Vitola: Toro
Size: 6” x 54 ring gauge
MSRP: about $13
Provided by Joya de Nicaragua (and Drew Estate)
Background
I got a couple sample of this very special Joya de Nicaragua along with a couple items from Drew Estate late last year. The Cuatro Cinco (4, 5) is a celebration of Joya’s 45 years of making cigars in Nicaragua. 4,500 boxes of 10 were made of these Nicaraguan puros which contain wrapper and binder from Jalapa as well as a blend of Estelí fillers that were oak-barrel-aged for more than a year. They also added a touch of five-year-old ligero. (tech specs for this cigar taken from here)
Thoughts
They sent me two samples and I broke the first one out the day after I received them…and I really just didn’t get it. While not a “bad” cigar, from a standpoint that it was well-made and didn’t taste rotten or “off,” it just did nothing to excite my palate. I’ve had that happen before. Sometimes it’s just a blend that doesn’t hit my taste buds right; sometimes the samples I got need to rest a while. I went for the latter, letting the other sample sit in my “review” humidor for over two months before finally breaking it out to see if I liked it any better now.
The aroma from the wrapper was great…a sweet mix of hay, earth and molasses. The foot had a less sweet earthiness, with a hint of vegetal aroma. The wrapper felt oily and had a nice reddish-brown tint. I loved the softness of the box-pressed corners. The band was celebratory and classy, too, and I loved seeing the factory image on the back of the band (I’ve been there!!!).
When cut, the 45 had a nice draw that was slightly sweet. I opted to test out this second sample with a bit of another aged Nicaraguan delicacy, Flor de Caña Centenario rum. Once lit the Cuatro Cinco had a subdued sweetness of dried fruit, a grassy and earthy middle, a peppery retrohale, and a nice clean finish. While only being about medium in body–which is not something you really expect from Joya–it really does start off with a very nice complexity. The aged rum increased the oakiness of the entire mix of flavors, while also introducing subtle vanilla, molasses, and fruit notes in. This is really a great sipping rum and probably should never be polluted by mixing with anything else.
Through the first third, I continued to get a complex flavor profile that was anything but boring…and that contrasted with the first time I smoked this when it failed to hold my interest very long. Apparently the extra resting time helped. In the second third the Cuatro Cinco developed more creamy and bready notes, accented by a bit of pepper spice.
In the end, the Cuatro Cinco was not my favorite Joya de Nicaragua offering, but the second experience with it was far superior to the first. It delivered a steady stream of complex smoking enjoyment and a little kick toward the end thanks to that extra ligero they blended in.
This article was originally published at Tiki Bar Online
