Originally published at Tiki Bar Online.
Toro (slightly box-pressed), 6” x 54 ring gauge / $13.99, Maxamar’s
This year is the 45th anniversary of the oldest cigar manufacturer in Nicaragua, Joya de Nicaragua. They decided to come out with a cigar to commemorate this momentous occasion. The wrapper and binder are from the Jalapa area, the filler is a blend of tobaccos from Estelí that have been aged in oak barrels for more than a year, with a small amount of five-year-old ligero leaf in the filler added in. The cigar comes packed in a 10 count box in one size, a slightly box pressed toro. John Brooke at Drew Estate, the distributor of JdN, was kind enough to send me two samples of this cigar for review.
The wrapper on this sample was a nice even medium brown in color. It had a good amount of oils to it in spite of being sans cello. There was a scattering of medium and fine veins too. The band was more ornate than I’m used to seeing, although this is a limited edition anniversary cigar. The words Cuatro Cinco on the band even integrated the numerals 4 and 5 which is a bit clever. The dual layer band reminded me of another Nicaraguan company that does a regular release anniversary cigar. When I gave the cigar a squeeze there was a slight amount of give with no soft spots. As I put my nose to the wrapper I got a light aroma of leather with some light barnyard notes coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got notes of sweet leather with a good draw.
The cigar starts off with a good amount of red pepper spice on the tongue and retrohale. After a few puffs I started to get notes of leather and earth with a slightly sweet finish. The draw started out great and the burn was pretty good. I did get a tunnel that formed requiring me to let the cigar go out before lighting again. Towards the end of this third I started to get some light cinnamon flavors. The first third was pretty firmly in the medium range, with is a departure from most of the JdN line.
As I moved into the second third the spice was definitely less intense as the first third. The draw was ok but the tunnel was still causing me some draw problems. The flavors I noted were of leather, cinnamon, earth, and coffee with slight amount of sourness probably related to the tunnel. In spite of the spice toning down the cigar built in strength to the upper end of medium.
Once I got into the final third the tunnel had finally corrected itself and wasn’t causing problems. The spice started to build back up and I started to get a slight nicotine hit from it as well. The cigar finished in the medium-full range. The flavors were pretty consistent with the prominent ones being leather, earth and cinnamon with a slightly sweet and creamy finish.
Overall it was just an ok cigar to me. The construction problems really hampered it in my opinion. The flavors especially in the last third were enjoyable but even if they were consistent all the way through I don’t know if it qualify for a $14 cigar. I will note I was sitting in the shop talking to someone smoking this same cigar and he thought it was one of the best cigars he had ever had. It definitely was a departure from the other cigars I’ve had from them. So I don’t know if it was a mental thing for me expecting one thing and getting something different. As with all of the cigars I review you need to make your own judgement on this cigar.
Body: 8/10
Strength: 8/10
Complexity: 6/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 7.5/10
a 7.5 haven’t seen one of those in a long time… if ever. I like all the JDN sticks I have had although I haven’t tried all their lines. If I see one I’ll pick it up and give it a try maybe I’ll have better luck… great review