Vitola: Apollo (lonsdale)
Size: 6″ x 44 ring gauge
Price $8.99
Purchased at Maxamar’s Cigars
Background
Today I’ll be looking at one of the latest collaborations between Warped Cigars and Casa Fernandez. This one pays tribute to the guard dogs that guard the tobacco fields at the Aganorsa farms in Nicaragua. The cigar comes in 3 sizes named for different dogs; Campeon (6 x 52 ), J.J. (5 1/4 x 50), and Apollo Seleccion de Warped (a 6 x 44 lonsdale). The Apollo size, the one I’m reviewing, is said to be a limited production. I will say I do enjoy the Warped cigars made at Casa Fernandez more for a couple reasons, the flavors are more to my liking, and the cost is where I’m more comfortable paying. This was the second of these cigars I smoked.
Prelight
One of the first things I notice is the double bands, which I’m not sure if I like all that well. I know the bottom band is something Kyle is using on other cigars to denote a special size or blend, but to me it would look better as a foot band than having two bands that look almost like primary bands at the top. The black and blue kinda doesn’t go in this instance in my opinion. The wrapper on this sample was a medium brown in color with some darker mottling to it. It also exhibited some oils and a slight amount of tooth. It also had a closed foot, that if you’re read any of my other stuff you’ll already know I’m not crazy about those. When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give without any soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I got the aroma of leather, with leather and nuts coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got sweetness and saltiness with a good draw.
Flavor
It starts off with the flavors of leather, nuts, sweetness, saltiness and spice. The cigar starts off at the upper end of medium strength. Towards the end of the first third I also noted hints of curry and cinnamon. When I moved into the second third the spice died down quite a bit. The flavors changed to leather, wood, earth, marshmallow, and saltiness. It stayed at the upper end of medium. The spice started to come back in the final third. The flavors in the final third were leather, wood, and earth with a sweet finish. It finished off where it started in strength, the upper end of medium.
Construction
I had no issues with draw or burn with either of the examples I smoked.
Value
As I mentioned above the collaboration between Warped and Casa Fernandez produces some solid cigars at good values.
Conclusions
This will definitely be on my smoke again list. It probably wouldn’t stand up to well after a day of smoking, but would be a good starting cigar no matter what time of day that is. While they don’t have this cigar in stock at the moment you can check out SmallBatchCigar.com for the other Warped selections, or be notified when they get this cigar back in stock
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
