Vitola: Ancho Largo- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- ~$11.50
- Provided by Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
Background
I’ve smoked a lot of Mi Querida over the past 5 months or so. It quickly became my favorite cigar of the moment and went on to narrowly edge out a Padron 1926 for my Cigar of the Year nod…and I still can’t seem to get enough of them. The Fino Largo vitola was the one I named my favorite, but I’ve had several other sizes and enjoyed them all, so when Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust sent me some samples of the Ancho Largo size for review, I decided I would do so.
At first blush “Ancho Largo” makes me think of a large anchovy pizza, but as close as Google Translate will come is “Length Width.” Maybe large anchovy is a better way to remember it. As noted before, “Mi Querida” is Spanish for “my dearest” but a more precise interpretation is “my mistress”…whichever way you translate it, it means that Steve Saka, owner of Dunbarton, views Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro with a great affection.
Cigar wise, it represents my personal maduro desires: a robust, extremely flavorful liga comprised of rich Nicaraguan leaf hand rolled in a 100% naturally fermented, heavy Broadleaf capa. Earthy and dense with a long teasing, slightly dirty finish, Mi Querida is delightfully lush and full bodied on the palate offering an extremely satisfying experience for the most passionate of cigar smokers.
Mi Querida is handcrafted at the recently renovated NACSA cigar factory under the stewardship of their new Master Cigarmaker Raul Disla at my direction.
NACSA is the same Nicaraguan factory where Asylum Cigars are made. Mi Querida uses Nicaraguan filler and binder leaves, along with the aforementioned USA Connecticut River Valley Broadleaf wrapper. Along with the sizes we normally carry at Burns, the DTT website lists some provocative sizes like “Más Sucia” (“dirtier,” in a 7” x 64 ring gauge size) and “SakaKhan” (As in “I feel for you”…I wasn’t aware Steve was such a fan of ‘80s music).
Prelight
No surprises here. The band looks great, the wrapper leaf looks great. If you need more, read my original review of the Mi Querida…this looks no different. In all the samples of this blend I’ve smoked, I have seen some with slightly lighter coloration than this one has and I’ve had some that had a little more tooth to the wrapper, but overall, this is a fine example of the line.
Giving the cigar a good sniff, I picked up notes of cocoa powder, leather, earth and coffee. The foot of the cigar had more straight up earthiness with a touch of sweetness in the mix.
Once clipped the draw was excellent, tasting of bittersweet chocolate, espresso bean and leather, with a lingering bit of pepper.
Flavor
The Ancho Largo vitola of Mi Querida starts off much the same as my beloved Fino Largo, with deep coffee and cocoa powder notes up front and more subtle dark, dried fruit sweetness in the back, along with a healthy kick of pepper spice on the palate and nose. The balance is a little different…maybe a little more earth and a little less sweetness in this iteration. Coffee bean notes grew more prominent late in the first third.
As I puffed my way through the second third, I picked up on more coffee notes, with cocoa powder being a strong secondary flavor. As I noted before, the sweetness was there, but just not as prevalent as in the smaller ring gauge version. Pepper spice was still sticking around, albeit at a slightly lower level than during the first 10 or 15 minutes.
During the last third, sweeter notes did finally come to the forefront, along with touches of anise and an increase in pepper spice. There were also continued notes of coffee and earth.
Construction
I’ve had a great draw with almost every single sample of Mi Querida I’ve smoked. The burn line is always in the “straight enough” category…which is to say that Maduro leaf tends to burn a little wonky and this is no different, but there were no major canoeing or tunneling issues.
Value
While not in the “sweet spot” pricewise, the Mi Querida line does start under $10 a stick and only rises to about $13 for the biggest vitolas. I say they are all worth the price of admission.
Conclusions
No surprises here, really. I thoroughly enjoyed the Large Anchovy….I mean, Ancho Largo…version of Mi Querida, though not quite as much as the Fino Largo. The difference in ring gauge definitely changes the balance of flavors, which will appeal to some people. It also increases the smoking time to about an hour and fifteen minutes rather than the hour or so of my favored size. I’ll say it…you really can’t go wrong with any size of this blend.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
