Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $9.50
- Samples provided by Casa Cuevas
Background
Last week I took at look at the Cuevas Reserva Maduro from Casa Cuevas. The company has over a century of tobacco-working in the family, but only recently started producing cigars with the Casa Cuevas name on them. They sent me samples of both the Natural and Maduro expressions of Cuevas Reserva.
Today I’m looking at the Natural variant, which has a drastically different core blend from the Maduro version. The Cuevas Reserva Natural starts with fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaraguan and U.S. (Pennsylvania Broadleaf), binds them with an Ecuadorian Habano leaf, and wraps everything with Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade.
They sent me two samples of each blend. This is the second time I’ve smoked the Natural.
Prelight
Band and box are pretty much identical for this release as the Maduro version, so I’ll repeat what I said there: “It’s not the most distinctive band in the industry, but it’s nice-looking and has a somewhat reserved elegance.”
The wrapper leaf was a smooth golden color that was practically flawless. Well, it would have been anyway. I didn’t notice until I took it out of the cellophane, but the wrapper leaf was cracked badly in a couple places. I photographed it, but would be applying copious amount of cigar glue before proceeding. The wrapper leaf had a clean, mildly sweet hay aroma to it, while the foot had more hay, but also stronger notes of barnyard and wood.
After glueing and clipping, I got a very good draw that had light cedar and sweet hay flavors.
Flavor
The Cuevas Reserva Natural fired up with notes of dark earth and light wood, a sweet grassiness and an unsweetened cocoa powder, just a touch of espresso and a bit of fiery pepper spice. While it started off fairly mild in body, it quickly ramped up into mild-to-medium territory, getting more earthy and the chocolate note getting slightly sweeter while the grassiness faded away and there was just a little creaminess left from the wrapper.
The second third had a constant low-key pepper note riding on a creamy smoke filled with notes of earth and semi-sweet chocolate and espresso beans.
Despite having to fight with the broken wrapper leaf a bit more in the final third, I still got nice flavors of espresso bean and earth, followed by slight chocolate and pepper notes.
Construction
I had a very good draw, even burn line and solid ash, despite the need to use an excessive amount of cigar glue on the stick.
Value
Very good cigar and very approachable price tag. Adds up to very good value.
Conclusions
This review ended up being an advertisement for PerfecRepair cigar glue almost as much as a review of the Casa Cuevas Natural. Really, hats off to PerfecRepair for saving a cigar that certainly would have been destined for the trash can otherwise. There is no way I would have been able to enjoy it at all without this magical glue. And enjoy it I did…the Natural version of this blend stood out with a refined, complex, and enjoyable flavor profile that I wouldn’t mind enjoying on a regular basis.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
