Don Fernando’s cigarblog

I found this 7 x 48 Double corona in my humidor and thought “well, I have some time to kill, why not smoke a large stick today” so I clipped it with my Palio and lit it. The wrapper of this Cuban cigar was pretty light colored and had lots of veins. The construction felt a bit under filled but the predraw was fine and left me with a very peculiar flavor of chewing gum, something I have never experienced before. The cigar didn’t have a lot of aroma. As it was a single I don’t know the age of this stick.

I could taste leather, dry leather, typical Cuban leather though, just dry and a mild creamy feeling in my mouth with a hit of chocolate. After an inch I get some pepper too, but leather seems to be the main and strongest flavor. At 1/2nd the cigar gains some power and at 2/3rd some nut flavor joins the party. I could also taste something fresh, but can’t describe what it was.

The smoke is thin but there is enough of it. The ash is frayed and light gray. I would rate this cigar medium bodied medium flavored.

Would I buy this cigar again? Possibly yeah.

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

This perfecto has a dark, rough Connecticut broadleaf wrapper with some veins, a Dominican binder and filler from Brazil, Dominican Republic and Cameroon. The 5 x 54 cigar feels hard but the predraw is fine and gives me a dry but peppery feeling in my mouth. The aroma is a mild hay and barnyard smell.

I can taste coffee and some leather, both very bitter and not really pleasant. After an inch the flavor changed to a creamy chocolate with pepper as supporting flavor. Soon the leather returns and the creamy chocolate becomes the aftertaste. Unfortunately the cigar also has a moldy flavor for a while. The finale is mild chocolate and pepper again.

The amount of smoke is quite low, and it is thin. The ash however is firm and pretty. This is a medium bodied, mild to medium flavored cigar

Would I buy this cigar again? Nah.

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 6 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 7 / 10
Aroma (last part) 7 / 10

I went to see a roller, Christian Galvan, who works for General cigars at one of my favorite B&M’s in Amsterdam, Hartman cigars at the Beethovenstraat. Christian Galvan was there to roll cigars as part of the release of the Macanudo 1968 in The Netherlands. I smoked one right on the spot, and I brought one home to review and here it is.

Macanudo came with this new blend and named it “1968” as that was the year that Cifuentes blended the original Macanudo café, so this is a cigar in his memory. The cigar is blended with tobacco from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, part of the filler comes from the remote island of Ometepe, which is located in the lake of a volcano. The binder is a Connecticut Habano and the wrapper is Honduran San Agustin Havana seed.

The size of this fresh rolled cigar is 5.5 x 52 which is not a regular production size, it’s in between the 6 x 54 toro and the 5 x 50 robusto. The cigar smells like hay. The construction feels good though the draw is a bit on the loose side and gives me a mild peppery raisin flavor. The wrapper is smooth, oily and dark.

I can taste toast, coffee and some pepper at the back of my throat. After a few puffs I also taste some bean but that flavor disappears soon, just like the toast. A chocolate flavor shows itself through the peppery coffee. After an inch the pepper joins the flavors that disappeared before and all I can taste is coffee with chocolate, of which the chocolate is slowly becoming the dominant flavor, but the flavors are well balanced.

After reaching the 1/2nd point of the cigar I get some toast again and at 2/3rd the chocolate disappears for just a few puffs. The grand finale brings me some cedar with chocolate and later some nuts and chocolate.

I get a lot of smoke, the smoke is a bit thin though. The ash is silver-gray and firm. The draw is fine and the burn is great, straight and it won’t die easily. I didn’t need to purge this cigar and could still nub it. This is a full flavored full bodied cigar, but the full bodyness is sneaky, because of the overwhelming flavors you don’t notice and realize that this is a powerful stick.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, I liked it, but this was a 2 day old fresh rolled cigar, I don’t know if the cigars that are commercially available have the same flavor palate.

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

On our US trip we stopped at the Island smoke shop on Key Largo FL to meet Bill aka Madurofan. He handed us a lancero claro from their house blend El Original and I liked it so much that I bought a box, and it won’t be the last box I buy.

The cigars are packed in a nice wooden box and then individually packed in cellophane. The 7 x 39 lancero has a nice small pigtail and the light wrapper is almost without veins. The predraw is good, just as the construction and the cigar has a nice barnyard aroma.

I taste some white pepper on my tongue and leather in my mouth. This cigar has a Cubanesque flavor profile with some added pepper. After 2 inch none of the original flavors are noticeable, all I taste are nuts and that flavor is growing stronger and stronger.

I get a lot of thick smoke from this cigar, and the burn is straight. The ash is light gray and firm. The draw is just fine.

When I lit the cigar and took my first puff I thought this would be a full bodied cigar, but the strength mellowed out a bit and the cigar turned out to be a medium bodied cigar, but full flavored.

Would I buy this cigar again? No doubt about it.

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

This year the Benelux (Belgium Netherlands Luxemburg) got 2 Regional Editions, the Bolivar Fabulosos and the Punch Royal, a 5.5 x 50 cigar with a light wrapper with some minor veins. The predraw is just fine and gives me a flavor of raisin and pepper. The construction feels good and the cigar has a nice hay & barnyard aroma.

I taste full dry wood flavor combined with full dry leather, a bit harsh even. After a centimeter I taste a grassy flavor, a sign that this cigar is too young to smoke. I can also taste a mild chocolate. The strength and power of the flavors have gone from their initial full flavor to mild.

After a third I can just taste the mild chocolate with dry grass and something harsh & bitter. Halfway the cigar is getting ashy and the bitter harshness stays noticeable.

The last third gives me a nut flavor and ash. The nut is very nice but gets ruined by the disgusting flavor of the ash.

I get a lot of smoke from this cigar, lots and thick. The burn is just fine and the frayed light colored ash is quite firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, a few singles and then let them age for a few years. They definitely need some more rest

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 6 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 6 / 10
Aroma (last part) 5 / 10

Bolivar is my favorite Cuban marca, so you can imagine how happy I was to hear that one of the two Benelux RE’s would be a Bolivar, and in my favorite vitola too, a robusto with a size of 5.3 x 52.

The cigar has a nice light colored oily wrapper with some minor veins. The classic triple cap and the full barnyard aroma confirm that this is a Cuban cigar. The construction feels good, no noticeable plugs or weak spots.

I get a full and spicy leather flavor, and on the background I can discover some nut flavors although that flavor comes and goes. After an inch I also get a creamy chocolate flavor, but instead of sticking on the palate, which creamy chocolate usually does, this flavor doesn’t stick in the mouth. The leather disappears completely but the spicy pepper is still noticeable while the chocolate disappears.

Halfway the chocolate makes a comeback and the pepper grows in strength. The nuts return at the 2/3rd point and that flavor grows slowly in strength towards the end. After 85 minutes I drop the nub in the ashtray.

I get enough smoke, although the smoke is somewhat thin and the color isn’t very attractive, it’s a bit gray. The ash is quite dark but firm. The burn was great until midway, after that I got some burn problems and had to correct a few times. This is a full flavored full bodied cigar.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, no doubt about it. This is a very nice and enjoyable cigar right now and it has a lot of aging potential. I am impressed that a Cuban cigar this young can be this nice.

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

Bundle selection is a brand specially made for the European market. They come, as the name already suggests, in bundles and are quite cheap. Due to the price they are quite popular, especially with young smokers or starters.

This 6 ¼ x 45 Lonsdale is made out of Dominican seco and Honduran filler, a java binder and a Sumatra seed wrapper from Mexico. The cigars don’t have a cigar band, they are packed in cello and there are 16 in a bundle. The wrapper has a lot of veins, but the construction feels good and the predraw is fine, it gives me a raisin flavor.

This cigar is musty, sweet and musty and not a lot of other flavors. After an inch I get a faint musty hay flavor. It’s not Cremosa bad, but just musty. Little over 1/2nd of the cigar I can taste some chocolate and musty wood. The smoke gets a bit thicker. I am glad that the turning point of this cigar comes early.

The smoke is quite thin and the ash is crooked and light colored. The burn is pretty straight. Due to the price and the mild/medium character of this cigar makes it a nice smoke for a starter.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I might have liked these when I was a start, but I moved on.

Appearance: 6 / 10
Construction: 6 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Aroma (first part) 5.5 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 5.5 / 10
Aroma (last part) 5.5 / 10

I heard a lot about 5 Vegas so I decided to light up a 6 x 50 archetype from the A series.
The cigar is wrapped with a piece of cedar in cellophane. The Costa Rican maduro wrapper has one big vein but is nice and oily. The binder comes from Nicaragua and the filler is a combination of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran tobacco. The predraw is firm and the cigar feels firm too.

Sweet mellow chocolate, that’s what I get and after a little over an inch I get a nutty flavor with mild chocolate aftertaste. The flavors grow in strength after an inch or two. Halfway the chocolate disappears and near the turning point I only taste ash and wood.

The smoke is thin and several shades of gray. I don’t get a lot of snow either. The draw is on the firm side and the ash is quite dark. The burn is great. This is a mild flavored mild bodied cigar and I didn’t like it a lot.

Would I buy this cigar again? Never again.

Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 6 / 10
Appearance: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 6 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 6 / 10
Aroma (last part) 5 / 10

These nice Nicaraguan cigars are made by Nestor Plasencia and he uses Nicaraguan tobacco for the filler and the binder and either a H2000 from Nicaragua or a dark maduro from Costa Rica as a wrapper. Judging by the color and the flavors from the cigar, I think I smoked one with a Costa Rican maduro wrapper. I brought this cigar back from the US but I can’t remember who gave it to me, as all the BOTL’s I met were way to generous and I lost track.

The 5 x 52 torpedo is a bit box pressed and the top of the torpedo is a bit crooked. The dark wrapper has some slight veins. For a moment I thought this could be a dyed wrapper but I was mistaken, the dark color is for real. I get a light barnyard aroma from the cigar.

I like the sweetness that I taste combined with the coffee and the chocolate. The flavors grown in strength a bit without becoming strong flavors, they stay nice and mellow. The chocolate flavor is the main flavor, and once I reached the mid of the cigar chocolate is the only flavor I get.

This cigar is medium bodied, medium flavored. Quite one dimensional but a very pleasant dimension.

I get more than enough smoke from the cigar, a thick white smoke. The draw is fine and the white ash is quite firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, I liked it and they are cheap. Nice humidor filler.

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

I decided to give Rocky Patel another try, an Edge Sumatra this time. I smoked a 6 x 52 torpedo. It is wrapped in cello and once I opened the cellophane I could smell a peppery, sweet chocolate aroma. I like the alternative banding, with just a small band on the foot. The wrapper has some big veins on it. The predraw is good.

I had some trouble lighting this stick, it burned unevenly in the beginning but the cigar burned better quickly. The first flavor is coffee, dark bitter coffee. The darkness and the strength fade away and after about an inch some wood breaks through the coffee and I can also taste some sweetness.

After an inch and a half I am stuck with wood. The sweetness and the coffee are gone, although the sweetness appears again quickly. Wood and sweetness keep switching and halfway the cigar I can taste some leather too. On 2/3rd the flavors are leathery with some wood and every now and then some chocolate. At the end the coffee returns for a few puffs.

The amount of smoke is good, it is medium thick and white. The burn is pretty straight and the ash is quite firm. This medium bodies medium flavored stick gave me a dry mouth.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I’m not an RP fan and this stick didn’t change my mind

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