Today's review is of the new cigar from Pinar Del Rio, the Cubano Especial Maduro. I picked up a few of these at the event at Burning Leaf, smoked one at the shop, and brought another home to review. There isn't a lot of info out on this cigar yet, and I think they will be hitting shops after the trade show in August. A few boxes will be trickling out before the show though. If memory serves me correctly, Abe Flores (the man behind the cigar) said these have a Brazilian Broadleaf wrapper and a mix of Nicaraguan/Dominican tobaccos making up the rest of the cigar. He mentioned something about a special leaf in the blend, but I couldn't drag the info on this special leaf out of Abe. This robusto measures in at 5 X 52.
The wrapper is very dark and shows very nice oils. This is a very nice looking cigar! The pigtail cap is a nice touch, and Abe mentioned that his rollers aren't too thrilled with him about doing the pigtail because of the extra time it takes. The cap is very flat under the pigtail, and you can tell that great care goes into the rolling of this cigar. The prelight draw is very flavorful, with loads of earth and leather.
After lighting, this cigar takes no time at all to get going by flooding the palate with rich earth, leather, coffee...lots of dark coffee flavor. You can definitely taste the Nicaraguan tobacco in this blend. The burn is very slow and absolutely dead even. Oddly, even with the slow burn, it produces a TON of resting smoke. The ash holds on very tightly for well over an inch. This is by far one of the better maduro's ive smoked in a while.
Having a cigar with Abe Flores. Sorry about the terrible picture, it was taken from my cell phone and the lighting was terrible!Talking with Abe about this cigar and all of his other blends was a real treat. his love for cigars is very apparent and he really cares about getting a quality product into the hands of his customers. Having the opportunity to smoke cigars with the guy behind them is something you never forget.
at the half way point, there is still loads of earth and coffee with a faint floral undertone that completely took me by surprise, as well as a dried fruit.raisin flavor. When passing the smoke through the sinuses, I pick up a nice spice note, probably from the Nicaraguan tobacco in the filler.
This is a full flavored, medium/full bodied cigar that is perfectly balanced. The biggest surprise about this cigar is the price. Get ready for it....around $4.50! I can't believe how inexpensive this cigar is considering how perfectly it performs! Abe said that the price will probably go up just a little bit when they are finally released, and I have no problem with that at all. I wouldn't think twice about spending a few more bucks on this stick, and will be buying plenty more of these as they become more readily available. Of all the Pinar Del Rio's ive smoked, this is probably my favorite. Keep an eye out for these later on this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment