Cigar Extra: Therapy H-Town by Nomad

• Vitola: Lancero
• 7” x 38 ring gauge
• Price $8.50
• Provided by Nomad Cigars

Background

It seems like it was a perfect storm type of convergence. Fred Rewey knew that Jorge Ahued loved Lanceros, so the owner of Nomad Cigars brought the owner of Stogies World Class Cigars some unreleased samples. Jorge loved one in particular and Fred was getting ready to release his Therapy lines to the world…everything just converged and in November, Nomad added a San Andres Lancero to the Therapy line-up and the only place to get it is at Stogies in Houston.

This ends up being Nomad’s first San Andres wrapped cigar while the binder is Dominican and the filler is Dominican and Nicaraguan. Only 200 boxes of 10 were made, at least in the initial run. I have a feeling that if this were wildly popular and sold out in a week, another run might just be commissioned.

Fred sent out some samples of several of his new lines to reviewers lately and I was privileged enough to be on the list again, so I got to try this new Therapy H-Town. If you want to buy them, visit Stogies World Class Cigars’ website…in the spirit of full disclosure, they are a sponsor of this site.

Notes

The Therapy San Andres uses the same band design as the other Therapy lines, but the major color on this one is gold. The wrapper leaf was oily and rough to the touch with a very earthy aroma. On the foot I picked up a hint of earth and cedar.

Once lit, I got a strong earth and bitter coffee note from this Therapy blend. There was a touch of bread underneath, along with some sweeter notes, then a bit of red pepper on the retrohale.

I have to say the draw was not the best I’ve had and it ends up reinforcing my preference of the Corona vitola…90% of the flavor of a Lancero, 10% of the construction problems. This particular stick was a minor draw problem, but it still affected the experience.

The bigger thing that detracted for me, though, was the “Mexican” flavor of bitter earthiness that seemed to pervade this stick, although there was some sweet balance in the mix, too. Overall, it reminded me of the Mexican sticks that put me off of smoking San Andres for a while…things like the La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor. Is it the blend or is it the amount of aging on the wrapper that determines how this flavor comes through? Maybe both…I don’t know.

I paired the Therapy San Andres with some E.H. Taylor Small Batch Bourbon and the whiskey definitely lifted the experience with some added sweetness, but the overall flavor of the cigar never got away from that bitterness I don’t like about many Mexican blends.

All in all, I wasn’t really a fan of this cigar, but if you like something like the La Aroma Mi Amor, you might really enjoy this blend.