Vitola: Corona Gorda - 5.625” x 46 ring gauge
- $7.40
- Purchased from Small Batch Cigar
Background
2020 has played havoc with shipping schedules of many cigar companies. Noticing this, I was sure to run out of new review material sometime this year. I thought about how to deal with the issue and decided that I would start looking at some of the cigars I missed over the last few years, especially if I could get sampler packs and try out several, presenting them in a short format, perhaps paired with a favorite beverage. With that in mind, I am happy to present the next few weeks as “HVC Cigars Month.” I will be featuring short takes on 5 different HVC blends from Small Batch’s sampler pack. If I like any of them well enough, I may revisit them in the future with a full review.
After the family amazing 500th Anniversary, I turned my attention to another cigar with a curious name: Hot Cake. First, I’ve been hearing a lot about it on social media for the last few months. Second, an “Aganorsa Geek” friend of mine said he tried it and it “fair”…which for him means it wasn’t all that great. So I wanted to see what all the fuss is about and if my friend is full of BS…which he frequently is. (J/K)
Small Batch’s product description reads like this:
Hot Cake is the latest and greatest from HVC Cigars out of Aganorsa Leaf! These feature a Mexican San Andres wrapper over dual binders from Jalapa and Esteli regions and Viso Corojo 2006 Maduro filler tobaccos. Reinier Lorenzo of HVC said that he especially favored the Viso priming for the filler because of the natural sweetness that it imparts to the overall profile.
This is the first time I’ve smoked this blend and I got it in a sampler from Small Batch Cigar.
Notes
As with most HVC releases, the look skews toward “Cuban traditional,” in this case with the majority of the band being gold foil and embossing for the artwork, along with a small circle in the front with a red background and white type for “Hot Cake.” Although it’s a Mexican San Andres wrapper leaf, it apparently isn’t Maduro, which is the most frequent usage of it. This seems like more of a Rosado or Colorado with it’s milk chocolate brown color and slight oiliness. The wrapper had an aroma of earth, cinnamon, and cacao beans. The foot was similar in smell, with cedar taking over for the cinnamon note and maybe a little more pungency to the earth.
I paired the cigar with Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch Bottled in Bond Bourbon.
The prelight draw indicated that this would have a better draw than the 500th Anniversary, which I smoked in the same vitola. There was still some trouble getting it fully lit, though, making me wonder if overhumidification was part of the problem both today and yesterday. The flavor was good, though, featuring lots of cedar, with more minor notes of bell pepper and red pepper.
I had more notes, but the file got corrupted somehow, so I just have this lasting impression: Hot Cake was a good cigar, but it failed to impress me as anything really “special.” Still, for the relatively bargain price tag, that may be good enough for a lot of people.
