Quick Time – Camacho Diploma Monarca

I had the opportunity to smoke a Camacho Diploma Monarca yesterday, and I decided to throw up a short review of it. I didn’t know what to expect, because the guys at Camacho recently changed the blend, and put new fancier bands on their entire line of smokes.

Pre-light: As I ran the smoke across my nose, I got the all too familiar spice and woodsy smell. As some of you know, I have absolutely loved Camacho’s since I started smoking cigars. I have had many of the older Diplomas, from before they changed up the blend, and I have loved all of those. The spice, and power was just GREAT. I clipped the end of the cigar with my trusty Palio, and removed the band that is on the foot, so I could light up. As I took a pre light draw, and the draw was just about perfect. Not too tight, and not too lose. Camacho cigars are very notorious for having a draw that is just a bit too loose. This was not the case for this smoke, and I was getting the typical Camacho spice and woodsy flavors.

As I lit up, I wasn’t too impressed. The cigar was not tasting like I had remembered, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy this smoke. I was getting some dirt and earth flavors, and it just wasn’t that good. As I continued to the next third of the smoke, it finally developed into the Diploma I was used to. The spice was powerful, and the woodsy flavor was there. Finally, the Diploma of old was here. These spice and woodsy flavors continued until I was done with the cigar. I don’t know what the deal was with the first 3rd of the the cigar, but it was highly unpleasant. I am a self proclaimed Camacho lover, but if every cigar in the new line starts off like this one did, I will be passing on them. Not only did the first portion of the cigar just taste horrible, the price has gone up considerably, at least here in CA. I say if you can get past the first part of the cigar, and liked the old blend of the diploma, then it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot.

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   Ricky says:

   March 5, 2008 at 1:28 pm

   The Diploma is my favorite of the Camacho line. I haven’t had the new blend but I can say that I don’t think they needed to change the presentation. I liked the plain band they had before. It wasn’t pretentious and it let the cigar speak for itself.