Reviews of Havana Reserva (1996)
by Aramis

Imagine: crushing finest cigars between ur palm, lightly..now bring your palm close to your nose and thats the intensity Havana Reserva has in it's opening. mix this with a steely note of metal over a floral and boozy accords; masterfully blended with spicy notes of pepper and cumin(+tons more) over a base of woody notes, patch and incense....pure bliss...

With Reserva I get a more concentrated version of Havana. The notes that end up being most dominant in the opening to me are the spice notes—they come on very strong. This stronger blast of spices pushes the opening a bit over the line for me. Where I found Havana wonderfully aggressive and edgy, Havana Reserva has gone too far. It takes over a half hour for the spices to settle down to an enjoyable level for me, and when it does, what I get is pretty much the same great accords that I got from Havana, except that spices predominate a bit more to my nose. With the spices dominating, I lose some of the woods and animal notes that I enjoyed so much in Havana. No, Havana Reserva is a very good scent and certainly deserves a thumbs up, but I prefer the original Havana. (Edit of 17 September 2006 review.)

Very hard to tell from the original, save in its greater longevity and sillage. The tobacco notes aren't quite so harsh, either.

Still, don't spend the moolah unless you just really want a discontinued original. For all intents and purposes, you're going to get the same thing minus a little "rumminess" with the equally sexy Montana Parfum d'Homme. (And for a helluva lot less.)

Thumbs up? Yes, absolutely -- but do take my advice above so long as Aramis keeps Havana and Havana Reserva among its discontinued fragrances.

Smoke and musky earthyness on me. Like both frags but this one is stronger.

I agree with Panda Poacher, Havana Reserva is a concentrated edition of Havana and the differences are miinimal. I will add that this is a good thing because Reserva projects more sillage (so go easy on the trigger boys and girls) and better still, it lasts hours longer.
I've no idea why but the chemists among us might be able to enlighten us as to why concentrated versions are hard to do well.
Chanel PM vs Chanel PM Concentree is one example that frequently comes up. To take a far more radical one, there's Eau Sauvage Extreme ( Yuck! ) which smells nothing like the original ES.
Fortunately, Havana Reserva is one of the happy exceptions.

Just thought I could put my short, informative note on this one : This is extremely similar to the original, so if you know that one then you know exactly how this one smells. Would be very hard to tell any differences, for many.

Opening with the highly refined tone of the original scent, HAVANA RESERVA remains true to it's heritage as it develops, proving that too much of a good thing can be wonderful.




IMPORTANT NOTE: This fragrance contains (phthalates) and many other synthetic ingredients derived from the petrochemical industry. Be aware of the health risks before using this product.

Very spicey opening, followed by an added dimension of rum-soaked cigar ash and then slowly evolving into the familiar 'classic' Havana smoke-and-spice vanillic fruit, faintly alcoholic afterglow. Lasts for hours. Different from 'regular' Havana but yet so much the same. Classy and utterly delicious.

As good as the original juice. As for the differences, the very name suggests it's supposed to be a nobler and more complex version of the "ordinary" stuff. I don't find Reserva any stronger than the regular Havana - just a bit clearer, sharper and less husky. It seems to have a slightly different opening, with notes slowly blending together rather than leaping forward in one thick cloud of smoke as in Havana. In about 30 minutes though, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Contrary to what many people are speculating, Reserva and Havana are not different scents at all. Havana Reserva is merely a concentrated edition of Havana. Any minimal differences in scent are due to the higher concentration.
Be very careful with this one - Havana itself was very easy to overapply and this one is even more so.
To the person who said that this was a 'toned down version of the original' - perhaps you either got a watered down counterfeit or need to smell them both together again. It is the exact opposite.
Other than that, any reviews of Havana apply to this one as well - so if you are trying to decide on this fragrance based on its reviews, go read all of the Havana ones.

This is a great scent. If you love Havana...you'll probably love Havana Reserva. It's just a toned down version of the original. It took awhile for me to appreciate it, but now, I only use Reserva rather than the original Havana. Too bad it's been cancelled. Grab it if you can. Joshaugustt

A cleaner smelling version of Havana, this scent is not quite as loud or harsh. Still spicy and the bay rum is present througout the top, heart and base notes. Not very many supporting products either, I've only seen the juice.
I own Havana in a large bottle, have a small bottle of Havana that is marked 'especial' on the box and that one smells more like Havana Reserva, which has a silver cap. The box to the large bottle of Havana does not have especial on it anywhere, and though I like it, it's not as well done as the other two scents. I don't know if there was an especial, or if my scents just smell different for other reasons, but the small (1oz bottle of Havana) and Havana Reserva smell close to the same.
Speaking of the bottle, I love the color of it. Beautiful, pleasant blue glass. The inverted cone shape means it does not like to stand upright though, and as you use the juice, the level drops faster at the end! The box is quite tropical/Latin American.
I see it's discontinued, and I want to sceam "nooooooooo!" about that. Et tu Estee, et tu!