Cigar Review: Kuuts Nicaraguan Blend

• Vitola: Toro
• 6” x 52 ring gauge 
• MSRP $6.10
• Samples provided by Kuuts Cigars

Background

Kuuts Cigars began over a decade ago, but was marketed initially to the European market, which means that not a lot of people in the U.S. are familiar with the company. I was able to learn about them and sample some of their earlier releases a few years ago. I had mixed feelings about their overall lineup, and I think it may be fair to say that my impression was shared by a lot of cigar smokers as I never got the impression that they were picking up much traction in the U.S. marketplace. Was it insufficient marketing? Was it that the cigars were blended for the prevailing tastes of European smokers? Whatever the case, they have been faced with some big changes in direction in the past year, with their operations chief and one of the owners parting ways with the company, all while they were busy releasing the “Nicaraguan Blend,” their latest product to the market.

According to what I could discover, the Kuuts Nicaraguan Blend is mostly Nicaraguan, using Nica leaf for the filler and binder, but utilizing an Ecuadorian Habano for the wrapper. Nothing wrong with that really, as that’s the same basic make-up of Crowned Heads’ Four Kicks, Drew Estate’s Herrera Esteli, and several other very good cigars. You do know that not all Nicaraguan leaf is created equal, though…how will this blend stand up? Let’s find out.

Kuuts sent me several samples of the Nicaraguan Blend late last year. This review sample is my third or fourth time I am smoking this blend.

Prelight

The band is rendered in copper foil on a black background. The black background has a little bit of design in it, too, that only comes out when viewed under good lighting. It almost looks like a black foil design stamped onto the black ink background, so it’s just barely visible. All in all, it looks really good and would stand out well on humidor shelves. The wrapper leaf under the band is a taupe color with a couple medium-sized veins running up it and an aroma of clean hay. Smelling the foot of the stick, I got a slight earthiness, along with hints of manure, cedar and more hay.

The cold draw on this was very good, but the flavors on the pre-light didn’t really strike me as Nicaraguan. I picked up more hay, some cedar, and just a touch of pepper spice.

Flavor

The Kuuts Nicaraguan Blend took a couple minutes to really get going with my single flame torch. Not a knock, just an observation and something I found a bit unusual as it took close to double the normal amount of time. Once it was lit I started getting the “Nicaraguan-ness” of the blend a little better. It was medium in body at most, but did have some earth and cocoa powder notes mixed in with creamy hay, cedar and white pepper. The nose was a little more peppery than the palate. Overall, I got the impression that this was treading a similar path as the Davidoff Nicaragua, RyJ, and Montecristo Espada have gone down: cigars known for their milder offerings now coming out with a Nicaraguan blend…they want to appeal to smokers of bolder blends, but still keep that essence of what the brand is. Viewed from that perspective, this started out as a very good “milder” (but not “mild”) Nicaraguan smoke with some creaminess, nuance, and refinement to it.

As I got into the second third, I wasn’t getting a great deal of complexity or flavor change. The flavors of hay, earth, wood, and mild pepper were good, but I couldn’t cal it great at this point.

The same continued through the last third without any real change to report.

Construction

The draw was good and the ash held on for a good long time before I had to tap off. I had to do several minor corrections to keep the burn line straight, but no major canoeing or anything like that.

Value

One thing this cigar really does have going for it is a low price…so low, in fact, that it almost qualifies as a “value priced” cigar. I’d say it’s worth the $6 price tag, but not much more than that.

Conclusions

The Kuuts Nicaraguan Blend started off with a lot of promise, with flavors of hay, earth, cedar, and pepper, but it never really went anywhere from there. It ended up being a rather one-note cigar and while that note wasn’t really bad, it just wasn’t interesting enough for me through over an hour of smoking. I think this blend might work better in the Momentos size where it only lasts 20 or 25 minutes. Still at the price point, it’s worth a try.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10