Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5″ x 50 ring gauge
Price $12.00
Review Sample from SmallBatchCigar.com
Background
I didn’t know a lot about these new cigars before they came in at Small Batch. Julio R. Eiroa and his son Justo have started this new cigar company that will use tobacco from their farm. If they same sounds familiar, it should, since he is the father of Christian Eiroa, the former president of Camacho cigars. The new company says they will control the quality from the “crop to the shop”. The Aladino line come in at least 10 sizes and ranges in price from $6 to $12 for this Reserva cigar. They also make a maduro that I’ll be reviewing later. They come packed 20 to a box. This was the first one of these I smoked.
Prelight
The wrapper is a nice even milk chocolate color that has a slight hint of red to it. It also had a lot of tooth and some oils to it. Unfortunately some companies seem to use a covering at the bottom to cover up imperfections, but when I pulled the tissue paper of there were none and it looked as good as what was above the paper. The top band is very reminiscent of the old Camacho bands. Giving it a squeeze it was fairly firm without any soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I got an intense barnyard aroma, with an intense raisin coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I noted the flavor of raisins with an ok draw.
Flavor
It starts off with a blast of spice on the tongue and retrohale. After a few puffs I started to get leather, wood, and earth with a pretty strong sweet finish. Towards the end of the first third I started to get some cinnamon and green herbs from it as well. The cigar starts off full strength. When I moved into the second third the spice had mellowed out a bit but was definitely there. The flavors were pretty similar to the first third; wood, leather, earth, green herbs, and some cinnamon, but the sweet finish had diminished significantly. It did stay at full strength during the second third. As I got to the final third the spice was definitely less intense and was more in the background now. I noted leather, green herbs, earth, and a slight sweetness for flavors. The cigar actually went down in strength to medium-full.
Construction
In spite of the cold draw being a little tight, the draw after I lit it was perfect and the burn was pretty much straight throughout.
Value
When I initially saw that the price was $12 for this cigar I thought it was a bit much. However when I thought about what this cigar reminded me of it didn’t seem too expensive.
Conclusions
What cigar did this remind me of? Well that would be the original Camacho Diploma. I remember when these were out and I would only be able to pick one up as a special occasion cigar because if I remember it was $12-$14, 10 or so years ago. I really liked that cigar, and I really liked this cigar too. I would definitely like to smoke a couple more to make sure lol. It is definitely not for the faint of heart as it has some kick to it. If you’re interested in trying this cigar you can find them here. If you’d like to try any of the other JRE Tobacco cigars they’re here.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
