Wrapper: Honduran
Binder: N/A
Filler: N/A
If you took off the wrapper of this cigar and gave it to an avid Camacho fan and once they had finished smoking it, told them it was a Camacho, odds are they wouldn’t believe you. I am not a fan of Camacho, never have been. They are usually too strong for my taste. But this cigar is different. Very different.
Grown from a new strain in the mineral rich soil of the Jamastran Valley, the wrapper is a first for Camacho and the flavor it produces is fantastic. Only one problem: there was only enough wrapper to make approximately 50,000 cigars. So in walks Abe “Ming” Dababneh, the owner of Smoke Inn, on a recent trip to Camp Camacho in Honduras. He tastes the cigars made with the limited wrapper and loves them. By some miracle, he manages to get them to sell the whole batch to him. One lucky sonuvabitch, right?
Construction: The cigar itself is beautifully constructed, the wrapper is perfect without any blemishes on any of the cigars I have smoked so far. The band is as ornate and visually appealing as any of Camacho’s others. The fact that they put as much effort in the band as any of their other cigars is quite a surprise considering they had already sold every single cigar before they even had to come up with a band.
Pre-light: The head cuts perfectly. Draw is fine. Tastes of cedar and nuts before lighting.
Taste: The first inch or so as some very heavy notes of roasted nuts and earthy spice. By the midway point the smoke mellows out into a damp cedar taste and holds strong until the finish when the nuts and earthy spice come back to frame it out. The cigar did have some bitter notes but these were always associated with the cedar taste and did not make the smoke unpleasant at all.
Overall this cigar is a solid choice, especially for those who enjoy Camacho’s more than I do. This cigar will allow Camacho fans to taste those little nuances they are missing out on when they are getting their asses handed to them by those big black triple maduros.
Wrapper:Ecuadorian Connecticut – Sun Grown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
This cigar is an impressive sight at first. With a 54 ring gauge it’s nice and beefy, and its pigtail cap looks as cuban as can be. Even the wrapper says “Cuba” on it, which I found to be rather misleading, if not a bit gimmicky. This cigar is built like a rock, when squeezed there’s no give. The pigtail cap guillotines easily, and the foot lights up fast. However, I had some burn and burst issues with this cigar, enough so to actually bring down the score substantially. As the cigar started, it began to crack and burst under the heat. Eventually giving me two nice deep cracks running up both sides of the stick till about midway. This really annoyed me. I bought three of these from my local B&M, all from the same box, and in two out of the three the filler tobacco tried to break out in the beginning of the smoke. These factors brought the score for this cigar down almost one full point, taking it from a 9.1 to an 8.1. So I’m really hoping this isn’t the fault of the cigar and maybe perhaps a humidification issue at my local store. I am going to test some more and let you know.
Taste: Mellow, smooth, yet very aromatic. This cigar tastes fantastic in my opinion. Lots of sweet tobacco, mixed with coffee notes, and a good amount of tea, with very light spicy notes on the nose. Taste-wise, this cigar pushed all the right buttons for me. The draw was a tad stiff, and the smoke was very light, but I just couldn’t get over how well this cigar tasted. I’m going to try a few more before buying a box just to make sure the crack and burn issues were a fluke, and then I would happily recommend buying a box of these limited edition cigars. Perfect lunchtime smoke.
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Mexican
Filler: Dominican
This cigar has a long and sometimes troubled history. The vintage line was started back in 1993 and was hailed as one of the greatest cigars from the R & J line until around 2000. Since then, for some reason the quality and consistency of this cigar has been routinely called into question. Perhaps it is due to the fact that around that time the factory, which was located in the Pisano Free Zone of Santiago, was relocated to La Romana on the eastern end of the island. Some believe this is when the quality and consistency began to decline. These, of course, are rumors and are to be taken as such.
The wrapper on this cigar is a skin tone color, very light brown, with no imperfections whatsoever. The tobacco used in these cigars are usually aged between 2-3 years before production. I should say before I start that my box has a consistency problem, the wrapper colors vary slightly as does the flavors the sticks produce. That might make this review a little less useful, but hopefully not. The construction on this cigar was really fantastic, the head is nice and long and even with a guillotine cut there were no unravelling issues. Pre-light draw tasted of nuts and licorice. Once toasted this cigar drew well and burned perfectly even the whole way through. The first inch was heavy on the nuts and licorice taste with a hint of sweetness, but by halfway that sweet turned sour and a tad bitter. After the middle point, the nuts were accompanied by heavy doses of cedar and this underlying bitterness that I honestly was not expecting. The finish is long and a tad metallic. I was a bit disappointed by this cigar and wish I could have given it a higher rating as I am a long-time fan of R & J’s (my first cigar was one) but this one was a little bit of a disappointment.
Wrapper: Honduras
Binder: Connecticut
Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican blend
This little cigar was quite a surprise. Lets start with the beautiful Honduran-grown Viso Rosado wrapper which was cultivated from the Jamastran Valley. Its reddish-brown, toothy, and visually beautiful. The draw was good, with just the hint of drag. It is medium sized and medium bodied, with heavy leather notes for the first inch or so accompanied by subtle nutty, spicy undertones. This cigar burns perfectly, nice and slow. About midway this cigar begins to open up, the leather begins to fade into the background and the nutty, cedary tones really come out, with that same tickle of spice on the back of the palette. The ash is peppered white and holds strong till the halfway point. The finish brings back the original leather note but the spicy undertones that were present throughout the cigar come on strong and keep building until the last puff. This smoke is really fantastic, and CHEAP! At a little under $5 a stick, you really can’t complain. Overall, very pleased.