Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5″ x 52 ring gauge
Price $8.99
Purchased at Maxamar’s Cigars
Background
I hadn’t heard a lot about this brand before seeing them show up at the shop a couple weeks ago. I found out that this is a fairly new company with an old name. From the little info I can find the cigar brand is mainly being run by Todd Vance and Courtney Smith (from La Palina). This is the third release from the new entity. The first being the Meridian and the second being the Cornelius. These cigars are being made at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. It is comprised of Nicaraguan fillers, an Ecuadorian binder and a Brazilian wrapper. The cigar comes in 4 sizes: corona gorda, toro, gordo, and the subject of this review the robusto. This was the second one of these cigars I smoked.
Prelight
The main band of this cigar definitely catches your eye, as it is very ornate and it has a lot of gold foil to it. The wrapper was a medium dark brown in color, that had a slightly golden tint to it. It also showed a good amount of tooth and oils to it as well. The triple cap was very nicely and evenly applied. When I gave it a squeeze it was slightly firm with no soft spots. From the wrapper I noted a light aroma of leather and barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I got a hint of sweetness with a good draw.
Flavor
It starts off with a good amount of spice on the tongue and retrohale. After a few puffs I started to note some leather, cream, wood, and green herbs all with a sweet finish. The cigar starts at the upper end of medium strength. The second third saw the spice tone way down but not go completely away. The flavors changed slightly to graham, wood, leather, and hints of cinnamon all with the sweet finish. The cigar stayed medium strength. Once I got info the final third the flavors didn’t change a whole lot. The spice did ramp up a bit but not to the same point as the first third. The strength built slightly to medium-full.
Construction
The draw on this (and the other one I smoked) was perfect. It had the right amount of resistance and didn’t change throughout the cigar. The burn line, while not razor sharp, stayed even and didn’t need a touch-up.
Value
The price point puts it inline with a lot of the other offerings out there.
Conclusions
While it wasn’t the most complex cigar I definitely enjoyed it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the first one of these and that is why I picked up a second one to review and see if I had the same experience. I’ll definitely be picking more of these up. If you’d like to try this one for yourself, SmallBatchCigar.com has them in stock right now.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
I planned on picking up a 5er of both the Cornelius and Daddy Mac from SBC…
Just the names involved alone have me curious about this cigar. I liked your assessment of it as well and I’m hoping to try to pick up a few.
I like the sounds of this one, great background and sounds like a good smoke, maybe not the most complex but one to enjoy all the way through