Vitola: El Loquito- 4.75” x 60 ring gauge
- MSRP ~$9
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
It’s time to get a little crazy. And by a little, I mean the smallest vitola in the new Lunatic Loco line under the JFR brand produced by Aganorsa Leaf. And the smallest vitola isn’t all that small. Just saying.
The JFR brand name has seen a resurgence of late with the Lunatic Habano getting a Top 10 honor by the Big Lifestyle Magazine last year. Combine that with the new Aganorsa Leaf “Shade Grown Corojo Maduro” wrapper that was used on the Signature Selection Maduro and the upcoming Guardian of the Farm Night Watch, and you have the makings for a pretty special big ring stick. The rest of the cigar is all Nicaraguan leaf, as well.
They are producing 3 sizes of Lunatic Loco. I smoked one of El Gran Locos (5.5 x 80) after the rep left a sample; while very good, it took 3 hours to get most of the way through and I was just getting bored of it by that time. By comparison, the El Loco at 4.75 x 70 seems rather normal and the El Loquito that I’m smoking today seems almost petite, although it’s a 60 ring gauge. Do you remember the time when 60 ring gauge seemed huge? Because I’m starting to forget those days.
This is the second time I have smoked this blend, including the huge version mentioned above. I purchased this one at Burns Tobacconist, where I work. I got information on the background of this cigar at Cigar-Coop. Our site sponsor, Small Batch Cigar, carries this blend, although not this size as of this writing.
Prelight
The band and box of this release are pretty simple. Plain wooden box with 10 sticks in it, all in a row. The band is simple but attractive, dark blue with silver foil and white type just saying “Lunatic.” Different enough from the other “JFR Lunatic” line with El Chiquito and the 8×80…different enough from the Lunatic Torch line. It might be a good idea to start differentiating them in other ways, though, as they now have 3 lines called “JFR Lunatic” and each of them is vastly different from the others.
This Loquito is almost the size and shape of a Flying Pig from Drew Estate, although the tapered ends of the figurado are longer. The cap has a pigtail and the end is chopped off straight. The wrapper leaf was dark chocolate brown with some lighter and darker mottling. The aroma from it was honestly faint…earth and some cedar, but really not strong in either case. The foot had a stronger earthiness, with a touch of sweetness mixed in.
I applied a straight cut with my faithful Xikar Xi cutter and got a very good prelight draw that tasted of leather, anise, and bittersweet chocolate.
Flavor
Because it tapers to essentially the ring gauge of a Lancero, El Loquito was very easy to get fired up with my single-flame torch. Within a minute or so I was getting plenty of earth and cedar, along with copious amounts of pepper spice, and a subtle hard-to-define sweetness. The retrohale was more peppery than anything else. The blend presented as medium-to-full in body from the very beginning. Before long it amped up to a full-bodied place, though, and stayed there.
The second third was characterized by more leather and pepper, along with a slight increase in sweetness, which resolved into more of a dark chocolate note by this time.
Getting into the final third, it felt like the Lunatic Loco lost a little body, but maybe that was just me getting used to it…it was still pretty full. I had more leather mixed with chocolatey sweetness and some black pepper on the finish.
Construction
I had an excellent draw, a slightly jagged burn line that required a couple touch-ups, and a slightly flaky ash that had me brushing stuff off my shirt a couple times.
Value
Very good cigar and reasonable price tag.
Conclusions
The JFR Lunatic Loco by Aganorsa Leaf was another great use of their new Jalapa shade-grown Corojo Maduro. It was sweet and spicy, leathery and earthy, full-bodied an full-flavored. I really enjoyed it, although if you want something a little less full, you might opt for one of the larger sizes as a bigger ring gauge does tend to tone down the body a little.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
