Don Fernando’s cigarblog

The El Cobre by Oliva is a very special and unknown cigar, it is the personal blend of the old man Oliva, the father of current Oliva CEO Jose Oliva and they are only sold at the shop of Brian Shapiro in the USA. The blend was used for family use only and was named after a little mining town in Cuba and is nicknamed ‘the lobotomiser’ and ‘el muerto’ while discountcigars mentions on their website that this cigar should come with a warning label because it’s such a full bodied and full flavored cigar.

A friend of mine met Brian Shapiro and Jose Oliva at a dinner in Amsterdam and Brian Shapiro was kind enough to send a bundle of torpedo’s and a bundle of robusto’s to the Non Plus Ultra shop in Den Bosch, as the owner of NPU is also the official importer of Oliva cigars in The Netherlands. My friend invited me to come to Den Bosch to try the El Cobre torpedo & robusto in the smokers lounge at NPU. And I gladly accepted that invitation, my curiosity was bigger then my fear of the reputation of this powerhouse.

We started with the 6.5 inch ring 52 torpedo, which has a heavy scent of manure, a nice dark wrapper and a distinctive band that compliments the cigar. The predraw released some sweetness.

While we all expected a big bang right at the start, the cigar surprised us with a nice, easy coffee flavor, not a powerhouse at all, but we could feel that the cigar was building up to something heavy and something special. The coffee was replaced by herbs and pepper and about halfway I discovered dark chocolate, my favorite. At the end of the cigar the pepper made a comeback.

The El Cobre torpedo produced a lot of smoke and light gray ashes. The draw was fine.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, if it becomes available in Holland or online.

Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 18 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 18 / 20
Aroma (foot) 8 / 10
Aroma (body) 8 / 10
Aroma (head) 9 / 10

Recently I bought a couple of boxes of Romeo y Julieta No.2 tubos from a bankruptcy auction, box code POS DIC06 which means that this 127mm ring 42 cigar is quite young, especially for a Romeo y Julieta who usually need some aging. The cigar looks a bit rough, medium brown oily wrapper with a manure and hay aroma. The construction isn’t superb, the draw is pretty tough.

The flavors are great, lots of complexity, lots of different flavors. It starts with leather and wood, but after 2 puffs the leather disappears and the wood becomes stronger. Pretty soon the leather returns with some cacao on the background. Halfway there is a distinct pepper with again cacao on the background. At the end of the cigar I could taste some herbs.

The cigar is medium to full bodied, the smoke starts with a light gray color but turns to white as the cigar progresses, the ash is dark but firm.

Price / value: 17 / 20

I reviewed 3 out of 4 Costa Ricans Vegas de Santiago torpedos so far, and here is the 4^th. The Vegas de Santiago Originales torpedo, 153mm long ring 50 made of 3 year old Costa Rican filler and binder with a Habano seed wrapper from Nicaragua.

What a nice cigar, light wrapper, good construction, a close to perfect burn, light draw, thick white smoke and a firm ash. The flavor is leather and wood which are accompanied by a hint of toast and some cacao. Halfway the leather and wood are decreasing while the cacao grows stronger and near the end some herbs show up, combined with the cacao. The turning point is very late.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, this one is just as good as the Vegas de Santiago puros torpedo.

Price / value: 17 / 20

Vegas de Santiago from Costa Rica is one of my favorite cigar manufacturers, and they have 4 different brands, the Puros, Originales, Don Luis and the Chaman. The Chaman is made out of filler and binder from Costa Riga and Nicaragua with a Connecticut wrapper from Ecuador.

I smoked the Torpedo, a 153mm ring 52 cigar which has a nice oily wrapper and the aroma of straw and hay. The first flavor is mild leather and halfway I could taste a pleasant sour which is gone pretty soon. There is not a lot of progress in this cigar, the flavor is very even. The smoke is thick and white and the ash is firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I prefer the other Vegas de Santiago brands.

Price / value: 15 / 20

The first flavor that comes to mind is sweet full bodied leather, but the sweetness disappears soon and the leather also becomes milder. This cigar has a strong full bodied start but grows into a mild bodied cigar pretty soon. There is not a lot of progress on the flavors, the cigar is pretty consistent.

The smoke is full, the ash is dark and firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, it’s a nice snack cigar for a small price.

Construction: 14 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 12 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 18 / 20
Aroma (foot) 6 / 10
Aroma (body) 6 / 10
Aroma (head) 6 / 10

Price / value: 17 / 20

Manilacigars.com was kind enough to send me a sampler with some Philippians cigars. The Alhambra Vegas is a 135mm long ring 41 corona with a Java wrapper and Philippine binder and filler.

The wrapper is ok but not pretty, it has some irregularities and some veins. The smell is a light hay and the cigar feels pretty hard.

The draw is fine, just like the smoke and the ash. The smoke is full and rich, while the ash is firm. There is not a lot of development in the flavors, the flavor is consistent, a medium creamy flavor combined with leather.

Would I buy this cigar again? Depends on the price.

Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 18 / 20
Appearance: 13 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 18 / 20
Aroma (foot) 6 / 10
Aroma (body) 7 / 10
Aroma (head) 6 / 10

Price / value: 14 / 20

Last week I received 2 Octavo III from the unknown cigar maker havanacigar.nl, a 150mm ring 52 cigar made in the Dominican Republic out of Dominican tobacco with a Connecticut shade leaf. The cigar looks fine, pretty light brown oily wrapper and feels firm. The smell is a bit like being in a stable and the predraw is just the way it should be.

The first flavor I get I can’t describe, I don’t recognize it but it is a nice flavor. I think I tasted some hay mixed with some other unrecognizable flavors. It’s not an unpleasant flavor though, I like it. It becomes a bit sour but again, not unpleasant. Way on the background I get some chocolate and the overall taste is warm & creamy. Halfway the cigar gives a bit of burn on the tongue, but doesn’t become bitter.

The smoke is full and the ash is white and firm. Too bad that I had to correct the burn a few times.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, it’s a good cigar for its price.

Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 17 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 12 / 20
Aroma (foot) 7 / 10
Aroma (body) 7 / 10
Aroma (head) 6 / 10

Price / value: 13 / 20

The wrapper isn’t very pretty, the edges of the leave are wrinkled just like it was too dry when the cigar was made, and the cigar looks messy and got lot of spots beneath the wrapper. The cigar feels good tough, very firm and the predraw and smell of manure is fine. The wrapper again, it breaks directly after lighting the cigar and leaves a crack from approximately 2 inch, but fortunately that doesn’t affect the smoking.

Then the flavors, I taste a sweet leather, it is a warm taste, not in temperature but in flavor. The leather is slowly growing in taste, but it’s never the strong leather which you usually find in Cuban cigars. After about three quarters I can taste a sweet creamy chocolate on the background for a few moments and then the leather became strong again.

The flavor is very consistent throughout the whole cigar, the smoke is medium and the ash is pretty and white. It took me about 70 minutes to finish the cigar.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yeah, not regularly though, but every once in a while

Appearance: 12 / 20
Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 15 / 20
Burn: 16 / 20
Smoke & Ash: 7 / 10
Aroma (foot): 7 / 10
Aroma (body): 7 / 10
Aroma (head): 7 / 10

Tonight I smoked a Canon Cubano maduro from Bucanero cigars, kindly send to my by Bucanero president Robert Spoden. The Canon Cubano is a 5 ½ inch ring 60 cigar made from Nicaraguan, Italian, Costa Rican and Honduran tobacco with a Nicaraguan habano wrapper. The cigar is a beauty, water ran through my mouth as soon as I saw the cigar, dark wrapper with some fine veins, looks a bit oily. One of the prettiest cigars I’ve seen so far, with a beautiful black & silver band and the fine smell of straw. The construction worried me a bit because it’s not consistent, some parts are firm while other parts are less firm but it did not affect the burn, draw or flavors so my worries were unfounded.

Cutting a ring 60 is hard to do, because it hardly fits in my Xikar Xi2 cutter, but the cut was nice and clean and with the predraw I could taste a bit of pepper. After lighting the cigar I can taste the pepper again but soon there is smooth leather, like expected with Cuban seed tobacco. I could also taste some cacao before the leather grew in strength. Later on there was a creamy toast flavor.

This cigar is full bodied but with a nice smoothness. The smoke is full and the ash is nice silvery gray and firm, the ash grew about 2 inch before breaking off. At a third of the cigar I had to correct the burn. The cigar doesn’t die soon, which is a big plus.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, I love it.

Construction: 14 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 20 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 14 / 20
Aroma (foot) 7 / 10
Aroma (body) 8 / 10
Aroma (head) 8 / 10

I received a box with 10 Flor Fina coffee caprichos from Manilacigars.com and it was an adventure for me. I hardly ever smoke cigar of this size (120mm and a ring size of 30) and I never smoked an aroma cigar before nor did I ever smoke a Philippine cigar.

When I opened the box I was pleasantly surprised, what a fantastic smell of coffee beans and even though I don’t drink coffee, I love the smell of the stuff. I guess I’ve smelled the cigars for over 5 minutes, and I opened the box a few times again just to smell the cigars. The cigars are pretty, nice dark wrapper, very slim and straight, no veins at all.

The draw is fine and the burn is close to perfect. The aroma is coffee and later on tobacco. The flavors are pretty strong and I guess that if you like coffee you would like this cigar too.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, but that’s because I am not part of the target group of these kinds of cigars. If you like to smoke small cigars in the morning with a cup of coffee while reading the paper, or in the afternoon at the office you got a very nice cigar with the Coffee Capricho

Appearance: 14 / 20
Construction: 14 / 20
Draw: 14 / 20
Burn: 18 / 20
Smoke & Ash: 7 / 10
Aroma (foot): 7 / 10
Aroma (body): 6 / 10
Aroma (head): 6 / 10