Cigar Review: Herrera Esteli 2015 Norteño Edicion Limitada

Vitola: Box-pressed Churchill
Size: 7″ x 48 ring gauge
Price $14.00 MSRP
Obtained From Drew Estate as a review sample

Background

Today I’ll be taking a look at another one of the cigars Drew Estate sent me to review, the Herrera Esteli 2015 Norteño Edicion Limitada.  This cigar is the second limited edition for the Herrera Esteli line, and the first for the Norteño line extension.  You can check out Dave’s review of this cigar here.  This was the second one of these I smoked.

Prelight

It is very easy to tell this cigar is different by the second band, in the same colors as the top band, stating it is the Edicion Limitada.  Having clear and easy to figure out branding like this is much appreciated by someone like me who doesn’t really buy boxes, but have humidors with mixed singles in them.  The wrapper on this sample was a nice dark brown in color with some black streaks to it.  The wrapper was also slightly rough in texture and had some oils and tooth to it.  Like the rest of the Norteño like the cigar is a very flat box press with rounded sides.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give with no soft spots.  The wrapper gave off a light aroma of barnyard and the foot had a much more intense barnyard aroma to it as well.  After clipping it a taking a cold draw on it I got notes of chocolate with a good draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with flavors of chocolate, leather, earth and spice.  There was also a good amount of red pepper spice on the retrohale.  The cigar starts off in the medium-full strength range.  As I got into the second third the spice was still very present and the flavors changed slightly to coffee, earth, and leather with a sweet finish.  The cigar still stayed in the medium-full strength range.  The final third the flavors didn’t change much as I only noted some cocoa flavors added in.  The spice still stay strong and the cigar moved into the bottom end of full strength.

Construction

Like Dave I had issues getting this cigar lit.  Whether or not that was the cause of the fairly major canoeing I experienced I don’t know.  From the few of the regular Norteños I’ve had I think most if not all of the ones I had had burn problems.  The draw on this sample was perfect throughout.

Value

To me while it is a little bit high it isn’t that much more expensive than the regular line.

Conclusions

I did enjoy this cigar.  I even enjoyed it more than the regular release of the Norteño.  For some reason though I just don’t enjoy it as much as the original Herrera Esteli blend.  If you like the regular Norteño I’d give it’s spicier & stronger EL brother a try.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10