Bandolero

Bandolero is the third brand of Selected Tobacco, and the most direct of the three. Its argument comes down to one figure: the tobaccos are matured five years or more before being rolled.

That long ageing is the only information the house gives out about the blend — the composition stays unstated, which irritates part of the enthusiast crowd and is part of the arrangement. In a trade where the origin of every leaf is usually detailed, that silence is a choice.

The result is a round cigar without edges, in which you look in vain for the bitterness or the green pepper of young tobaccos: time has done its work. Notes of dried fruit, waxed wood, milk chocolate, with a very even burn.

Like its two sisters, Bandolero comes out in tiny volumes and is found at a handful of addresses per country. It is a collector's cigar as much as a smoker's.

Range Depth

• Bandolero Guapos

  Wrapper Undisclosed blend · Strength Medium

  Five years of ageing at least before rolling, and you can tell: no bitterness, no green pepper, but dried fruit, waxed wood and milk chocolate.

  Robusto

• Bandolero Picadores

  Wrapper Undisclosed blend · Strength Medium

  The short format of the series. The same roundness, in forty minutes.

  Corona

🥃 Pairings

• XO cognac

  Spirits

  Two products whose argument is the time spent in reserve.

• Mild high-grown coffee

  Coffee

  Nothing burnt: the blend has no bitterness to balance.