Powstanie San Andres

By Tony Casas | March 24, 2025

Hello there. It’s me, enjoying some amazing spring weather. This week I take a look at the newest release from Powstanie, the San Andres.

The Good Stuff:

San Andres is the newest offering from Powstanie cigars, and the 4th addition to their regular production portfolio. Like the others, San Andres is produced at the Tobacos de Nico Sueno factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The blend features a Mexican San Andres wrapper over Ecuadorian Habano binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The cigar is offered in four sizes: Robusto (5 x 50), Perfecto (5 x 50), Belicoso (5 1/2 x 54), and Toro (6 x 52). Each comes packaged in boxes of 21 and will run between $14 and $16 per cigar.

• Size: 5 x 50
• Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
• Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
• Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium / Full
• Price: $14

Prelight:

The Powstaine San Andres starts out with a very dark brown wrapper with lighter areas of brown scattered throughout the entire cigar. The wrapper’s texture is very gritty and toothy as well as very oily. The wrapper is thick and hard to the touch while the cigar as a whole is packed nicely and has a good weight to it. There are no soft spots to be found. The wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself while the cigar show only a few minor veins running through the body of the cigar leading up to it’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with a black and red Powstanie band and an additional band with the words “San Andres” embossed on the front.

The Powstanie San Andres’ wrapper gives off aromas of musk and oak while the foot of the cigar is more earthy with natural tobacco scents and pepper. The cap cut clean and easily. The cold draw produces notes of dark chocolate over natural tobacco and musk.

First Third:

The Powstanie San Andres starts out with a burst of black pepper that lasted through the first few puffs before fading away allowing the cigar to release bold notes of dark chocolate and musk with an awesome spice and sweetness under it and faint flavors of vanilla and cinnamon on the finish. The draw is perfect. Each puff gives out a ton of thick, white smoke that hangs around forever while the cigar releases a ton of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a beautifully compacted trail of white ash that held on for an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Powstanie San Andres the cigar is still putting out the flavors. The dark chocolate owns the road backed by strong pecan and musk over vanilla, coffee, and spice with that subtle sweetness still hanging on. The retrohale adds a bit of a peppery component that I don’t otherwise pick up during the experience. The cigar is still burning like a dream and I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

The final third of the Powstanie San Andres is much creamier and balanced. While that sounds like a good thing on paper, I actually liked the separation of flavors I got throughout the rest of the experience, but still doesn’t take away from how great this cigar is. The flavors are now a mixture of dark chocolate and coffee with lighter musk, spice and vanilla mixed in. It took me an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub. I experienced no harshness, no extended heat, and no sap. I never once had to reach for my torch to touch up or relight the cigar and closed out with only a minor nicotine kick.

Overview:

Damn, just damn. This is a fantastic cigar. I am a fan of San Andres when it’s done right and this Powstanie was done right! The bold flavors and tartness from the San Andres was balanced out perfectly with a sweeter, spicer mix of tobacco which made for a perfect profile. The cigar burned like a champ from start to finish. And lets just add that is is a normal production and affordable cigar making it an easy box purchase and something I will absolutely keep in my humidor and regular rotation.