Cigar Review: Los Regalos Quetzal by Emilio Cigars

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Children of all ages (over 18 in Tennessee).

It is time to smoke!

After a very long, very stressing work week, followed by a long day of my carry permit class, I finally get to break in my new back deck! This is also exciting because this marks my first of many contributions to The Tiki Bar.

For my first review, I will be smoking the Los Regalos Quetzal by Emilio Cigars. For those of you who may not have heard of these, here is the original press release from December 28, 2012:

So there ya go, that pretty well sums up some of the history behind this line from Emilio. From what i’ve been able to find

“Los Regalos” translates to “The Gifts”. Lets hope this lives up to that name. The size I have chosen for this review will the the corona. For future reference, if I smoke a cigar that isn’t this size, or one near it, it’s likely because i couldn’t find it. I love corona size in pretty much anything. Now without further ado, lets do some smokin’

Pre-light

Upon taking the Quetzal out of the cello I give it a good sniff and get lots of earthy, almost like a soil-ish aroma. The construction feels pretty good also, no outstanding “knots” or soft spots that I can feel. The wrapper is very smooth with no veins to be felt. I break out my trusty cutter, which consists of my thumb nail and fingernail, and take off the cap. The cold draw is just as I expected, lots of earthy, leathery overtones with a slight sweetness and spice.

First 3rd

On the initial light, it needs a little more effort than I would prefer on the draw, but its nothing that would turn me off. The flavor is very well balanced. It has a little of that earthy profile i noticed on the cold draw, with a little black pepper thrown in there. I always like to retro-hale my cigars to get the full flavor experience, and upon doing that, wow! Its like a chocolate bar infused with black pepper, very good through the nose

at this point.

Second 3rd

At this point the flavor is beginning to taper off a little bit. Some of the complexity I got from the first part of this cigar is going away. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its just become more of a good medium bodied cigar to me at this point. Some of the sweetness has left the building, and its more of an earthy flavor. Ash wise, it made a valiant effort at holding on, but fell at about the 1.5 inch mark or so.

Halfway point

Houston, we have a problem. The draw at this point has become very tight and a bitter, almost charred flavor has become very pronounced. I’m thinking that there may have been an issue with the filler that I couldn’t really feel, but has caused some over heating and poor flavor to arise. We shall see in a minute or two though.

Final 3rd

Well, I have some good news, and some bad news. After about a quarter-inch the draw improved along with the flavor! The bad news, you ask? It returned with a vengeance. Just into the final third of this cigar the draw became nearly impossible, and the bitterness was just too much.

Conclusion

I really, REALLY, want to give this another shot sometime in the near future. This cigar was awesome in the first half. I think i may have just gotten the bad one out of the bunch which, if you know me, you know that isn’t a shocker. Overall, If the second half is anything like the first without the apparent construction issue I had, its a great medium bodied cigar.

As I said, I will be giving this cigar another shot. I think its definitely worth picking up, especially at an $8-10 price point.

Why are you still reading this? Go smoke something!