Warped Moon Garden Especial

By Tony Casas | November 20, 2023

After finishing up most of the of fall-prep yard work I found myself heading out back to enjoy a Warped Moon Garden Especial and this amazingly warm weather.

The Good Stuff:

Following up last year’s lancero release, this year Warped Cigars released the 2023 Moon Garden Especial. Offered in a single 5 5/8 x 52 format the cigar the blend features a tweaked version of the same tobacco. The larger size allowed Warped founder Kyle Gellis to pack more medio tiempo along with stronger and higher priming versions of the tobacco which results in a much stronger and more full-bodied blend. Produced at Aganorsa’s Agricola Ganadera Nortena S.A. factory in Esteli, Nicaragua The blend features all Aganorsa-grown tobaccos including a Nicaraguan Corojo 99 wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This year’s offering comes in a single 5 5/8 x 52 format which comes packaged in boxed of 20 running $16 per cigar. This is a very limited production release with only 1,000 boxes being produced. I purchased mine over from our friends at Cuenca Cigars who still have them in stock as of this review’s post date.

• Size: 5 5/8 x 52
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo 99
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan including medi tiempo
• Body: Full
• Strength: Full
• Price: $16

Prelight:

The Moon Garden Especial starts with a very rustic wrapper which is inconsistently colored with lighter yellowish-brown areas scattered with darker brown splotches. The wrapper’s texture is very smooth and silky with a whole ton of oils coating it. The wrapper itself feels thick and hard while the cigar itself is packed extremely tightly and is heavy as hell. There are some milder veining in the wrapper leaf leading up through the cigar’s thick body to its round, triple-wrapped Caro. Like most cigars in the Garden series the cigar is finished off with an heavily designed, yet elegant green, red, and yellow band. It also carries a secondary gold and black band dictating the “Especial” modifier.

The wrapper on the Mood Garden Especial gives off mostly honey and grainy aromas while the foot of the cigar has some nice sweet spice over natural tobacco. The cap cut clean and easily under my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces notes of honey and grain and a whole mess of earthy/grainy flavors.

First Third:

Warped’s Moon Garden Especial starts out with a huge burst of cayenne pepper which really tackled my lips through the first few puffs. After a bit the pepper began to fade allowing the cigar to release bold notes of molasses, pecan, and and oak with lighter notes of cashew and leather over lighter notes of black tea and dark chocolate. This cigar starts off well in the full-bodied arena right off the bat. Despite being packed very tightly the draw is brilliant as it kicks out huge clouds of very thick, gray smoke which dissipated at a normal rate while the cigar releases a decent amount of of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burnline is razor thin and very sharp leaving behind a trail of very tightly compacted white ash which held on for a little over a inch before falling into my ashtray with a thud.

Second Third:

An awesome woodsy cologne flavor made its way to the profile into the second half of the Warped Moon Garden Especial. Surrounding that flavor was some great pecan and cedar over lighter notes of vanilla and cashew and faint espresso and dark chocolate. The retrohale really kicks out the spice and a bit of the pepper so I don’t find myself doing it very often. Likely due to the increased amount of Ligero in the blend, the cigar does have the tendency to try and go out on my. Slightly speeding up my smoking speed completely solved that issue. I close out the second third already with a decent little nicotine kick.

Finish:

As I close out the Warped Moon Garden Especial the flavor profile is much of the same. Bold cedar and pecan with a good amount of woodsy cologne creeping in and over over lighter notes of vanilla and cashew. The espresso has dropped out however the dark chocolate has really picked up. After adjusting my smoking speed there were no burn issues. In fact, the small changed allowed my to burn through the entire cigar from start to finish without having to touch up or relight a single time. With such a strong cigar this did result it in a pretty hefty nicotine kick, but I survived.

Overview:

The Warped Moon Garden Especial is a damn good cigar with an incredible flavor profile. Medio Tiempo is such a great tobacco from a flavor standpoint and always helps elevate just about any cigar’s flavor profile, not to mention really speaks to my personal palate. The cigar burned well enough once my speed was adjusted and had no burn issues after that. The price point is in line with what you’d expect to pay for a cigar with the quality tobacco found in the Moon Garden Especial. This is a cigar I’d definitely keep a handful on hand for those times I’m craving a really strong cigar after a big meal. The only minor quip I have is that it’s almost too strong of a cigar for me. Almost.