Cigar Review: Joya Red

Vitola: Cañonazo
Size: 5.5″ X 54 ring gauge
Price ~$7 MSRP
Obtained From Drew Estate as a review sample

Background

I was curious to see what the new release from Joya de Nicaragua would be like.  They have been historically known for making cigars that are on the powerful side of things.  However their last two releases were on the medium side so I wanted to see how this one fit in.  Dave did a review of this cigar here.  I smoked 3 cigars previous to this and like Dave I don’t know which sizes they were as they all look pretty similar.  I would like to thank the people over at Drew Estate for sending me these cigars to review.

Prelight

The wrapper on this cigar was a nice medium reddish brown in color with a good amount of oils and some tooth to it.  There were some fine and medium sized veins as well.  The red and gold band made it fairly easy to figure out that were smoking a Joya Red and looked good with the cigar.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm with no soft spots.  As I put my nose to the wrapper I detected the aroma of curry and barnyard with nuts and leather from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got a good draw with some hints of peanut.

Flavor

The first third starts off with red pepper spice, copper, leather and wood with a slightly creamy finish.  The cigar started off at the upper end of medium in strength.  The second third saw the flavors changing to cinnamon with some leather and nuttiness with a slightly sweet finish.  The spice was still fairly present but toned down by the end of this third.  As I moved into the final third the spice did start to come back but I wasn’t getting any nicotine hit from it.  The flavors changed again to coffee, leather, and earth.  The cigar moved into the medium-full range by the end of the cigar.  One thing I notice about the spice profile of this cigar, it wasn’t the heavy mouth feeling spice of the Antano Dark Corojo but a much lighter spice that hit more in the nose.

Construction

The draw was pretty much perfect throughout.  It also produced a large volume of smoke.  The burn while slightly wavy didn’t need any touch-ups.  There was one construction issue with this sample that I didn’t have on the others.  There was a bit too much glue on the band and a small piece of the wrapper tore off when I took the band off.  This didn’t cause any issues but is a bit of a bet peeve of mind.

Value

I’m glad to see Joya de Nicaragua continuing on their tradition of releasing cigars in the value priced range.  I think this cigar offers a lot of flavor for the the price.

Conclusions

Overall I really enjoyed this cigar.  It was interesting and never left me bored.  It also had enough strength to keep things interesting.  I think I’m still partial to the Antano Dark Corjo though but this definitely broadens the base that they appeal to.  I do think that most people should be able to enjoy this cigar.  I would recommending picking one or two up when you see them in your local store and giving them a try.

By-The-Numbers

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