Back in 2024, Crowned Heads did something a little unusual for the Las Calaveras line: instead of another one-and-done annual release, they built a specific blend to mark the tenth anniversary of the whole series and called it Décimo Aniversario. It sold out fast, got talked about in every cigar forum I lurk in, and then — like most Las Calaveras releases — it disappeared. This week Crowned Heads announced it's coming back for 2026, same blend, but reworked into three new vitolas and a considerably larger production run. I managed to get my hands on a few sticks of the new D52 ahead of the wider release, and I wanted to see whether a cigar built around nostalgia can still deliver when the scarcity gets dialed down a notch.
Same Blend, New Dress
The pedigree here matters. Décimo Aniversario uses an Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper over all-Nicaraguan binder and filler, rolled at My Father Cigars in Estelí — the same factory responsible for a good chunk of the boldest, most technically clean cigars on the market right now. Crowned Heads didn't touch the recipe for 2026; they just gave it new proportions. The lineup is now three sizes: the D50 (6 x 50), D52 (5 x 52), and D54 (5⅝ x 54), each capped at 2,500 boxes of ten. That's a meaningfully bigger run than the original limited drop, which is either good news for anyone who missed it the first time, or a small gut-check for the folks who paid secondary-market prices for the 2024 boxes. I fall into the first camp, so I'm not complaining.
Lighting the D52
I smoked three of these over the course of a week, always with black coffee in the morning and a pour of something wheated in the evening, just to see how the cigar behaved at both ends of the day. The cold draw gave off cocoa and a faint raisin sweetness that I didn't remember from the original — could be sample variation, could be my palate two years older and paying closer attention. Once lit, the first third opens with black pepper up front, the kind that sits on the back of your tongue rather than up in your sinuses, backed by cedar and a baker's-spice sweetness. By the midpoint it settles into a really satisfying groove: espresso, dark cocoa, and a leather note that thickens up as the burn moves along. The final third brings the pepper back for a victory lap, but it never turns sharp or ashy — Nicaraguan tobacco doing what Nicaraguan tobacco does when it's rolled by people who know what they're doing.
How the Other Sizes Stack Up
I haven't spent as much time with the D50 and D54 yet — I'll follow up once I get a full box of each — but a friend at my usual Jacksonville lounge let me try a D50 he'd picked up. It smoked a touch cooler and more balanced than the D52, with the cocoa notes staying more prominent through the back half. If you like a longer, more measured burn, I'd lean toward the D50. If you want the blend at its most concentrated and punchy, the D52's shorter ring gauge does that job. I'd treat the D54 as the middle ground until I can give it a proper full review.
What It's Going to Cost You
Boxes ship in ten-count configurations per size, and given the My Father factory pedigree and the limited-but-not-tiny 2,500-box cap per vitola, expect these to land in the $12–$14 per stick range once they hit shelves in September — respectable for a blend of this quality, and genuinely fair compared to what secondary-market Décimo boxes were fetching after the 2024 sellout. My advice: don't wait for the hype cycle to build again. Call your local shop now and ask to be put on a list.
Final Verdict
What I like most about this release is what Crowned Heads didn't do. They didn't water down the blend to stretch it across a bigger run, and they didn't rename it into something unrecognizable just to justify a second act. Décimo Aniversario 2026 is the same well-built, pepper-forward Nicaraguan puro that earned its reputation the first time, now available to people who didn't camp out for it in 2024. If you missed it then, this is your redemption arc. If you smoked the original, it's worth a second look — the D52 in particular argues that this blend might actually be better suited to a smaller ring gauge than the vitolas it originally shipped in.
Pre-order alerts are already going up ahead of the September ship date — get on the list before boxes disappear again.
The pepper and espresso notes here hold up beautifully against a wheated bourbon — I'd reach for something in the 100-110 proof range to match the cigar's intensity.