Cigar Review: Imperia by Mike Bellody

• Vitola: Toro
• 6” x 50 ring gauge 
• MSRP $8.70
• Received from Sales Rep

Background

In September 2013, Mike Bellody announced his intention to create a new cigar company called MLB Cigar Ventures:

Welcome to my new cigar project! MLB Cigar Ventures is a new and very unique company. We will develop and own premium cigar blends & brands made in the worlds best factories, using only the finest quality tobacco. As the company name indicates, we are also open to investing in outside cigar ventures where it makes sense. This is a new concept in this great industry that takes my successful background in the investment industry and brings it together with the premium cigar industry. My inaugural, proprietary blend/brand will launch in the coming months. Let the journey begin!

All the best,
Mike Bellody
Founder & CEO

From there, you can trace the progress of MLB’s inaugural blend from the planning and blending stages, right up to its debut on the market in the middle of 2014. Imperia is made in the Quesada factory in the Dominican Republic and the initial push was to get it in store in the American Northeast. Once that was deemed a success, they started looking to expand nationwide. I met Bellody at the 2015 IPCPR show and we talked for a bit. He was interested in getting Imperia into Burns and I was on the lookout for new cigars that might be different from what we already carried. I also found out he was looking for representation in our area, so I texted a friend who was working as an independent rep…and now Sheldon is our Imperia rep for Chattanooga and the surrounding area…and we do carry the cigars, as well.

Imperia uses Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Dominican binder, and a Dominican Havana Vuelta Arriba (HVA) wrapper leaf. I’ve had one or two (I can’t remember) samples of Imperia before this review sample. All have been provided to me for no charge, either directly from the company or through their local sales rep.

Prelight

I like the design of the Imperia band, with it’s aqua to teal background, and use of gold accents, but there are a couple things that I feel could have been improved. First, emboss the hell out of that thing. While there is some light embossing going on, a heavier embossing in the gold areas, perhaps with different emboss levels, would make it look and feel much richer. Second, I’m not feeling the red type for the line name. I’d stick with all gold and then see the first suggestion. In other words, I think they are on to something with the branding, I can see places where it could benefit from some tweaking.

The wrapper leaf was dark chocolate brown and very oily and smooth to the touch. It had an aroma that mixed barnyard and leather notes. The foot had notes of earth, hay and bread. The cold draw was very good and had flavor notes of earth, wood and leather.

Flavor

I found each sample of Imperia that I smoked to start off a bit on the slow side. First light-up gives up some earth, a little hay, a little raisin, a touch of citrus. As I retrohaled, a touch of pepper. But it was all just “a little” or “a touch” with no really strong flavor coming through. At this stage, I found the cigar good, but not particularly memorable. That changed about 10 minutes in, however, when the citrus became a sharper, more prominent flavor and notes of medium-roast coffee came close behind.

That continued into the second third where a nice red pepper note was added, along with some earth and a bit of graham cracker. While it started off as a mild-to-medium bodied smoke, by the end of the second third it was in the medium-to-full range.

The final third had a very nice coffee flavor with a steadily increasing red pepper and residual citrus notes. It leveled off at the lower end of the full-bodied spectrum near the end.

Construction

I saw the ash build to an inch or more twice. The draw was excellent and the burn line was very even, with no need for touching up.

Value

The Imperia is in the moderate range of cigar prices and provides a very nice experience overall, so I call it a good value.

Conclusions

The Imperia was prevented from scoring higher due to its slow start. While I appreciate a cigar with complexity that develops different flavors over time, the first few minutes of this were just uninteresting. Thankfully, it changed for the better after that and became a very good smoking experience.

By-The-Numbers

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