Cigar Review: Curivari Selección Privada

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Robustos, 5” x 50 ring gauge / Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

My first encounters with Curivari Cigars came as a result of trips to Knoxville and visits to Silo Cigars. One of the employees at Burns, my home shop, spent some time working at a store in Kentucky, though, and he saw how well Curivari sold, so he has been pushing Matt to bring them in for quite some time. That finally happened a few weeks ago. True to form, most of them sold out within a couple days…a combination of pent-up demand for hard-to-find quality cigars and the fact that the company just doesn’t ship that many boxes to any one store. I had tried several of the blends we got in already, but not the Seleccion Privada, a blend that shows up on the Curivari website but with a different band than the one I bought. The web page states that this is a Nicaraguan puro and the band says “Semilla Corojo,” which means Corojo seed, so I’m going to take a wild guess that the wrapper is Corojo. What else is there to be said? Not much…as not much information is published in official channels. I bought one of this size for review purposes; I believe I smoked one of a different vitola as well, although it may have been the Maduro version…at this point I really can’t remember.

The band is old-school Cuban style, with red ink and white reversed-out type along with plenty of gold foil and embossing. Classic, but not plain. The wrapper was smooth and oily to the touch. The veins appeared to be larger than they felt under my fingers. The color was a light brown with just a tinge of red, not unlike many of the Ecuadorian Habanos we’ve seen over the last couple years. The smell was similar, too, a sweet mix of hay and molasses, while the foot had earth and cedar aromas. The prelight draw was very easy and had mostly cedar flavor, with just a little earthiness.

Lighting up, I was hit with a board across the palate in the first few puffs. Okay, not a board necessarily, but it was extremely cedary. Wood, wood and more wood, then after some more puffs…more wood! Among the varying degrees of cedary flavors, there was a bit of red pepper and dry cocoa powder on the palate, along with a wasabi-like scorch on the retrohale. By the end of the first third, the cedar had settled down a little bit…only a little bit, mind you…but that little bit did allow some sweet tobacco flavors to come through.

As I started puffing into the second third, I noted that construction was excellent so far. I had a very even burn line and a great draw. The only slight downside was that the ash was a bit flaky; not a “consistently messy lap” flakiness, but a little flaky here and there. Besides the prevailing cedar flavors, I picked up more sweet tobacco and a hint of molasses. There were also notes of cinnamon and more pepper spice.

In the last third, the Seleccion Privada had more…wait for it…yes, cedar. Honestly, if you don’t care for strong cedar flavors in a cigar, you should probably just avoid this stick. There was a slight decrease in pepper spice as well and a slightly vegetal flavor that popped up on some puffs. Body was in the medium to full range and strength was right up there, too. This is not a cigar for newbies, but experienced cigar smokers might find it right in their wheelhouse…if they like lots of woodiness. I like that flavor in a cigar, but maybe not as much as was present here. That keeps me from calling it “great.”

Body: 7/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 6/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10