Vitola: Toro- 5.75 x 54 ring gauge
- MSRP $9
- Provided by Caoba Cigars
Background
This is the second in my 5-part look at the offerings of Caoba Cigars, a company that has been in business for over 25 years in the Dominican Republic, but is only now working to expand their sales to the U.S. You can check out my review of the Connecticut Shade-wrapped Oro for a little more detail of their background.
One additional detail of the company’s history is the origin of their name. Don Julio Pérez Gonzáles, the company’s founder, was passionate about wood and had a workshop of mahogany figures. Mahogany is the national tree of the Dominican Republic and “caoba” is Spanish for mahogany.
The name of the cigar—“Quisqueyano”—took some additional research to figure out. Quesqueya is one of the names for Hispaniola and is believed to mean “mother of all lands” in the Taíno language. Quisqueyano is used to denote someone of Dominican descent. I couldn’t find details on their website, but I believe this to be a Dominican puro, with a wrapper leaf from the Yamasa region.
Prelight
The band for Quisqueyano is a play on the Dominican flag, using a white cross over diagonally alternating corners of blue and red. It’s an interesting and original look, with “Caoba” rendered in white on a background of dark gray below the flat motif and a secondary band of the same dark gray with “Quisqueyano” written in a script font on it. Good looking…except for the paper stock being used looks and feels cheap. It’s a small thing, but it is important in building the image of the company. I didn’t mark anything off for this, but it is a minor area that could be improved.
Build quality looks good from the outside of the stick with the seams flat and no visible flaws in the wrapper leaf. The head of the cigar is very flat, reminding me of the CAO Flathead Steel Horse with it’s rounded shape but perfectly flat head. This flat head is not a perfect 90 degrees from the straight sides of the cigar’s body, though. Not sure if that’s by design or not, but it doesn’t seem like it is.
The wrapper leaf was a medium brown color with a moderate amount of oiliness that I could feel from it. It had a very woody, cedary aroma to it, along with a touch of sweet hay. The foot of the stick had more hay notes, with just a touch of bread. I used a standard cigar punch since the head of this cigar was very flat, same as I do with the CAO Flathead line or Roma Craft Neanderthal. The resulting draw was excellent and I got flavors of hay, bread, bell pepper and cedar.
Flavor
Once I got the Quisqueyano burning, I immediately got a very cedary wood note, backed up by a little sweet hay and earth. There was a little bell pepper on the finish on the palate and the retrohale had more wood and a decent black pepper burn. Subsequent puffs had the sweetness picking up a bit in the form of almost a molasses note. As the first third burned along, I found it to have a very nice balance of earth, bread, sweetness, and wood. While I described the Oro as an “old-school Dominican” blend, I was so far finding this one to be very progressive in the way the blenders used Dominican leaf.
The second third continued in a similar pleasant way, with a touch more spice on the palate and on the retrohale. The bread notes faded a bit, while the sweetness and cedar increased slightly.
The final third of Quisqueyano had more earthiness, while the sweet notes kept steady as a really nice counter. Wood and pepper notes faded almost completely away and bread came back a little.
Construction
The cigar was a little soft and under-filled feeling, but it burned steadily with a decently straight burn line and solid ash.
Value
Very good cigar at a price point I found very reasonable.
Conclusions
I found the Caoba Quisqueyano to be a really good cigar with a very pleasing amount of complexity that is rarely found on Dominican blends at this price point. It was medium-bodied but full-flavored. It is very easy to recommend to both novice cigar smokers as it would never overwhelm them, but would also be pleasing to experienced smokers who enjoy medium-bodied cigars that feature a high level of complexity.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
