Warped Serie Gran Reserva 1988 is an ultra-premium cigar that was originally made to celebrate the birthday of Warped brand owner Kyle Gellis. That being said, there is so much more to this cigar than the fact that it's just another blend commemorating something. This, like just about anything else offered by Warped, is a cigar built with a purpose. It was blended for the snobs and the ones that won't settle for ordinary sticks. When you light up the foot of this Nicaraguan puro and torch all three layers of Nicaraguan goodness—wrapper, filler, and binder—you will understand why this Aganorsa-grown, Nicaraguan-made masterpiece earned an incredible 95 rating in Cigar Aficionado, along with a high spot on the publication's Top 25 Cigars of 2019. It has certainly dazzled those belonging to the somewhat eerie cult following of Warped Cigars, but this one has gone mainstream and earned the attention of cigar connoisseurs around the world.

The box is a plain cedar chest with a lonely solitary crown logo burnt right into the middle. The bands are plain white paper with little other than the same curious crown logo plastered with the numbers "976212" (to this day, nobody really seems to know what the number means). Mystique is the name of the game as far as packaging goes, as if you didn't know what you were looking for, you probably would have no idea that the stick was even made by Warped. Once you give in to curiosity and decide to fire up this 5 ¼" x 50 firecracker, you will discover that the draw is easy and smooth, the burn is crisp, and the smoke flows freely. Earthy tobacco and coffee beans make up the backbone of the flavor profile, at first joined by some heavy blasts of Nicaraguan pepper. Cocoa nibs, dark chocolate, and bakers' spices hang around in the background, and hints of oak and maple become apparent on the retro hale. The finish is bold, spicy, and rich, rounding out this full-bodied package and keeping everything in beautiful balance.

Like all Warped cigars, the 1988 is for the experienced. Head-spinning complexity mixed with in-your-face strength and precision performance make it the well-rounded unicorn cigar so many seasoned connoisseurs long for. This blend pairs beautifully with coffee, bourbon, or stout and is best enjoyed after a meal, due to the raw strength of the Nicaraguan tobacco. Fans of bold Nicaraguan classics like Padron or Oliva Serie V will likely find this blend highly satisfying, though this one may be a bit more refined and tweaked to be a more contemporary style flavor bomb. It seems like just about any cigar bearing the Warped name is a hit out of the ballpark, but most are limited and hard to find, due to sell outs. That should be reason enough to get your hands on Warped Serie Gran Reserva 1988 ASAP and experience the taste of a true 95-rated powerhouse cigar.