Cigar Previews, Part 6

EL GUEGUENSE by Foundation Cigars

One of the most hotly anticipated cigars of the 2015 IPCPR show ended up being El Güegüense, the first offering from Foundation Cigars. Foundation is the new home for Nicolas Melillo, one of the mad scientists behind some of Drew Estate’s most popular brands (perhaps you’ve heard of the Flying Pig and Dirty Rat?). He left a couple years back to pursue some other interests and now those “other interests” have become more clear.

Having lived in Nicaragua a large portion of his adult life, Nicolas turned to local culture for his first cigar brand, El Güegüense: “The Wise Man.” Gueguense is Nicaragua’s “signature work of drama, the ultimate expression of its unique history, language, dance and culture. It is a Nicaraguan puro that specifically uses Jalapa Corojo 99 and Esteli Criollo 98 fillers, and Jalapa Corojo 99 for both binder and wrapper.

The cigar starts out with a stout cedar flavor, followed by notes of earth and a peppery burn on the back of the palate and on the nose. It continued mostly the same with some ebbs and flows along the way, as well as some subtle dried fruit sweetness every now and then.

With Melilo at the helm, Foundation is definitely a company to keep an eye on and even with the strange name of their first release, it’s a cigar that should go over well in most shops. It will appeal first to the cigar geeks out there and, as the everyday cigar smoker gives it a try, I believe it will find widespread acceptance and appeal.

CORE ZERO METAL by CZ Cigars

While in New Orleans, I tried to visit a few booths of unfamiliar companies. CZ Cigars is based in Colorado (although soon to move) and was founded by a group of military and law enforcement guys who also played in a band. Core Zero is their initial release and is available in Indie, with a Sumatra wrapper, and Metal, the Maduro wrapped-stick that I’m looking at now.

The information on the company’s website leads me to believe this is all Nicaraguan, including a Nica Habano Maduro wrapper. The band is flashy and nearly all foil, both red and silver. Interesting, but it doesn’t exactly look high end. Of course, at around $6 a stick (for Robustos), it isn’t priced in the high end spectrum, either. I guess my biggest concern with it is that it looks to me like it would get somewhat lost on the shelf.

The Core Zero Metal lit up with pleasant raisin sweetness leading the way and notes of earth and dark roast coffee coming behind, along with a nice hit of red pepper on the nose. As I smoked through this cigar, I noted that it was medium-to-full in body and strength with a very pleasant overall flavor profile that I certainly wouldn’t mind smoking again.

This is one that puts me on the fence. While I like the flavor and price for my mythical “own shop,” the packaging would get lost in the background noise and there really is no “buzz” about this company currently. Tough decision, but I think I might go for a trial run with a few boxes and see how my clientele reacts.

ROUTE 66 by ACME Cigars

The company’s website describes Route 66 like this: “a premium cigar priced as an every day smoke. It uses an Ecuador-grown Cuban seed Habano wrapper over a Jalapa Criollo binder and Nicaraguan, San Andres and Dominican fillers.”

The band proclaims this as an “American Classic” and flies a red, white and blue Route 66 road sign with silver wings. It’s sorta cool and sorta borders on bundle-style gimmickry. The cold draw had a light earthiness with notes of cedar and dried fruit.

Initial puffs revealed more cedar than anything else, but some sweeter notes, earth and pepper were in the mix, as well. In the end, though, this cigar just didn’t have much appeal to me on a flavor level. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t stand out. I’d be willing to try it again if there’s an opportunity but I would purposely waits while.

ANIVERSARIO 107 by Partagas

Another new release from the General Cigar stable of brands is this 170th anniversary celebration of the Partagas brand. This follows on their regular path of the 150 and 160 Partagas offerings. It has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers (including “proprietary Gurdian leaf”), a Connecticut Havao binder, and a Cameroon (Kadel) wrapper leaf. Realistically, the price point is high for a Partagas, ranging from $16 to $18 a stick depending on size, but when considering the 150 and 160 releases, it’s actually not out of line.

The cold draw was very good and had flavor notes of oak and tea. I got the cigar burning and was rewarded with more tea notes, along with some earth and pepper spice on the palate and a strong wasabi-like spice on the retrohale. I would call the Partagas Aniversario 170 a medium-bodied cigar at first, with a decent amount of spice.

The flavor profile didn’t change much as I puffed through the cigar buy it was quite good. What I didn’t get, though, was a sense that this cigar is quite worth the price of admission. Probably something to pick up a couple boxes for the fans, but not something I would order a lot of.

SYNCRO by Avo Cigars

The Syncro is the first new regular blend introduced since the company’s rebranding efforts. It’s also the first regular release by Avo that is box-pressed. The master blenders took care to balance and “synchronize” the flavors imparted by the Nicaraguan Ometepe, Dominican (Piloto, San Vicente Mejorado and Olor) and Peruvian fillers, Dominican binder, and dark Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper.

The banding on the Syncro is classic, yet modern, which is just the look I think they were looking for when they made the decision to re-brand the Avo line last year. The color of the wrapper leaf was like a cinnamon stick with its beautiful reddish-brown hue and it had an aroma of earth and cedar.

The start of the Syncro featured mushroom notes from the Olor leaf as well as earth and pepper from the Nicaraguan. As I puffed through I noted the thick, creamy smoke that oozed out of both ends of the stick. The blending of Dominican and Nicaraguan leaf is truly spectacular…they are very much “in sync” in this cigar, which is just what they were shooting for.