Gotham Cigars is the unbeatable resource for cigar deals. I have the best job here and that’s to smoke cigars all day and give my opinion. I would say it’s kinda like being a judge on “America’s Next Top Whatevever'' except that the contestants are not whiny cry babies. Perhaps the one who ends up sobbing is me when the smoke is dreadful. All the same, it’s always a pleasure to bring you incredible deals on cigars and accessories; and today’s deal is one of the best!

Today we’re talking about a well-known brand that made a come-back. The Bahia brand was big in the 1990s and then it disappeared for a while. But now your favourite Bahias are back on the market for incredible value. Stick with me to find out more.

About the Bahia Brand

There isn’t much on the internet about the Bahia brand, the owners or even a working website. However, with some digging, here is what we could find. The Bahia brand was established in 1995. In the 1990s cigar boom, Bahia was the most popular cigar brand and sold more cigars than industry leaders like Rocky and Gurkha.

The first Boutique Brand

The founder of the Bahia brand, Tony Borhani along with the blender Don Douglas Pueringer curated the first boutique cigar company. They specialized in production of small batch cigars. Infact, Bahia cigars were among the maiden limited edition releases whereby batches of 100,000 to

300,000 cigars would go out every year. This meant that limited boxes of Bahia cigars would be available for purchase every year.

This concept caused a revolution in taste and demand which drove the Bahia brand to the top of the charts. However, the limited production concept was not upheld; production increased and soon the market was flooded which inevitably brought down the Bahia brand.

Bahia made all their cigars at Tabacalera Tambor S.A., in Costa Rica under cigar blender Douglas Pueringer. Don Douglas also worked with CAO on a spicy maduro named CAO Black before CAO moved production to Nick Perdomo.

Some of the original Bahia cigars included Bahia Vintage, Bahia Trinidad, Bahia Gold, and Bahia Maduro.

The Bahia Brand Now

Tony Borhani and Donald Douglas Pueringer co-owned the Tabacalera

Tambor S.A. factory. However, neither Tony Borhani nor Don Douglas own the Bahia brand now. A few years ago, Cigar International began to buy Bahia trademarks; and that’s how the Bahia brand emerged from the ashes. Currently, Bahia has several cigar lines in the market including Bahia Cafe, Bahia Blu, Bahia Trinidad, Bahia Brazil, and Bahia Maduro.

Even though these are all budget bundle cigars, everyone who discovers them asserts that they are a great steal because of the premium flavour for pennies.

And now to the subject of the day; Bahia Blu and Bahia Maduro. What are they like? Why should you include them in your regular rotation?

Bahia Blu: Blend and Tasting Notes

Bahia Blu is a gorgeous, handrolled, dark brown cigar nesting in the mild to medium range. It’s cloaked in a flawless corojo wrapper with 3 years ageing in the bag. Intricately aged Nicaraguan long fillers from Esteli, Jalapa, and Leon constitute the core. The fillers are aged for 5 to 6 years before rolling. After rolling, these babies are then encased in Spanish cedar for an additional 180 days.

As you can imagine, the resulting flavour carries a rich toasty cedary core, sweet and spicy, with secondary coffee and cream notes. Bahia Blu boasts a long earthy, peppery finish, billows of thick cottony smoke, stoic ash, and an above average burn.

This is a truly striking stick with an electric blue band written in silver against the dark brown background. It comes in four vitolas namely:

●Churchill (7.5 "X 50)

●Robusto (5.2 "X 54)

●Toro (6.0 "X 50)

●Torpedo (6.2 "X 54)

And the best attribute yet is the crazy low price. We have these for less than $3 a pop! This means a 20 cigar bundle is a mere $55!

Bahia Maduro: The Blend and Tasting Notes

Bahia Maduro is a true maduro thanks to the dark, almost black wrapper. In fact, this maduro gets its complex tantalizing flavour profile from the thick, oily, delicately fermented Connecticut Shade Broadleaf wrapper. And just like the Blu, this too is an aged delicacy. The binder is a 3-year aged delicious Dominican Olor Habano binder. Underneath are Dominican Piloto Cubano Seca and Ligero fillers.

Bahia Maduro presents with a toothy shaft and a slight oily sheen. The first draws are likely to be sweet and chocolatey. As the sweetness subsides, toasty notes of cedar and coffee with a nice long earthy finish take over. Since this is a budget cigar, don’t expect much in the way of transitions. But this smoke maintains a smooth and interesting flavour profile throughout; thick and heavy on the palate.

As far as the burn is concerned, Bahia Maduro does not have burn issues. Infact, the ash is something of a spectacle with salt and pepper flakes. You may need to be careful though as you remove the band. I would recommend that you carefully peel the band rather than attempt to slide it off. More often than not, sliding the band off will damage the wrapper.

Bahia Maduro comes in three vitolas, namely:

●Churchill (7.0 "X 54)

●Robusto (5.5 "X 52) 

● Torpedo (6.0 "X 54)

Final Thoughts

Bahia has come a long way. Just hearing the name conjures memories of amazing smokes in the wake of a great cigar revolution. And now we can relive those days. And the best part is that we can have these everyday; heck we can a bunch everyday without denting our budgets.

If you have not rediscovered the Bahias, grab yourself a bundle of Bahia Blu and Bahia Maduro and take a reminiscent journey back to the 90's.

Have you had any of the Bahias lately? What was your experience? Share with us today.