Vitola: Pita (Corona)- 5.5” x 44 ring gauge
- MSRP $8.50
- Provided by the company
Background
It seems like only yesterday I was meeting Mike Bellody for the first time and trying out the original Imperia release. Hard to believe it’s been a year…more, actually. Since I met him at the 2015 IPCPR show, he hired on a friend of mine to be his rep in the Southeast and he has visited the shop I work at (Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga) twice on Friday night “work the humidor” events, as well as the Chattanooga Tweet-Up in August. I have enjoyed Imperia, the first release from MLB Cigar Ventures, and looked forward to new stuff…and here it is.
First up for 2016 is the Imperia Islero, another collaboration with the Quesada factory in the Dominican Republic that features Dominican Criollo 98 and Pennsylvania fillers, a Dominican Criollo 98 binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano 2000 wrapper leaf. The thought this time was to make something stronger…more full-bodied. It is said that this is one of the strongest cigars to come out of Quesada.
“Islero” is the name of a fighting bull in Spain. With word that Bellody has also been planning an “Aventador” release for this year, it makes me wonder if MLB is to become the Lamborghini of the cigar world. I was gifted a few samples of Islero during the first couple months it was available and decided to put one of the Pita (Corona) ones away for review before the FDA regulations made that pretty much impossible to do anymore. (Check out Cigar-Coop for some extra background info!)
Prelight
The band of the Islero is definitely a step up and away from the original Imperia. While the original cigar looked fine and clearly conveyed information, the Islero band is richer and more ornate, giving the overall appearance of a more expensive cigar, even though it really isn’t. On the other hand, the “Imperia” script gets a little lost in the ornate-ness of the band art, so I’m not sure the overall execution is as good as it can be. Still, it’s unique enough and people in my store don’t seem to be having a problem finding this new cigar.
The wrapper leaf felt velvety and oily under my fingers. It was a milk chocolate brown with a little bit of darker mottling in some places. It had a strong earthy manure aroma to it. The foot of the stick had more earth, with a mix of cocoa powder, coffee and cedar in addition.
I cut the foot of the Islero with my new Xikar Xi cutter and got a very good draw that was heavy on wet earth, milk chocolate, and hay. Yes, I mentioned a “new” Xi cutter. As I mentioned a few reviews ago, my Xikar Xi Tobacco Leaf Camo cutter had a spring that wasn’t springing anymore. The cutter was only made for a short time and it’s been several years, so I had zero expectation that they would be able to just replace it. I therefore specifically requested that it be repaired so I could have the same cutter back. But they did find “old new stock” of the same cutter and sent the new one on to me. I sent the original on a Monday, received the replacement back nine days later. Superb customer service from Xikar!
Flavor
The Imperia Islero was a bit of a challenge to get fired up…and it wasn’t just this time. It’s like this blend has extra-wet leaf in it that makes it harder to get evenly and fully fired. It’s also something I would have to watch closely to make sure it didn’t go out on me. Once going, I got more wet earth notes, with a touch of cedar and a citrusy zing on the finish. Subsequent puffing brought out some semi-sweet chocolate notes, leather and creamy, mild coffee.
The second third had the earthiness tones down but more wood notes, in the form of cedar and cinnamon. The citrus was still in the mix as was some red pepper. The first third seemed to be about getting a bunch of different flavors into the profile, while the second had most flavors dialed back and the whole achieving better balance.
Notes of pepper increased as the final third burned along, while earth and wood notes faded a bit. The citrus zing was still there along with a little sweetness in the same family.
Construction
The draw was pretty good, although tight at times because it was pretty heavily packed. I had a hollow spot late in the first third that caused some overall burn problems, but once I got past that, I had a even-enough burn line and solid-enough ash. I had similar issues with almost every sample of this vitola that I’ve smoked…nothing “major” but minor construction problems nearly every time.
Value
The flavor profile was very pleasing to me and the price is at the high end of the “sweet spot” so I call it good value.
Conclusions
Islero is definitely a worthwhile addition to the Imperia catalog, adding a deep and fairly full-bodied Dominican blend to the catalog. It had a good amount of complexity and a flavor profile that appealed to me. The only real issue was the construction problems I had on this smallest ring gauge vitola. Again, I’ll stress that nothing that happened on any of the cigars made them unsmokeable, but they all tended to be exercises in patience, struggling to keep the cigars lit and burning correctly…and that’s just not something I smoke cigars for. I can only imagine that the cigar burning right throughout could make the entire experience even better. For that reason, I have to recommend that you do try this cigar…but try it in the Robusto size.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
Sounds like a winner, glad the robusto size is my go to. Have to agree on the Xikar customer service front, have never been disappointed when I had issues.