Cigar Review: Arandoza White

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Robusto, 5” x 52 ring gauge / SRP ~$6.50

In the couple weeks leading up to the 2013 Chattanooga Tweet-Up and Cigar Festival, I got an email from Anthony at Espinosa Cigars, letting me know that a couple more companies he knew wanted to come as well and asking if that was okay. “Sure!” I replied. One of the concepts that has been very good to us through the years of the Tweetup is to not turn away any manufacturer, no matter how small…and that’s how we learned about Guayacan and Kings Cigars, among others. Arandoza is another small and somewhat new brand, made in the La Zona factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, a place that Espinosa Cigars also calls home. They started off with the Blue Label, which was re-packaged this year, in part to go along with their new cigar, simply referred to on the footband as “White.” From what I can gather on several websites (both the company site and blogs), this has Nicaraguan filler and binder and a Habano wrapper (whether or not the Habano wrapper is grown in Nicaragua or some other country I could not determine). This review is based on the first sample I’ve had of this blend, and it was acquired through the Tweet-Up.

The presentation is very nice on these. Both bands make good use of gold AND bronze foil, along with embossing and possibly just 2 colors of ink. So much is going on and the band is so well designed that I thought there was more color printed on the paper before I looked really closely. The Habano wrapper that shows itself around these bands is nice looking and oily feeling. It had a barnyard earthy aroma to it, while the foot had sweeter notes of chocolate along with some earth and coffee. The prelight draw was very good and had notes of sweet chocolate, salt, and chili pepper.

I had a heck of a time getting the Arandoza White to light. I fired it with my torch for 10 seconds or more, then looked at the foot and saw just some toasting with no orange glow of burning leaf. I toasted it some more…nothing. I puffed on it while I toasted it…nothing at first, then finally some flame leapt up. I checked the light and found it to be wildly uneven so I spent another minute trying to get all of the foot evenly lit. This is something I find from time to time, but it is fairly unusual…not a “problem” but strange. The initial flavors were woody and earthy on the palate. After a few minutes I got some sweetness to go with that. The retrohale started off nutty and spicy. That flavor profile continued through the first third.

In the second third the flavor became more nutty, although there was still plenty of earth and cedar on the palate. I also got a slow burn of pepper spice on the palate, while it never really went away on the nose. The construction was excellent; I had a great draw, very even burn line and solid ash.

Toward the end the Arandoza White displayed an increase pepper burn that was a nice complement to the earth and cedar flavors. I found this to be a solid smoke with a pleasing flavor profile that I wouldn’t mind repeating, although it wasn’t totally in my wheelhouse. The cigar was at the low end of full in body and had a medium amount of nicotine strength. Altogether it was another very good cigar produced by La Zona.

Body: 8/10
Strength: 6/10
Complexity: 6/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10