Cigar Review: Vicarias White

Vitola: Double Churchill
7” x 52 ring gauge
MSRP $7.85
Sample provided by Vicarias Cigars

Background

For the second Monday in a row I’m taking a look at one of the 3 blends introduced by one of the industry’s new kids on the block, Vicarias Cigars (guess what next Monday’s blog post will be about!). For a little background on the company, you can look at my previous “overview” article and my review of the Vicarias Blue. Today we’ll be focusing on the Vicarias White.

Judging strictly from makeup of the cigar, it seems like a bit of a throwback…filler and binder are Dominican, while the wrapper is Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade. Put those together and you have the makings of a mild smoke…after all, it’s what companies like Fuente and Davidoff have done well for many years. It’s also something not many companies are doing these days; the trend has been for all cigars to get fuller and stronger, including the Shade-wrapped ones. The result has been “new wave” Connecticuts and “Connecticut Fuerte” and other attempts to make mild-to-medium bodied smokes, usually by adding in some Nicaraguan leaf. The problem I see is that I—as well as a lot of other cigar smokers—have moved on from the very mild cigars of old. I can’t remember the last time I had a Fuente from the “regular” line with a Shade wrapper…and I can’t say I’ll be picking one up anytime soon (Opus X, Don Carlos and Añejo are where it’s at for Fuente these days). So how will this play? Let’s find out…

I smoked one of the smaller Robusto samples of this blend previously, but this is the first time I’ve smoked the actual shipping vitola.

Prelight

Starting as I always do with the presentation…the Vicarias White actually has a better look to me than the Blue did. The band is the same, save the color, but it just looks better against the wrapper leaf than the blue band did against the Corojo leaf. That wrapper leaf itself is not the pristine, immaculate Shade leaf you would expect to see on a very expensive luxury-priced cigar…but then again the price isn’t in the stratosphere, so it’s not all that unusual to see a few greenish spots, a bit of mottling, and a darkening of the leaf in some areas. The truth is that none of these things really impact flavor…just the presentation. No, they wouldn’t be acceptable on a cigar of this size with a price of $20 or more, but when the starting price of these hovers in the middle of the industry’s pricing sweet spot (about $7 to $10, by my estimates) you can overlook a few blemishes. Is that grading on a curve? Yes, but that’s life.

The wrapper leaf felt quite oily and had a clean, sweet hay aroma with just the slightly bit of earth. Giving the filler a sniff at the foot, I detected very little aroma there…it was a very neutral smell, a little grass and a little natural tobacco, but nothing all that strong. The cold draw was good and had mildly grassy and citrusy notes.

Flavor

The Vicarias White lit up with a bit of patience and started off with a very mild, thin smoke that almost made me wonder if it was completely lit. Despite the excellent draw it just didn’t seem like I was getting much. It often took 3 or more draws to really get a good mouthful of smoke, and when I did it was still very mild-bodied. The best I can describe the flavor is slightly toasty and creamy, with just a touch of sweetness and a hint of coffee. Really and truly, this is a mild cigar and possibly the mildest I’ve had since the first time I smoked an Ashton Classic (also the only time I smoked an Ashton Classic as it was nearly body-less and flavor-less). Five minutes in I was ready to declare that this might be the best smoke ever…for absolute beginners…but change could happen.

When I got into the second third, the smoke production increased and the body took a step up…not to medium, but to something other than “very mild.” The intensity of the flavors increased at the same time, with nicer creamy coffee note, a little earth and a nice citrus note.

The last third was mostly the same, with the addition of a touch of black pepper toward the end.

Construction

The draw was perfect. The burn line was very even. The ash held on for upwards of an inch before I tapped it off in discreet chunks. Overall, excellent construction.

Value

Long cigar with a decent size ring gauge, lasting well over an hour…all for less than $8…great value!

Conclusions

Make no mistake, this is a truly mild cigar in a marketplace that seems to be demanding fuller and fuller bodied sticks all the time. But if you’re in the mood for a mild cigar, it turns out that the Vicarias White is a good one. I would also rank this among the best cigars for first-time (or almost first-time) smokers as the nicotine content and body are far below what would cause a bad reaction for most people. Plus it has a short finish and doesn’t leave a lingering aftertaste. That all being said, it’s not something I would reach for often, simply because I don’t gravitate toward very mild cigars. If available in a smaller size…a Corona Gorda, Robusto, or Lonsdale, perhaps…I might make the choice to smoke them more often.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10