Originally published at Tiki Bar Online
Corona Gorda, 5.625” x 46 ring gauge / $ Immeasurable
As most of the readers are aware Dave was able to go on the Drew Estate Cigar Blogger Safari at the beginning of May. While he was there he was able to create a personal blend out of the tobaccos that they have. He came up with this one. It is comprised of a filler of Jalapa Criollo 98 (Seco), Ometepe Viso, and Brazilian Mata Fina, Estelí ASP Ligero and a small amount of Kentucky Fire Cured, a Mexican San Andres Negro binder with a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper. Dave was kind enough to send me one of these to try and review.
The wrapper on this cigar is a slightly ruddy medium brown and not as dark as some of the other CT broadleaf I’ve seen. There were some medium veins to it. It felt slightly rough to the touch but that might have been me. It was slightly crooked but that was probably due to transport. The cigar was fairly firm to the touch and I couldn’t find any soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I got light notes of hay with smokehouse and barnyard coming from the foot. After clipping and taking a cold draw on it I got the taste of bbq sauce and wood with a slightly tight draw.
The cigar starts off with the flavors of bbq, wood and leather with some spice on the tongue and retrohale. The cigar was fairly tight but an application of my Xikar MTX’s bleeder tool helped it draw much better. In regards to strength the cigar was at the upper end of medium. The burn started to canoe a bit but I let it go to see if it would fix itself.
As I moved into the second third I started to get a lot more woody flavors with some graham cracker thrown in all with a molasses sweetness on the finish. The spice decided to ebb and flow throughout this third.
The same flavors continued into the final third with some creaminess on the finish added in. The spice started to come back more steadily and I started to get a slight nicotine hit from it as well. By the start of this third the burn had evened itself out without any help from me.
Overall this was a good cigar. I do think it can use a little bit of tweaking and or age. Dave will be able to comment on how age changes them. I think it gives him a great starting point if he gets to go back on the tour.
dmj – Best. Blend. Ever. LOL
Damn, that’s a crapload of different tobaccos in one cigar, lol! Sounds like it worked out pretty well, so kudos to Dave on his blending skills. I’m hoping that Tony C. will send me one of his to try out.
I fell in love with that Ometepe tobacco Drew had there this year. I ended up putting all three primings in the filler. The aroma was just unbelievable.
Oddly, the Ometepe is probably the element I would drop from this blend, substituting in some more of a couple other fillers to make up for it. While I stand by my blend and really do enjoy it (sadly, only 5 are left in the world as of tonight), I get the feeling there’s too many competing things going on and I think it would benefit from a bit more focus. Something to shoot for next year, should I be invited back.
I have nothing to add… Well done Dave!