Cigar Review: Herrera Esteli Inktome

Vitola: Corona Gorda
Size: 6″ x 46 ring gauge
Price $11.99
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com as a review sample

Background

One of our sponsors, SmallBatchCigar.com, has been working on obtaining smaller sized shop exclusives from different manufacturers.  This one comes from Drew Estate and Herrera Esteli and it is a slight tweak of the original Herrera Esteli with a Ecuadorian Habano wrapper from a higher priming.  It also is a size not offered in the regular line as well.  There is said to be a total of 100 boxes of 10 produced and I know they didn’t get all of them in in the first shipment.  This was the second one of these I was able to smoke.

Prelight

The wrapper is definitely darker in color than the regular release.  The special reverse colored band also helps set it apart.  It is disappointing that they couldn’t get the colors matching on the second band like they did with this year’s TAA release.  It also had a slight box press which I don’t know was intentional or not.  The wrapper was slightly velvety to the touch and it had a good amount of oils to it as well.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give without any soft spots.  From the wrapper I noted a heavy aroma of leather, with raisins and barnyard coming from the foot.  After clipping and taking a cold draw on it I got notes of graham and sweetness with a good draw.

Flavor

It starts off with a good amount of wasabi like spice that has a slight burn during the retrohale.  The flavors start off with a good amount of sweetness with some graham and green herbs thrown in.  The cigar starts off firmly in the medium strength range.  As I moved into the second third the spice built slightly with flavors of wood, leather, green herbs, and hints of marshmallow coming through.  The strength built slightly as well during this third.  The final third saw the spice to still be heavily present.  The tip of my tongue began to tingle a bit.  The sweetness basically fell out in the second third and I noted wood, copper and leather flavors in the final third.

Construction

The draw was great throughout.  However it canoed pretty bad and needed a couple applications of my torch to correct it.

Value

It is only slightly more expensive than the original release so I’ll give it a pass.

Conclusions

I know I keep doing this, comparing all of these limited runs with the original, but I kinda have to.  While I did enjoy this cigar it just didn’t wow me like the original release did.  I will say that I think that a few months of age could definitely help this cigar and when they get some more in I’ll pick up a couple to put down.  At the moment they are out of stock, but if you’re interested in picking some of these up when they get more in I’d recommend getting on SmallBatchCigar.com‘s mailing list as the first shipment blew out the doors.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10