Vitola: Torpedo- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $10
- Sample provided by Modi Cigars
Background
Next up in my exploration of the Caoba Cigar lines is the Diamante, which is Spanish for “Diamond.” A pretty lofty name for a cigar, more precious than gold, I guess. Again, I was given very little information about this cigar before smoking it except that it was made in the Dominican Republic. I’m guessing it uses Dominican filler and binder and the website for the company states that it has a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper leaf.
I’m basing this review on my first smoking of the blend and the cigar was provided by Modi Cigars, the US distributor for the Caoba brand
Prelight
The band is on the same level as that for the Oro, which isn’t a good thing. Black with silver foil does work for the look, but the edges of the art aren’t crisp and well-defined, making it seem like they used a cheaper printer or printing process for the job. The wrapper leaf was a dark chocolate brown color and had a decently oily feel under my fingertips, but some of the wrap job was sloppy with a chunk of tobacco missing one place and a bit of an edge sticking up not far away. From the band to the job on the rolling, it just falls quite a bit short of what I expect to see with a $10 cigar.
The wrapper had a very earthy aroma with touches of cedar and coffee beans. The foot was earthy with a little hay and wood. The cold draw was light and grassy mostly, although there was some earth and pepper from the wrapper coming through.
Flavor
Once lit, the more bitter earthy notes of the Mexican wrapper came out really quickly. The body was medium-plus at the outset. Cedar came through as a prominent secondary note and I got some brown pepper heat on the palate near the finish. The retrohale was more interesting to me, with notes of semi-sweet chocolate, espresso bean and red pepper flake. After about 10 minutes, the bitterness settled down a bit and became a little better balanced with more sweetness coming from the Maduro leaf.
As I got into the second third of the Diamante, I got more earth and wood, along with the introduction of a leathery note. The sweetness that came out late in the first third was still there under the surface and there was just a tiny bit of pepper spice on the palate, as well. The retrohale still had some pepper, as well, but there was more cedar there now.
The last third of the Diamante had a noticeable increase in body into the low end of the full range, along with a bolstering of semi-sweet chocolate notes overlaying earth and espresso bean and cedar. There was still just a little pepper acting as an accent more than anything else.
Construction
Build quality was very good, featuring a good draw, even burn line and solid ash.
Value
Although I had less than nice things to say in prelight, the flavor profile of this stick did delivery very nicely and justified the price point.
Conclusions
I found the Caoba Diamante to be a very nice full-bodied Dominican blend showing the earthiness and sweetness inherent in the Mexican Maduro wrapper very nicely. I would smoke this again, but I would encourage the company to step up their game in regards to the packaging and quality control of the appearance. The US market is very crowded and the current packaging doesn’t exactly scream out to the consumer that they should “Try me!” Also, the shoddy look of the cigar will not make people believe it’s worth the $10 price tag.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
