Cigar Review: La Jugada Prieto by MoyaRuiz Cigars

Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5” x 52 ring gauge
Price ~$8.00
Received at Chattanooga Tweet-Up

Background

From the MoyaRuiz Cigars website:

the La Jugada brand is inspired by the love of the game. It’s the finishing move in a dominos match, the winning home run in the World Series, or the unheard-of royal flush in a game of Texas hold ‘em.

MoyaRuiz is another relative newcomer to the cigar industry, founded by Danny Moya and Nelson Ruiz, friends who shared a love of cigars. Another mutual friend was Erik Espinosa, founder of Espinosa Cigars and owner of the La Zona factory in Estelí. Moya and Ruiz worked with Espinosa to craft a brand that would be their own. The result was La Jugada, which Google translates as move, play, or gamble…I’m guessing specifically a move made in a game of some sort.

The first version of La Jugada was Prieto and it features a Mexican San Andres wrapper over Nicaraguan fillers and binder. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a couple of these sticks when MoyaRuiz became a sponsor of the 2014 Chattanooga Tweet-Up and decided to keep one out for a review.

Prelight

In keeping with the “gaming” theme, the banding on La Jugada makes me think of old, classic Las Vegas, with Old West fonts and plenty of gold foil. I can’t exactly explain it, but the shapes, lettering, and everything just make me think of the Golden Nugget or something. The wrapper leaf was fairly light for a Mexican San Andres. Usually they tend to be dark chocolate brown but this was more of a milk chocolate hue with a touch of mottling and a few protruding veins.

The aroma of the wrapper leaf was richly earthy with a hint of cocoa powder, while the foot was a mix of earth and ripe, aged tobacco. I clipped the head and took a pre-light draw. It was slightly snug, but I didn’t think it would cause any problems. The flavor was sweet, almost a berry note, and there was some earth in the mix and a little pepper left on the lips.

Flavor

In lighting up the La Jugada Prieto, I got a fairly dense earthiness right off the bat, along with notes of cedar and dark roast coffee. There was a faint sweetness in the form of dark chocolate, mostly on the finish, and just a hint of red pepper that kept showing up on my lips. The retrohale had more coffee and a must stronger pepper burn. While burning my way through the first third, I was struck how little this cigar tasted of the Mexican wrapper leaf. Or at least how little it tasted of what I once thought was how Mexican leaf had to taste. A few years back, at the beginning of the modern “San Andres Rush” it seemed like most of the cigars using this varietal was bitter, very earthy, and somewhat chalky. Now I am experiencing more and more blends that use San Andres as the wrapper, but the bitterness is toned down and better balanced with sweetness and the earthiness isn’t nearly as pervasive. And I’m becoming a fan.

Puffing into the second third, La Jugada displayed a little increase in sweetness along with a steady earthiness, as well as more pepper and some anise on the finish. That continued on into the final third, where there was an increase in the earth and coffee notes.

Construction

I had zero construction problems with this smoke. The draw seemed like it might be snug on prelight, but provided just the right amount of resistance. The burn line was very even and the ash was rock solid for over half an inch.

Value

A price under $10 a stick makes this an excellent value.

Conclusions

MoyaRuiz’s collaboration with La Zona has proven successful so far. The La Jugada Prieto was a very good smoke with plenty of body and a very good flavor profile throughout. While not as complex as some smokes, it was solidly pleasing from beginning to end and I would definitely smoke this again.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10