Cigar Review: Oro de Nicaragua by My Father

• Vitola: Robusto
• 5” x 50
• $8.00
• Sample provided by CDMCigars

Background

It is my practice to always write full reviews of cigars from a cigar that is my first smoke of the day. Failing that, I do what I am doing for this review. I did smoke another cigar today, but it was 5 hours previous to this review stick and in the intervening time, I did brush my teeth and eat a sizable meal. So I feel pretty confident that the earlier smoke will not influence my review here.

The Oro de Nicaragua was added to Casa de Montecristo’s “store exclusive” lineup in late 2014. It was conceived as a small batch, “one and done” project from My Father Cigars out of Nicaragua and the blend has never been revealed in full. The only information I can find is that the wrapper is Nicaraguan. Of course, on virtually every other cigar I’ve had from the MF factory, the interior is described as “Nicaraguan filler and binder” with no other detail than that, so I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it might be the same case here.

Oro de Nicaragua is available in 4 vitolas and in multiple ways on the CDM website, including singles, 3-packs, 6-packs and boxes of 12. Whichever way you buy it, you’ll pay about $8 per stick for a Perfecto or Robusto, about $10 for a Toro or Torpedo. This is my first time smoking this blend and I’m reviewing from the sample CDMCigars sent me.

Prelight

The look is consistent with the other blends that wear the My Father name…the original, Le Bijou 1922, Lounge Edition and Special Editions. The main band is pretty much the same throughout the line and a secondary band announced the variation on the theme, in this case “Oro de Nicaragua” in gold foil on a black background. There are different ways to take that…Oro is Spanish for “Gold” so this is “Nicaraguan Gold.” Perhaps some Nicaraguan Pelo de Oro was used in the blend. Perhaps the black background is meant to evoke “black gold”…slang for oil…yeah, I’m going with the first theory, since they’ve actually used Nica Pelo de Oro before.

I’m going to go out on a limb, too, and say the wrapper is not Pelo de Oro, as it usually is a fairly light colored leaf, at least when I’ve seen it used. This wrapper was a milk chocolate brown with a leathery texture and just a bit of oiliness to the touch. The aroma from it was a mild earth and natural tobacco mix. From the foot, I got a slightly richer, more manure earthiness, with fresh forest floor earthiness and cedar.

I’ve been preaching the “take off as little as you can get away with” theory of clipping a cigar while I work at the shop. When I clipped a very shallow 1/16” of an inch I at first thought I hadn’t got through all the tobacco at the head. Apparently this one is fairly densely packed with leaf and it just looked almost-uncut. When I took a test draw, expecting to find it was completely blocked, it actually drew pretty well. It had a smooth, velvety sweet flavor on the cold draw, with just a little spicy tingle on the lips.

Flavor

The My Father Oro de Nicaragua lit easily and evenly with my single-flame torch and I immediately got a mix of cedar, hay and dried fruit flavors up front, along with earth and roasted nuts coming in behind and a salty and peppery finish. The retrohale was nutty and peppery, as well. In all, I was very pleased with initial puffs on this cigar, which showed it to be full-flavored and complex right from the start.

As I headed into the second third, I noted semi-sweet chocolate and salty notes, along with the ever-present earth and cedar. The pepper notes had tapered off, but in true My Father fashion, had not truly gone away.

The last third continued to be complex and flavorful, with notes of chocolate and cedar, salt and earth going about their business, along with the occasional cinnamon or black cherry note popping in to say “Hello!”

Construction

I saw a very straight burn line with no touching up, a solid ash of almost an inch at a time and an excellent draw.

Value

This turned out to be one of the best cigars I’ve ever had with the “My Father” band on it…and the price is almost unbelievably low. Excellent value.

Conclusions

The My Father Oro de Nicaragua was truly a great cigar and I maintain it’s the best thing I’ve had with the My Father label on it. It was on the low end of full in body with a tremendous amount of complexity to the flavor profile. To top it off, it has a price tag that is almost stunning…lower than anything else I can remember seeing from a My Father flagship product. Considering that it’s a store exclusive and, therefore, a limited production run, the low price is even more surprising. Is this my first “Perfect 10” of 2016? I think it is! Great cigar…get them while they last!

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 10/10