Vitola: Toro
Size: 6″ x 52 Ring Gauge
Price $8.99, Maxamar’s
Obtained From Drew Estate
Background
This won’t be the first review of this cigar on this site. You can check out my preview here, or Dave’s full review here. To say that this cigar has been popular is a bit of an understatement. Every shipment Maxamar’s gets is usually gone in a matter of hours. The cigar is comprised of fillers from Esteli and Jalapa, the binder is Mexican San Andres Negro, and the wrapper is a Connecticut Broadleaf Medium. The cigar only comes in this one size and is packed in 50 count boxes. I have smoked quite a few of these cigars before this review cigar, a bundle from an event and 4 of the samples provided by DE. Like it mentions above this is one of the samples sent to me for review and not one of the ones from the bundle.
Prelight
The wrapper on this cigar was a very dark brown with some blackish mottling to it. The wrapper was slightly rough as well, which is keeping with the name. The cigar also showed a good amount of oils but not much of the tooth that I usually see with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. When I gave it a squeeze I couldn’t detect any soft spots and it was fairly firm. From the wrapper I smelled a fairly intense aroma of barnyard, with the same coming from the foot (probably owing to the closed foot). When I clipped it and took a cold draw on it I tasted hints of chocolate and leather with a good draw.
Flavor
The cigar starts off with lots of chocolate, spice, coffee, leather, and cedar. The cigar starts off in the medium range. As I moved into the second third the flavors changed slightly to chocolate, leather, cinnamon, spice with a sweet finish. The spice on the retrohale noticeable but didn’t cause undue burn. The final third’s flavors were more of the same. This sample never really got out of the medium range.
Construction
I’ll state this again, I don’t like closed foots. I don’t like having to watch out to make sure that falling wrapper doesn’t burn a hole in my shirt or pants. On to this cigar and it’s construction. I hate to say this, but this was the WORST Nica Rustica I smoked in regards to construction. It would not stay lit even if I was puffing on it. I think I re-lit it about 10 times. It also tunneled that resulted in it burning through the wrapper right under my finger that burned my finger and made me drop the cigar. The construction issues affected the flavors a bit, but when the cigar was burning well the flavors came through clearly and without the bitterness I can usually get with these construction issues. Of the many cigars of this blend I smoked some had minor construction issues, but nothing as bad as this.
Value
I was very happy to hear that this cigar was coming out at the same price point as the Undercrown. To me this cigar is just the right price for what it is.
Conclusions
Overall I really like this blend, this individual cigar was just a poor showing of it. However this will not keep me from picking more up whenever I can. I like this cigar more than the Undercrown. However it isn’t as refined as the Liga Privada. One other thing I’ll mention about this blend as it usually gets to the medium-full range but this one because of construction never really got there. It looks to me like Drew Estate has another hit on it hands with this one.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: .5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 7.5/10
I did not enjoy the first Nica Rustica that I smoked. No flavors, bland, etc. Could have been the way it was stored at B&M or whatever. I am glad though that I decided to give it another try as subsequent smokes of the Nica Rustica provided a much different, a much more enjoyable experience. Try it, you will like it. Thanks for the review.
I have only had one of these but I really enjoyed it… sucks you got a bum one but they are hand made so sometimes this happens. You are correct its nice to see DE making sticks for the common wallet!
odd to hear about the construction issues…..have smoked about 7 of these and never had that problem
Still sitting on the one that you gave me at the DE event at Maxamar will have to move it up, I have so much random stuff and I smoke the same stuff over and over again. Need to start pulling some of the different stuff out. Need to organize my humidor and figure out a plan of attack. Great review, hopefully this isn’t the same batch from that day haha
I’ll have to check these out. Local
B&M doesn’t sell them so I’ll probably pick up a few online.