobaccos, with the wrappers receiving extra aging time in bourbon barrels. For the Maduro Epicure, the wrapper is barrel-aged for an additional 14 months, pushing the age of the wrapper past 16 years.

• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Maduro
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Size: Epicure (Toro) 6 x 54

The coffee brown wrapper is somewhat toothy and firm, with no soft spots. The draw is nice, offering flavors of chocolate, barnyard, and earth on the cold draw.

Upon lighting, I noticed notes of dark cocoa, earth, oak, coffee, and a little black pepper on the palate. The ash is white and the burn is decent. The retrohale brings out black and white pepper, while the finish is creamy and rich with dark brown sugar sweetness and cocoa.

As the cigar progresses, it becomes earthier with notes of dark cocoa and oak. The finish is creamier, and the burn remains straight and even. The cigar is medium-plus in body and strength.

In the final third, I detected a black grape-like sweetness along with earth and dark cocoa. The finish is creamy, and the black and white pepper in the retrohale is stronger, with occasional notes of oak. It was a surprising and enjoyable experience.

The Maduro is my favorite blend of the 30th Anniversary line because it seemed to have the most complexity to my palate. I’m not just blowing smoke—this cigar is highly recommended.

Having completed the trifecta of blends in Perdomo’s 30th Anniversary lineup, I can share my thoughts on it as a whole. In a world where most anniversary blends are both limited in release and often north of $20 a stick, Perdomo’s 30th Anniversary series is a welcome exception to that rule.

Perdomo seems to follow the proverb, “do one thing and do it well.” Like the 10th Anniversary Reserve, the 20th Anniversary, and the Perdomo 12 Year lines, the 30th Anniversary offers a Connecticut, Sun Grown, and Maduro. You can definitely appreciate the differences in these lines. However, at the same time, the 30th Anniversary blends are each clearly variations on the same theme of their counterparts: Connecticut, Sun Grown, and Maduro. The 30th Anniversary blends are not so much new or different from the rest, as they are new expressions of the previous with older tobacco. This should not be taken as a criticism. I am just calling it as I see it. And even if you did, the fact is, this strategy is working quite well for them, and the company’s sales show it.