Vitola: Hermoso - 4.25” x 54 ring gauge
- $9.20
- 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.
So far the look at HVC blends that I haven’t had before has been an up-and-down affair. The 500th Anniversary was so great that I intend to get a 5-pack to work on a full review. The Hot Cake was good, but not really “special” to me. Today I’m looking at San Isidro. a box-pressed cigar that is a little on the higher-priced side. It uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan Jalapa binder, and Nicaraguan Estelí fillers. HVC founder, Reinier Lorenzo, says this blend uses some of Aganorsa’s “AAA” tobacco, which is the highest classification the grower gives.
As with other blends in the HVC catalog, this is made in Nicaragua at the Aganorsa/TABSA factory. San Isidro is the name of an old Havana neighborhood that is reported to be a haven for contemporary Cuban artists.
This is the first time I’ve smoked this blend and I got it in a sampler from Small Batch Cigar.
Notes
This is the first band I’ve seen from HVC that doesn’t really imitate the “classic Cuban” look. It has a slightly newer look…and by slightly, I mean that it looks like it’s from the ‘60s instead of the ‘40s. With that said, it is more artistic than most of the other bands from the company, so that fits into being named after an artist community.
The box-press is impressive, with fairly sharp corners and an almost perfect square shape. The wrapper was a medium brown color, right in the middle of the range you might expect from Ecuador Habano leaf. It smelled of hay and wood, while the foot had rich earth and cedar notes. The prelight draw was very easy and had an interesting mix of spicy and sweet, with underlying earth and wood.
I paired this cigar with Blue Note Juke Joint Whiskey, which was reviewed in full a few weeks ago.
Initial puffs on the San Isidro revealed bell pepper, cedar, cinnamon, and slight earthiness on a fairly creamy smoke that floated just below medium in body. The retrohale had some sharper pepper spice and more cedar, along with a nutty finish. Taking a sip of the Blue Note unfortunately didn’t add much sweetness to the mix, which I found odd since it had been a pretty sweet bourbon in my previous tastings. Could be that this pairing just didn’t allow that to come out as much.
The San Isidro turned out to be a nice cigar, but as with Hot Cakes, nothing extraordinary for my palate. The whiskey was good with it, but not a great pairing. Perhaps some Flor de Caña rum would go better with this one.
