Vitola: Lancero
Size: 7.50″ x 42 ring gauge
Price $10.00
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com
Background
When I got this cigar on Saturday I didn’t know Dave was planning on reviewing the corona size of this cigar this week as well. He gives a good background and review of the cigar here. Go ahead, click on the link then come back here…I’ll wait. The lancero is either a very new size or one that will only be released to limited stores. It comes 20 to a box like the other ones. I did get a chance to try one of this blend as a pre-release but was a bit unimpressed with it. These cigars were definitely a different experience all together. I smoked one prior to this review sample.
Prelight
The band is almost a negative of the normal Eastern Standard band, with the foil being gold rather than silver. The wrapper was very dark brown with some black mottling to it. There wrapper also showed some oils and tooth. When I gave it a squeeze there was some give but no soft spots. When I put my nose to the wrapper I got the heavy aroma of leather with barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I noted some wood and sweetness with a slightly tight draw.
Flavor
It starts off with a pretty heavy blast of spice on the retrohale and tongue. After a few puffs I got some definite flavors of anise, wood and cinnamon. Towards the end of this third some cocoa and leather flavors came through as well. It started off medium full strength. When I got into the second third, the spice mellowed a bit but didn’t go away. The flavors were similar to the first third; leather, anise, cinnamon, wood and a sweet finish. The strength built a bit through this third as well. By the final third it was giving me a bit of a nicotine hit as it progressed to full strength. I noted flavors of leather, anise, cinnamon with a sweet finish.
Construction
The draw opened up pretty well after I lit it up. The burn was slightly wavy throughout and I did have two pretty good sized runs happen as well. I didn’t need to correct them though.
Value
Like Dave said I think this is less than the original release and therefore is a very good deal.
Conclusions
This cigar definitely held my attention and was very enjoyable, unlike the pre-release sample I had. These cigars seem to be geared for the smoker that is looking for a full strength smoke, rather than the medium strength smoker of the regular Eastern Standard. I’m going to have to revisit the other sizes while putting a couple of these away. If you want to give them a try yourself you can get a 5-pack here or a 20 count box here.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
