Don Fernando’s cigarblog

This Bolivar is the thinnest regional edition so far and is made for the German market. It has a ring of 38 and is 192 millimeter long. The wrapper is light brown and somewhat rough with a few veins. The cigar has a typical Cuban aroma. The construction feels quite firm what is causing a bit hard predraw that gives me a mild peppery flavor.

The first flavor I get is a full flavored typical Cuban leather flavor with a hint of pepper. The fullness of the flavor decreases a bit but there comes a herbal flavor in return.

Midway the leather is the dominant flavor again but that’s only the case for a short time, then it’s back to herbal time again with some nuts on the background. Near the end the cigar becomes a bit spicier and the nut flavor gains a bit in power.

I get enough smoke, but the smoke is quite thin. The draw is a bit hard and the ash is firm but dark colored. The burn is straight, no complaints in that department. I would call the cigar, at this stage of its development medium bodied and flavored.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, but then I will rest them for a few years.
Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 7 / 10

I was really looking forward to this year’s LE as I am a big fan of the Cuban brand Bolivar and this year one of the 3 LE’s would be a 4.9 x 52 Bolivar petit belicoso. The first ever Bolivar LE.

The petit belicoso has a nice sharp looking point with a nice light brown colored wrapper. The cigar feels hard, but isn’t over packed as the predraw is a bit loose. The predraw leaves a wood and raisin flavor in my mouth. The aroma of the cigar is hard to detect and smells a bit like cow poop.

Yuck, I taste a bitter, pungent and unpleasant coffee flavor. After a centimeter the worst harshness has gone, but I still get a harsh flavor in the back of my throat. After an inch some wood shines through the bitter harshness, but unfortunately some ash flavor joins the party too.

After reaching the middle of the cigar I lost the wood and ash and I can even taste some nuts beneath the harshness. At the 2/3rd point the harshness gets less but the cigar still isn’t pleasant to smoke

The as is almost white and very dense. The ash broke halfway and I got some crooked burn after that, which I didn’t have to correct though. Before the breaking of the ash the burn was straight. The draw was fine. I get a lot of thick white smoke. This cigar is obviously way too young to be smoked.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, and rest them for at least 5 years before I smoke another one. Hopefully they are great by then and otherwise I will give them away.

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Aroma (first part) 4 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 5 / 10
Aroma (last part) 5 / 10

The name of this Tatuaje can simply be explained. The cigar is rolled in traditional Cuban style, where the RC stands for “Retro Cuban” and the number stands for the millimeters of length. The RC233 is 233 millimeter long, that makes 9.125 inch and has a ring of 55 at the thickest part of the figurado shaped cigar. This vitola is rolled exclusively by Don Pepin Garcia himself, and I bought this stick at his factory when I visited Miami in May of this year. I promised myself I would smoke it on a special occasion, and that occasion turned out to be the birth of my first nephew Simon, who was born on Sunday November 15. The cigar has a perfecto shape, but it’s bigger than any perfecto I have ever seen.

The cigar has an interesting silver foil wrapping on from the head of the cigar till the mid section, where a red, white, blue band with the fleur-de-lis that Pete Johnson likes to use covers the end of the foil. The foil is also based on the old Cuban style foil-wrapped figurados.

The Nicaraguan corojo wrapper is oily and has some veins running over it. The aroma of the cigar reminds me of straw and hay, but has a little sourish smell to it. Upon inspection I cannot find anything wrong with the construction, and the perfect predraw supports the idea that the construction is flawless. The predraw leaves a mild peppery raisin flavor on my palate.

I am surprised by the leathery flavor with the earthy notes and the hint of coffee. The flavors are quite full, bold and very pleasant. A little herbal flavor joins the other flavors and everything is perfectly balanced.
After 2 inch the earthy flavor is gone. The cigar starts to reveal its complexity and it is getting harder to recognize and name the flavors I can taste. The flavors are still full, but mellowed out and they become mild creamy.

Halfway a wood flavor joins the herbal taste and a mild pepper. I also get a fresh flavor, but it isn’t a minty freshness. It is a kind of freshness that I can’t explain. At the 2/3rd mark the cigar becomes a bit more spicy and I can also taste a nut flavor. The herbal flavor grows in strength and the main support flavor is wood.

The cigar produces a lot of thick white smoke and the draw is flawless. The
smoke starts out cool because of the length of the cigar. The ash has a beautiful light color and is pretty firm. I had a bit of a crooked burn in the beginning but I blame that on myself and not the cigar as it always happens to me with perfecto shaped cigars. The cigar is full flavored and medium bodied, but complex and interesting. It lasted for over 2 hours, and I wouldn’t have mind if it lasted 2 more.

Would I buy this cigar again? Without hesitation. This is the best cigar I have ever smoked.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 9 / 10
Draw: 9 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 9 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 9 / 10
Aroma (last part) 9 / 10

Recently I stated in my review of the Rocky Patel Edge Sumatra that I hadn’t found a Rocky Patel that I liked and Jaime (RPguy),  replied that “we will have to find you a Rocky Patel that you will enjoy” in the topic on cigar asylum. That got me worried and a few days later the mailman brings be a package all the way from Florida with 5 different Rocky Patel cigars. This is the first of the five reviews and guess what? Cigar number one is a winner.

This cigar is a looker too, with just a small band at the foot to recognize the blend, but no big band where you would expect it. This cigar has to sell itself and it does quite well with the very dark, smooth and oily wrapper. The wrapper has a silky feel to it and feels well constructed. The cigar has a distinct aroma that reminded me of the horse stables where my sister was riding horses when she was a kid. The predraw gave me the right resistance and left a peppery chocolate with raisin flavor on my palate.

I get a sense of coffee, mild bitter and a light chocolate flavor on the background. The flavors are quite full. The chocolate flavor slowly grows in strength but the coffee is still the dominant flavor. The coffee loses some of its strength after an inch, the bitterness disappeared and the chocolate becomes a bit sweet. Half an inch later I taste a pleasant flavor which I cannot describe as I didn’t recognize it.

A bit later I get some of the coffee and chocolate again and halfway some wood and hay accompany the coffee and chocolate. The last flavors disappear and a hard to describe dry hay flavors replaces them. As this flavor fades away I get some of the mild bitter coffee again, just like at the beginning which is replaced by cedar towards the end of the cigar.

The draw is a bit on the light side but not too much to bother me. I get a lot of smoke, which is quite thin. The smoke is a bit gray but turns white the further the cigar progresses. I get enough smoke to blow smoke rings, which I like. The ash is a bit dark but firm, it grew to 4 inch before it decided that my shirt was a nice spot to drop on. The burn is phenomenal, razor sharp and the cigar doesn’t die easy. I would rate this cigar medium/full flavored and medium bodied.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, I put it on my “have to get a box of these” list.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 8 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Burn: 9 / 10
Aroma (first part) 7 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 8 / 10
Aroma (last part) 7 / 10

A few weeks ago Volt bombed me a very nice (and expensive) Avo punch

2 days after I got it, my dad comes over, decides to take a closer look at it. He didn’t know it was a twist mechanism and pulls on the puncher. He didn’t even pull hard, but the plastic in the mechanism breaks.

I asked Michael (Volt) to get in touch with the dealer to see if there was warrenty, and the answer from Davidoff was no. They even had the nerve to ask if he needed to know the nearest Davidoff dealer. What were they thinking? That I’m gonna spend money on a company with such a crap customerservice?

FUCK Davidoff & Avo. I have some Avo cigars in my collection, they will be bombing material, I refuse to smoke them anymore.

This 5 x 54 Spanish Galleon corojo robusto has been in my humidor for a couple of months and I hesitated to smoke it due to the mixed reviews I heard of it. This cigar has Dominican and Nicaraguan filler and a Dominican Cubano 98 binder with a corojo wrapper, as the name suggests. The wrapper is quite dark and has a big vein running over it.

The packing is quite nice, I really like the band with the old style map. The cigar is wrapped in cedar that has a band on the foot and the cigar and cedar are packed in cellophane. The predraw is fine and the construction feels good. The cigar has a dry grass aroma.

I taste a mild acidy kind of coffee with a mild sweetness to it. The strange sweet flavor keeps noticeable until I reach the mid of the cigar. There is also a musty feeling to the flavor. At the 2/3rd point the cigar gets a bit bitter.

I had a bit of a crooked burn. The smoke is a bit thin and there is not a lot of it. The ash is light colored and firm. They claim this cigar is medium bodied and they are right, but they don’t advertise that it is mild flavored.

Would I buy this cigar again? Nah, there are better cheap sticks out there

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Burn: 6 / 10
Aroma (first part) 6 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 6 / 10
Aroma (last part) 5 / 10