Cigar Review: Matilde Oscura

• Vitola: Corona
• 5.5” x 44 ring gauge 
• MSRP $7.50
• Purchased at Silo Cigars

Background

I’ve come to the last review cigar I bought on my most recent trip to Silo Cigars in Knoxville and I wanted to pause to give a shout-out to Paul Warner, the owner of the shop. I work at one of the best shops in the country, but Paul always has something new and different that I haven’t tried…and he usually gives me a good deal. So “Thank you” to Paul and all the crew at Silo…if you’re near the Knoxville, Tennessee, area…or are just passing through…do yourself a favor and stop in.

And so we get to the Matilde Oscura. I have to admit to not being overjoyed to hear about this one when it debuted last summer. I had smoked a few of the Matilde Renacer and while I think it’s a good smoke (my review of the blend is HERE), it didn’t leave me in breathless anticipation for the next thing from the company. But when I heard Will Cooper going on and on about it (he named it his #3 cigar of 2015 and the Cigar Media Association named it #1) I knew I had to get my hands on it.

The Matilde Oscura retains the same basic design pieces of the Renacer, while changing the color from tan to an olive green. Industry legend, Jose Seijas combined Dominican, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers with a Sumatran binder and a Mexican San Andres wrapper leaf. On my stop to Silo, I picked up both the Robusto and Corona vitolas; I smoked the Robusto soon after I bought it, saving the Corona for this review.

Prelight

As mentioned before, the banding for the Oscura is essentially the same as that for the Renacer, with the background color changed. It also adds a secondary band that reads “Matilde Oscura” in case there was any confusion. The green color is not terribly attractive when taken individually, but it works when set against the dark brown wrapper of the cigar.

And speaking of the wrapper, it is a dark roast coffee bean brown with almost as much oil as that same coffee bean. There were some larger veins in there and the cigar had a rich earthiness mainly, along with touches of cedar, leather and cocoa powder. The foot of the stick had a milder earthiness, with a little woodiness and some bread notes.

The prelight draw was very good and featured flavor notes of anise, dark chocolate and leather.

Flavor

The Matilde Oscura took a little bit of time to get fired up evenly, indicating the presence of a lot of wet and/or oily leaves in the mix. “Oscura” means “dark” and that’s what I got immediately from the flavors in this cigar…anise, espresso bean, high-cacao-content chocolate, leather…that all came up front, with notes of black pepper following up and earth and more leather on the finish. The retrohale had a sweet nuttiness with a milder white pepper burn. The cigar started off as full-bodied and full-flavored, though not necessarily full-strength. It would be interesting to see where it would go from here. Through the rest of the first third, I got continued strong coffee, earth and leather notes up front, followed by anise and cocoa powder.

The second third got even more interesting, with the addition of an almost grilled meat note, charred and savory.

The last third continued charry and savory notes, overlaid with anise and espresso beans, and finally followed by more pepper.

Construction

The draw was great. The ash was solid. I had to touch up the burn line a couple times, but nothing major.

Value

The price tag on this cigar was very reasonable, especially for a stick that had such good flavor.

Conclusions

After having tried a couple vitolas of the Matilde Oscura, I have to say it really is an excellent cigar. It was full bodied and had a pleasingly complex flavor profile from beginning to end. If you are into that kind of thing, you definitely must put this one on your “to try” list.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10