Vitola: Lancero- 7” x 38 ring gauge
- ~$12
- Purchased from Stogies World Class Cigars, Houston, Texas
Background
A few years ago, Stogies World Class Cigars in Houston was a sponsor of Leaf Enthusiast. While that is no longer the case, I knew enough about Stogies to recommend them to my friend, John, when he took a business trip there recently. He came back with a Herrera Esteli H-Town for me to try…and asked if I wanted more when he went back the next week. After smoking that first one, I was definitely in for more, so I asked him to pick up 2 more for me.
For those unaware, H-Town (for “Houston”) is Stogies exclusive line of Lanceros, covering many blends. Drew Estate provides this Herrera Esteli Maduro, which may indeed be the same blend used for the Herrera Esteli TAA release (an ongoing DE TAA release). It features Nicaraguan fillers, a Brazilian binder, and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper.
When I first saw the cigar I mistook it for the Herrera Esteli Limited Edition that came out in 2014, especially as it uses the same main band and secondary band as that release, rather than the white type on red background band that the TAA Maduro uses.
This review stick is my third of this blend and vitola. It was purchased at Stogies World Class Cigars. Also, somehow I forgot to take pictures of this cigar before I started smoking it, so I took the official pictures from Stogies’ website. The only picture here that was taken by me is the one showing the damage done to my cigar.
Prelight
The cigar looked fantastic on first glance, dark and well put-together. The bands were standard Herrera Esteli and the same “Edicion Limitada” bands seen on the 2014 LE, as mentioned above. The wrapper leaf was a dark chocolate brown and smelled rich and ripe when I removed the cigar from the cellophane.
While it appeared perfect, rolling it on my desk revealed that it was a little lumpy and not perfectly smooth. No matter, really, as the Connecticut Broadleaf is famous for being a little on the ugly side…it was also oily and smelled strongly of barnyard. The foot had a better mix of earth and chocolate and coffee aromas.
Once clipped, the HE Maduro Lancero had a surprisingly good draw. Flavors of musty earth, cocoa powder and espresso bean were all evident.
Flavor
The H-Town Herrera Esteli lit up quickly and easily. Once going, I got a strong black coffee flavor at the front of my tongue, with unsweetened cocoa coming right behind that and a nice black pepper settling in toward the finish. The retrohale was nutty and leathery with some red pepper flake. Shortly after lighting I saw that one side of the cigar was cracked very badly. It would likely still be smokeable, but burn line would suffer drastically and the overall performance would probably not be as good as normal. I decided to soldier on and see, especially since I had already smoked two of these sticks and knew what they had to offer.
As I got into the second third, the body had ramped up from medium-plus to a definitive full-body. I got more leather and earthy, as well as an increase in pepper on the palate. The sweeter aspects of the Broadleaf wrapper were subtle, but definitely there in the background.
During the last third, I finally got past the massive damage done to the wrapper. The flavor profile continued to be earthy with diminishing leather notes along with a nice sweetness and increasing amount of pepper burn.
Construction
I can’t count the cracked wrapper against the cigar, especially since it continued to perform very well in spite of it. I had a great draw, solid ash, and a burn line more even than it had any right being with such bad damage.
Value
This is cheaper than I remember the original HE Lancero being…or at least about the same price, but four years later. It’s a great cigar, so excellent value.
Conclusions
I really enjoyed this Herrera Esteli Maduro H-Town Lancero. It was mostly earthy with less pepper spice than I expected, but the flavor profile was very pleasing from beginning to end, highlighting more of the strength and body of the blend than the TAA exclusive release does. Although I love the Lancero size, I have to give a slight edge to the TAA Toro release as it seems a little better balanced.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
