6 Intense Cigars for Women
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Whenever you see recommendations for cigars for women online, they generally follow similar lines – milds, flavored smokes, cigars that start with the word “petite,” cigarillos, and the like. The problem is, a lot of these articles are targeted at creating a list of cigars for women that are beginners. And while we generally think the same types of cigars can be a good way to introduce newbies to cigar smoking, there are plenty of women who are not beginners. For these women, we’ve put together this list of intense cigars for women.
What makes these “cigars for women?” Okay, you’ve got us. Cigars really aren’t gendered.
Men and women can smoke whatever the hell they want. These don’t have pink or purple bands, they don’t feature ladies or sexy firefighters on the band art, and they aren’t made by cigar companies owned by women (yes, there is such a thing. Tres Lindas Cubanas out of Miami, celebrating Cuban women). However, for anyone who goes googling for intense cigars for women, we’ve created this article to ensure that they don’t have to click around empty handed.
Ladies in search of a potent cigar, this list is for you. These are high quality smokes with 90+ ratings, good strength, and really enjoyable flavor. Now, let’s get into the cigars!
Nat Cicco Aniversario 1965 Liga No. 4
For a brand with such humble beginnings, this cigar represents a surprising evolution in style. Nat Cicco was launched decades ago (1965, to be exact) with a focus on creating “Robusto Rejects.” These were cigars made with medium-length picadura, which are tobacco leaf remnants produced when full leaves are cut during the cigar making process. So, if you’re a lady who’s into recycling, cigars like that might be your ticket to getting a quality smoke while preventing waste.
But if you want a premium cigar, skip the Rejects and grab an Aniversario 1965 Liga No. 4. These are 93-rated cigars with medium-full strength that deliver a wealth of flavor. Cigar Aficionado noted the balance of sweet and savory notes, and called out nuts, caramel, and chocolate in their review. This is a certified desert cigar and a real treat made with outstanding Nicaraguan long-filler and binder tobacco. The outside is a classic Ecuadorian habano-seed wrapper that really invites you in with a dark, oily look that just begs to be smoked. The Aniversario 1965 is also box-pressed for a really nice draw that helped it earn the distinction of being Cigar Aficionado’s #18 cigar of 2018.
A satisfying, flavorful stick from a company that’s coming up in the world? Perfect for the first of our intense cigars for women list. Now let’s get into another one that goes against all the mild mannered cigars women are told to smoke: the Joya Red Cañonazo.
Joya Red Cañonazo
Okay, this one has all the warning signs you could ask for.
It’s got a bright red label.
Its name means something like “gunshot” in English.
It’s made by a company known for “grab you by the tongue” bold blends.
It’s perfect for ladies in the mood to add a little spice to their lives. This cigar, along with a half-decent romance novel and some sipping whiskey could actually make Saturday night great again! Please report back if you have any luck with that plan.
Joya Red is a bit of a conundrum. For all the intensity and flavor, this particular version was blended with a desire to smooth things out a little. Now, in Joya’s world, that doesn’t mean this is a gentle cigar. It’s a medium-full cigar, at the end of the day. But compared to other blends the company has produced, they tried to dial it back a touch so that some of the subtler flavors could shine and smokers could enjoy it without getting overwhelmed and hitting the deck.
Cigar Aficionado gave this one 91 points, and it’s a pretty fine example of what a strong Nicaraguan puro can be. All the tobacco in this one – filler, binder, and wrapper – is taken from farms in Nicaragua. There was no need to mix in Dominican filler, Ecuadorian cover leaf, or anything else. Joya has been successfully blending Nica tobacco for decades, even reaching the distinction of being the Official Cigar of the White House many years ago, so they’re quite capable of sourcing everything locally. Only in the cigar world, they don’t call it “local sourcing.”
It’s just called “pure.”
Joya Red is one of our intense cigars for women that brings gorgeous golden, earthy flavors: honey, molasses, and leather. There’s also an aromatic woodsy core that makes this a blend you just have to sit down with. If you’ve been looking for something to take you out of the usual selection of easygoing Connecticuts, give this one a shot.
Okay, let’s dip into something darker. The E.P. Carillo La Historia blend.
E.P. Carrillo La Historia
Flavor, thy name is Maduro.
If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy a cigar of this type yet, E.P. Carillo will make a fine introduction to the world of sweet, fermented wrappers that bring gorgeous earthy flavor to blends around the world. “Maduro” means “mature,” and these tobacco leaves are fermented using a special process that causes them to darken over a few months, losing a little bit of punch in exchange for gaining a complex flavor that just might be your next addiction.
E.P. Carillo is a certified master blender, so you’re in good hands here. With a Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the Year win under his belt, the man knows how to find exquisite tobacco for this cigars. This is one of our intense cigars for women that reaches full strength, so handle with care and take your time smoking it or you’ll be greener than a candela in no time.
At 92 points, La Historia is a certified premium cigar, with tons of rewarding flavor and aroma. Light it up to enjoy a core of oak and vanilla, plus the earthy complexity of leather and a dash of white pepper to ensure that the blend kicks when it should. All of this is brought on by a quality blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers, an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and a black and oily Mexican San Andrés wrapper. You’ll get big draws off this cigar, especially if you get one of those nice six-inch Dona Elena toros. If you really enjoy bigger ring gauges, you could also grab the Regalias D’Celia, a 5.8 x 58 gordo cigar that ensures you’ll be experiencing the full story of the Perez-Carillo family in cigar form.
Speaking of big ring gauges, shall we get a little obscene? Our next intense cigar for women is strictly for grownups only.
JFR Lunatic El Chiquito Maduro
Okay, we’ll come right out and say it: this is a 70-gauge monster and no, we’re not being fresh by inviting you to pop it in your mouth. 99% of the people who ever smoke the JFR Lunatic El Chiquito will be straight dudes that will nearly knock their humidor on the floor in a rush to correct any perception that they might be gay. But this ain’t your average ding dong. (If it were, it wouldn’t be hardly so impressive.)
Instead, this thing is a certified medium-full strength banger of a cigar.
The flavors of the Lunatic are definitely rewarding, kicking off with impressive pepper and then opening up into an herbal array with aromatic baking spices. You get a lot from each pull, and are really being treated to a full on banquet of a cigar. “El Chiquito” of course means “The Giant,” right? Well, the JFR folks couldn’t resist being a little silly and naming this one something that actually means “tiny” in Spanish.
Don’t be fooled. You’re smoking a PVC pipe full of delicious tobacco. There’s nothing tiny about this cigar.
Inside, there’s a fistful of Nicaraguan binder and filler leaf. Outside, it’s a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper that brings it all together, offering some dark sweetness to balance the massive flow of cedary smoke coming out of this handheld log.
If you’re the type of gal who wants intense cigars for women that will probably make the men around you a little uncomfortable, this has to be the one you pick up. No one can match this thing, and it’ll be quite the “distracting” smokable, to say the least. The fact that it pulled in 90 points just shows what people can do when they’re having a good time and shaking things up. They can actually wind up creating a pretty fun and tasty cigar in the process.
Those lunatics.
Southern Draw Kudzu
This is a really nice cigar. Of all the smokes on this list, this is probably the one we’re most eager to share with people. Southern Draw is a company headed for big things, we think, and the flavors we get from their cigars keep showing up just a cut above the rest.
It’s potent at medium-full strength, but the blend is exquisite. And if you’re a Southern Girl, this brand is on point, loving God, country, and the art of fine tobacco rolling. This is definitely our top pick for intense cigars for women.
Southern Draw’s Kudzu took down an impressive 92 rating from the team at Cigar Aficionado, offering fantastic aromas and tastes that balance sweetness and spice. Pepper and toffee battle over a core of nuts, wood, and coffee bean. If you can keep all that straight, you’re ahead of us. We noticed the complexity and could enjoy the layers of flavor, but anything that goes that deep into differing notes can be really hard to detect from cigar to cigar and palate to palate.
Suffice to say, we enjoy this one quite a lot.
The first thing you’ll see is the wrapper – it’s a nice oily Ecuadorian habano oscuro. Inside, you get some of AJ Fernandez’s best Nicaraguan filler and binder. This is how the Southern Draw Kudzu creates its one-two punch and why the cigar ultimately is so interesting. It’s a special double-fermented cover leaf, too, so some extra care and attention went into getting the wrapper to just the right point.
The box press gives it a nice smooth draw, and the closed foot ensures that whatever is going on inside the cigar stays that way until its time for a woman like yourself to finally light it up. Even if you don’t try the Kudzu, keep your eye on Southern Draw. They’re in position to keep pleasing smokers for many growing seasons to come.
Illusione Fume d'Amour Juniperos
Love is in the air, and with majorly high ratings to boast of, Illusione is providing the smoke to go along with it.
Illusione’s “Smoke of Love” was the #3 cigar of 2014, and earned the distinction with every puff. Now, the blend still scores highly with Cigar Aficionado’s most seasoned chimneys, pulling in a 91 within the last year. If you’ve got a lover who likes to smoke, this is one to enjoy together. Or, dare we say, you could share it?
(Is sharing cigars a thing? It might be. That’s up to you and the lucky one you’re with.)
Fortunately, the Illusione Fume D’Amour is as beautiful as it is enjoyable. This is one of those cigars that gives you a moment of pause before you cut and light it. It just looks too pretty to destroy, but ultimately, destruction is what it was made for. You’ll get your money’s worth once it’s lit as you take in a swirling array of flavors like coffee, almond, amaretto, and what Cigar Aficionado called “the sweet finish of truffle-flecked honey.”
Sounds like love to us, or at least the giddy nonsense that we come up with when we’ve got romance on the mind.
This is a Nicaraguan puro made with a well-chosen blend of premium tobacco. Everything comes together just right. If you’re looking for intense cigars for women that pair well with love affairs, this is our suggestion. If, on the other hand, you’re in the Lonely Hearts Club, this is a cigar that you can use to escape for an hour or so while your knight or knight-ess in shining armor gets his/her shit together and walks into your life already.
So there you have it – a collection of not-mild cigars for women to enjoy. Light up and kick back. These smokes are all yours.
What makes these “cigars for women?” Okay, you’ve got us. Cigars really aren’t gendered.
Men and women can smoke whatever the hell they want. These don’t have pink or purple bands, they don’t feature ladies or sexy firefighters on the band art, and they aren’t made by cigar companies owned by women (yes, there is such a thing. Tres Lindas Cubanas out of Miami, celebrating Cuban women). However, for anyone who goes googling for intense cigars for women, we’ve created this article to ensure that they don’t have to click around empty handed.
Ladies in search of a potent cigar, this list is for you. These are high quality smokes with 90+ ratings, good strength, and really enjoyable flavor. Now, let’s get into the cigars!
Nat Cicco Aniversario 1965 Liga No. 4
For a brand with such humble beginnings, this cigar represents a surprising evolution in style. Nat Cicco was launched decades ago (1965, to be exact) with a focus on creating “Robusto Rejects.” These were cigars made with medium-length picadura, which are tobacco leaf remnants produced when full leaves are cut during the cigar making process. So, if you’re a lady who’s into recycling, cigars like that might be your ticket to getting a quality smoke while preventing waste.
But if you want a premium cigar, skip the Rejects and grab an Aniversario 1965 Liga No. 4. These are 93-rated cigars with medium-full strength that deliver a wealth of flavor. Cigar Aficionado noted the balance of sweet and savory notes, and called out nuts, caramel, and chocolate in their review. This is a certified desert cigar and a real treat made with outstanding Nicaraguan long-filler and binder tobacco. The outside is a classic Ecuadorian habano-seed wrapper that really invites you in with a dark, oily look that just begs to be smoked. The Aniversario 1965 is also box-pressed for a really nice draw that helped it earn the distinction of being Cigar Aficionado’s #18 cigar of 2018.
A satisfying, flavorful stick from a company that’s coming up in the world? Perfect for the first of our intense cigars for women list. Now let’s get into another one that goes against all the mild mannered cigars women are told to smoke: the Joya Red Cañonazo.
Joya Red Cañonazo
Okay, this one has all the warning signs you could ask for.
It’s got a bright red label.
Its name means something like “gunshot” in English.
It’s made by a company known for “grab you by the tongue” bold blends.
It’s perfect for ladies in the mood to add a little spice to their lives. This cigar, along with a half-decent romance novel and some sipping whiskey could actually make Saturday night great again! Please report back if you have any luck with that plan.
Joya Red is a bit of a conundrum. For all the intensity and flavor, this particular version was blended with a desire to smooth things out a little. Now, in Joya’s world, that doesn’t mean this is a gentle cigar. It’s a medium-full cigar, at the end of the day. But compared to other blends the company has produced, they tried to dial it back a touch so that some of the subtler flavors could shine and smokers could enjoy it without getting overwhelmed and hitting the deck.
Cigar Aficionado gave this one 91 points, and it’s a pretty fine example of what a strong Nicaraguan puro can be. All the tobacco in this one – filler, binder, and wrapper – is taken from farms in Nicaragua. There was no need to mix in Dominican filler, Ecuadorian cover leaf, or anything else. Joya has been successfully blending Nica tobacco for decades, even reaching the distinction of being the Official Cigar of the White House many years ago, so they’re quite capable of sourcing everything locally. Only in the cigar world, they don’t call it “local sourcing.”
It’s just called “pure.”
Joya Red is one of our intense cigars for women that brings gorgeous golden, earthy flavors: honey, molasses, and leather. There’s also an aromatic woodsy core that makes this a blend you just have to sit down with. If you’ve been looking for something to take you out of the usual selection of easygoing Connecticuts, give this one a shot.
Okay, let’s dip into something darker. The E.P. Carillo La Historia blend.
E.P. Carrillo La Historia
Flavor, thy name is Maduro.
If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy a cigar of this type yet, E.P. Carillo will make a fine introduction to the world of sweet, fermented wrappers that bring gorgeous earthy flavor to blends around the world. “Maduro” means “mature,” and these tobacco leaves are fermented using a special process that causes them to darken over a few months, losing a little bit of punch in exchange for gaining a complex flavor that just might be your next addiction.
E.P. Carillo is a certified master blender, so you’re in good hands here. With a Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the Year win under his belt, the man knows how to find exquisite tobacco for this cigars. This is one of our intense cigars for women that reaches full strength, so handle with care and take your time smoking it or you’ll be greener than a candela in no time.
At 92 points, La Historia is a certified premium cigar, with tons of rewarding flavor and aroma. Light it up to enjoy a core of oak and vanilla, plus the earthy complexity of leather and a dash of white pepper to ensure that the blend kicks when it should. All of this is brought on by a quality blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers, an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and a black and oily Mexican San Andrés wrapper. You’ll get big draws off this cigar, especially if you get one of those nice six-inch Dona Elena toros. If you really enjoy bigger ring gauges, you could also grab the Regalias D’Celia, a 5.8 x 58 gordo cigar that ensures you’ll be experiencing the full story of the Perez-Carillo family in cigar form.
Speaking of big ring gauges, shall we get a little obscene? Our next intense cigar for women is strictly for grownups only.
JFR Lunatic El Chiquito Maduro
Okay, we’ll come right out and say it: this is a 70-gauge monster and no, we’re not being fresh by inviting you to pop it in your mouth. 99% of the people who ever smoke the JFR Lunatic El Chiquito will be straight dudes that will nearly knock their humidor on the floor in a rush to correct any perception that they might be gay. But this ain’t your average ding dong. (If it were, it wouldn’t be hardly so impressive.)
Instead, this thing is a certified medium-full strength banger of a cigar.
The flavors of the Lunatic are definitely rewarding, kicking off with impressive pepper and then opening up into an herbal array with aromatic baking spices. You get a lot from each pull, and are really being treated to a full on banquet of a cigar. “El Chiquito” of course means “The Giant,” right? Well, the JFR folks couldn’t resist being a little silly and naming this one something that actually means “tiny” in Spanish.
Don’t be fooled. You’re smoking a PVC pipe full of delicious tobacco. There’s nothing tiny about this cigar.
Inside, there’s a fistful of Nicaraguan binder and filler leaf. Outside, it’s a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper that brings it all together, offering some dark sweetness to balance the massive flow of cedary smoke coming out of this handheld log.
If you’re the type of gal who wants intense cigars for women that will probably make the men around you a little uncomfortable, this has to be the one you pick up. No one can match this thing, and it’ll be quite the “distracting” smokable, to say the least. The fact that it pulled in 90 points just shows what people can do when they’re having a good time and shaking things up. They can actually wind up creating a pretty fun and tasty cigar in the process.
Those lunatics.
Southern Draw Kudzu
This is a really nice cigar. Of all the smokes on this list, this is probably the one we’re most eager to share with people. Southern Draw is a company headed for big things, we think, and the flavors we get from their cigars keep showing up just a cut above the rest.
It’s potent at medium-full strength, but the blend is exquisite. And if you’re a Southern Girl, this brand is on point, loving God, country, and the art of fine tobacco rolling. This is definitely our top pick for intense cigars for women.
Southern Draw’s Kudzu took down an impressive 92 rating from the team at Cigar Aficionado, offering fantastic aromas and tastes that balance sweetness and spice. Pepper and toffee battle over a core of nuts, wood, and coffee bean. If you can keep all that straight, you’re ahead of us. We noticed the complexity and could enjoy the layers of flavor, but anything that goes that deep into differing notes can be really hard to detect from cigar to cigar and palate to palate.
Suffice to say, we enjoy this one quite a lot.
The first thing you’ll see is the wrapper – it’s a nice oily Ecuadorian habano oscuro. Inside, you get some of AJ Fernandez’s best Nicaraguan filler and binder. This is how the Southern Draw Kudzu creates its one-two punch and why the cigar ultimately is so interesting. It’s a special double-fermented cover leaf, too, so some extra care and attention went into getting the wrapper to just the right point.
The box press gives it a nice smooth draw, and the closed foot ensures that whatever is going on inside the cigar stays that way until its time for a woman like yourself to finally light it up. Even if you don’t try the Kudzu, keep your eye on Southern Draw. They’re in position to keep pleasing smokers for many growing seasons to come.
Illusione Fume d'Amour Juniperos
Love is in the air, and with majorly high ratings to boast of, Illusione is providing the smoke to go along with it.
Illusione’s “Smoke of Love” was the #3 cigar of 2014, and earned the distinction with every puff. Now, the blend still scores highly with Cigar Aficionado’s most seasoned chimneys, pulling in a 91 within the last year. If you’ve got a lover who likes to smoke, this is one to enjoy together. Or, dare we say, you could share it?
(Is sharing cigars a thing? It might be. That’s up to you and the lucky one you’re with.)
Fortunately, the Illusione Fume D’Amour is as beautiful as it is enjoyable. This is one of those cigars that gives you a moment of pause before you cut and light it. It just looks too pretty to destroy, but ultimately, destruction is what it was made for. You’ll get your money’s worth once it’s lit as you take in a swirling array of flavors like coffee, almond, amaretto, and what Cigar Aficionado called “the sweet finish of truffle-flecked honey.”
Sounds like love to us, or at least the giddy nonsense that we come up with when we’ve got romance on the mind.
This is a Nicaraguan puro made with a well-chosen blend of premium tobacco. Everything comes together just right. If you’re looking for intense cigars for women that pair well with love affairs, this is our suggestion. If, on the other hand, you’re in the Lonely Hearts Club, this is a cigar that you can use to escape for an hour or so while your knight or knight-ess in shining armor gets his/her shit together and walks into your life already.
So there you have it – a collection of not-mild cigars for women to enjoy. Light up and kick back. These smokes are all yours.