Cigar Review: Nomad SA-17

Nomad SA-17Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5” x 50 ring gauge
Price $9.40
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com as a review sample

Background

If I remember correctly I first heard about Nomad cigars on the Blowin’ Smoke podcast and had the first chance to try Fred’s stuff at the Chattanooga Tweetups.  However there weren’t any local shops carrying his stuff until now with my local shop Maxamar’s/Small Batch now carrying them.  While the couple that I’ll be reviewing may not be new cigars on the market just new to me.  The one I’ll be reviewing today will be the SA-17 which was created using the S-307 (Dave’s and my reviews) as a starting point.  It is comprised of a filler and binder from Nicaragua with a Mexican San Andres wrapper.  They come in 5 sizes ranging from the shorty to a lancero and range in price from $8.50-$9.75.  They come packed 21 to a box.  This was my first experience with this cigar.

Prelight

One of the things I like about Nomad cigars is that it is pretty easy to tell what the cigar is as the name and blend are right there on the front of the band.  The wrapper was a nice medium dark brown in color with lots of tooth and some oils to it.  Giving it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give without any soft spots.  When I put my nose to the wrapper I got the aroma of hay and barnyard with cocoa coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw I got a good draw with some sweetness and wood.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a good amount of spice on the tongue and retrohale.  After a few puffs I noted flavors of chocolate and wood with hints of cinnamon.  The cigar starts off at medium-full strength.  When I got to the second third the sweetness died down with flavors of cocoa, leather and earth coming through.  The spice was still very much there on the tongue and retrohale.  The strength stayed the same though the second third.  When I got into the final third the spice mellowed out a bit and similar flavors to the second third came through in this third.  The cigar stayed medium-full throughout.

Construction

The draw and burn were pretty much spot on throughout.

Value

The price point is very reasonable for this cigar, like most of Nomad’s other offerings.

Conclusions

I’m definitely a fan of this cigar.  It didn’t seem to change a lot but it definitely held my attention and I will be picking more of them up and trying the different sizes to see what difference that makes.  If you want to try this or one of Nomad’s other offerings SmallBatchCigar.com has some of them in stock.

By-The-Numbers

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

Keith Hollar

Keith has been a cigar enthusiast since 2003 and it's rumored that he remembers details about every single cigar he's ever smoked. He wrote for Tiki Bar Online for four years before co-founding Leaf Enthusiast. Twitter: @Keith1911

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