Vitola: Aficion
Size: 6.5″ x 48 ring gauge
Price $6.99 MSRP
IPCPR Show Sample
Background
When the guys from the shop were going through the samples they handed me this because they knew I am a fan of cigars that have Aganorsa tobacco in them. This is the latest cigar from Casa Fernandez that showcases their Aganorsa farm and the tobacco it grows. The cigar name and band is kinda cryptic unless you know the players involved since it just has an arm with a bunch of tobacco on the front with the words Aganorsa Leaf and TABSA on opposite sides of the band. These are a Nicaraguan pruo and come in four sizes: Bodhi (5.25″x50), Dharam (6″x50), Sunyata (6″x60) and the one I smoked here Aficion (6.5″x48). This was my first experience with the cigar.
Prelight
Like I mentioned above the band doesn’t have a lot of info and you kind of have to know already what it is. However the band is well executed and looks very good against the wrapper. The wrapper was a medium brown in color with some oils and tooth to it. When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give and no soft spots. From both the wrapper and foot I detected the aroma of barnyard. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got a good draw with a hint of sweetness on the tongue.
Flavor
It starts off with flavors of leather, earth, and wood with a sweet finish and spice on the tongue and retohale. It starts off solidly at medium strength. towards the end of the first third the spice mellowed out a bit. As I moved into the second third the flavors changed slightly to earth, leather, wood with what I associate as the flavor of Aganorsa tobacco, a sort of musty-chocolatey flavor. The strength stayed in the medium range. Once I got into the final third the spice did start to come back but it wasn’t overpowering. I also noted lots of earth, leather and wood flavors as well. It never got stronger than medium to me.
Construction
The draw started out a little tighter than I preferred but opened up nicely at the beginning of the second third. The burn line didn’t need any help in spite of the slight wind we were having that day.
Value
$7 for a well constructed flavorful cigar sounds good to me.
Conclusions
While this isn’t the most complex cigar I definitely will be picking more up and figuring out which size I like. They probably shouldn’t be the last cigar of the day as they aren’t that strong, but a they would be a good morning or first cigar of the day. Our sponsor SmallBatchCigar.com has them in stock right now
