Appearance: The first thing that stands out on this cigar, of course, is the band.  It looks like a cool Cadillac from the 50s.  It bears Nestors signature as part of the signature series, so you have to hope this will be a good cigar.  Especially if it’s anything like it’s older brothers, the Special Selection.  The ’06 Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper bears some serious veins, but little tooth.  This parejo shaped cigar bears a triple cap.  I’d wish for lighter veins in the appearance, but overall this is a nice looking cigar.

Taste: This started out with a mild wood and leather that stayed in the forefront of the palate for the whole of the stick.  Some sweet floral notes melded in and out.  Touted as a medium strength cigar, I’d put it closer to mild than medium.  It did pick up some strength towards the end of the stick which infused a little pepper onto the tongue as well.

Aroma: Unlit, this thing is strongly aromatic.  A chocolaty leather resonates through the nostrils and gives hope for the smoke to come.  The lit smoke was mild and a little floral.

Construction: Feeling the length of this cigar, it’s firm which suggests a tight roll.  The wrapper is well done and has visible seams.  The triple cap is perfectly executed and completely smooth.  After clipping, the draw was tighter than I’d like on both samples smoked for this review.  The ash held tightly and the burn was excellent.

Overall Impression: Sometimes you can’t judge a book by its cover.  While a very decent stick, this cigar didn’t live up to my expectations.  Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but when you throw out names like Pepin and Nestor Miranda, what else can you expect.  I think the tight roll had something to do with the milder flavors and think that if you get some sticks with a looser roll, you might experience more flavor.  As it is, with an average $7.50 price tag, I don’t know that I’d be reaching for this over some other sticks in the same price range.

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Appearance: First, as stated before, I love the lancero.  I think it’s an elegant cigar.  The La Aurora 107 Lancero definitely deserves the description of elegant.  This 7×40 cigar is capped with a traditional pigtail, which I think adds to its appearance.  The Ecuadorian wrapper has no tooth with a few prominent veins running along the length.

Taste: At first light, prominent pepper covers your lips and lets you know this isn’t a cigar to be overlooked.  After the first inch or so, the pepper subsides into a rich leather flavor.  Be warned, though, not to smoke this cigar too quickly as, with any cigar, you can build up tar which ruins the flavors.  About half way through, earth pops in to mix with the leather and this combination holds almost until the end where some cedar introduces itself.

Aroma: Cedar and cocoa waft from the unlit stick, but after lighting, this won’t be your wife’s favorite smelling cigar.  This is a medium-full smoke and the smoke’s aroma lets you know that.

Construction: This is a well constructed cigar.  Lanceros can be hit or miss because of its thin ring gauge, but of the three I’ve had so far, there were no problems.  A smooth draw also signifies a good roll.  The burn was solid.  Of course, this isn’t La Aurora’s first rodeo either since the 107′s older brother, the Preferido lancero, has been around for a little while.

Overall Impression: This cigar hits the mark.  Retailing for around $7, this has great flavor, is well constructed, and looks great.  While not overly complex, the 107 Lancero changes enough to keep you interested.  This is a medium to full flavor cigar that I think improves on the Serie 107 Aniversario line.  For those who were involved in working with La Aurora to bring this cigar to life, I thank you.

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Appearance: This is a great looking cigar.  Again, the band is elegant and I love the gold foil which just adds a touch of class in my opinion.  The color was deep and rich.  The wrapper had some tooth to it and some minor veins.  The cap was excellently done.  This is a fantastic looking cigar.

Taste: This thing hits hard out the gate.  Full flavor pounces on your taste buds and uses them as a speed bag.  Leather, pepper, and wood mingle not-so-lightly on your palate letting you know that this cigar is here and doesn’t need to be handled gently.  It’s definitely not what I’d call a complex cigar, but it is definitely a flavorful cigar.  The three aforementioned flavors jumping in and out but staying within your awareness the whole time definitely keep it interesting.

Aroma: The smell is rich on this; I mean a literal bouquet that will tingle your sense of smell.  A heavy pleasant tobacco smell with wood, butter, and, I swear, some toasted marshmallow wafted into my schnoz.  Smelling this before I lit it definitely gave me good hopes for this cigar.

Construction: If there’s something I’ve come to understand, Nestor Miranda and pals know how to roll a quality cigar.  This thing burned straight, drew well, stayed lit, and pulled smoke like a locomotive smokestack!  I don’t know that I need to go into more detail.  This is a very well made cigar.

Overall Impression: This cigar delivered.  Period.  It doesn’t have the finesse of its slimmer, longer, older sibling, but it has great flavor, is fantastically constructed, and lasts a wonderfully long time.  I paired this with some Auchentoshan Classic Single Malt Scotch and they went wonderfully together.  If you haven’t already caught the gist, this is a full-bodied cigar as well.  Be prepared if you’re not a full-bodied smoker, but otherwise I say get a box of these and enjoy!

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Appearance: A very well wrapped belicoso with a tight seam and a nicely done cap.  A very slight tooth to the wrapper gives a little texture, but not too much. The veins were very slight.   The double band adds a touch of class, with the 2009 adorning the foot.  The band is simple yet elegant.  The 5×54 cigar is robust in its looks, yet classy.

Taste: This started out with some strong cedar for me.  A little pepper sneaked in and would dash in and out, but the cedar remained the constant throughout.  Cedar is a sweeter woody flavor and it sits well on the lips.I’d like to say that there was a lot of complexity to this cigar, but it’s not always necessary, is it?  Sometimes a good flavor throughout the whole of a cigar is enough, especially if you don’t want to think about it.  This fits that bill.

Aroma: I hate to keep using this word, but it’s, you guessed it, cedar.  The scent is unmistakable, and this was out of the humidor long enough for the cedar of the box to dissipate.  There’s just some cedar to this cigar.

Construction: Feeling this cigar, you might think it’s made out of concrete.  It’s a hard sucker.  But when you clip the tip and take a preliminary draw, it’s smooth and even.  A nice tight roll without hampering the draw wins with me every time.  The burn was good and the ash always held tight.  I can’t find anything about the construction to nitpick.

Overall Impression: This is a good smoke.  It’s not a great smoke.  Whenever someone puts the label “Limited Edition” on something, I expect something special, and well, for a limited edition, this didn’t meet my expectations.  That’s okay, though, because this cigar doesn’t hold a limited edition price.  At just over $5, this is a very well priced cigar that is sure to please the average smoker.  And, the pairing with the Speyburn 10-year was a good match.  They fit well together for a very pleasant smoking experience.

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click for larger image

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Well, let’s see, being as it’s been forever since I’ve posted a cigar review; being that I was not able to make it to the IPCPR trade show that’s going on right now; and, being that I had a pretty good weekend with my daughters, I figured why not have a cigar tonight and write down my thoughts for my readers.  Oh yeah, and NFL preseason kicks off tonight!!  As if that’s not reason enough.

Anyway, I pulled out the recently released NUb Maduro for tonight’s smoke.  I’ve enjoyed all of the previous releases, which you can read here.  But, being a huge maduro fan, I really was looking forward to this cigar’s debut.  Here we go.

Appearance: This thing’s got a pretty dark wrapper even for a maduro, but they’re not painted dark like some other manufacturers do.  The wrap is tight and well done, and looking at the foot, the bunch looked good.  The band is the same as the other nubs, just a brown to represent the maduro.

Taste: This thing started strong; a little too strong out the gate, but it mellowed pretty quickly.  From there, it was just good tobacco taste.  It’s not a complex cigar and trying to pull flavors out of this isn’t a priority tonight.  Let it suffice that if you like maduros, you’ll like this.

Aroma: The unlit cigar was just good wholesome maduro tobacco smell, but I wouldn’t go waving this smoke, once lit,  in your face too much trying to get a good whiff.

Construction: Well, what’s to be said about these things.  They’re always great in this area.  The draw was fantastic.  The burn was a little off, but who cares?  You’d think that for such a short, thick cigar you’d see more construction problems, but these are always well-made.

Overall Impression: I’ve been impressed with NUbs ever since they came out.  This one doesn’t disappoint.  As far as maduros go, it isn’t the best, but it isn’t the worst either.  For a little over $5 and still at least a good hour of smoke, you can’t really ask for more.

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Second, I wanna thank Se7en_Vandalay for doing this guest review.  He had it to me over a week ago and I had every intention to get it up in a timely manner, but well, see my first point.  Anyway, here you go.  Leave a comment and let him know how you like this review!

Cigar: CAO Brazilia Vitola: Box Press Size: 5½ x 55 Origin: Danli, Honduras Wrapper: Brazilian Colorado Maduro Binder: Nicaraguan Filler: Nicaraguan Price: $7.20 + CO tax

The CAO Brazilia has been a long time favorite of mine. I have smoked nearly all the vitolas in the line. And haven’t found a bad one yet. I’m impressed by the overall quality and flavor consistency. I think I have a good handle on this line which is why I chose it for this Guest Review for Cigar Command. So I got home last night, pulled one out of the humidor and sat down outside to enjoy a great Colorado evening with thunderstorms rolling off in the distance.

Appearance/Presentation: (18/20)
The CAO Brazilia comes in a beautiful dark chocolate Brazilian Colorado Maduro wrapper. From the dark wrapper there is incredible contrast to the dual bands of the Brazilia. The primary band displays the cigar name in Gold over the Green, Yellow & Blue of the Brazilian Flag. The secondary band displays the vitola, Box-Press, in Gold over a Yellow field with accent stripes. That beautiful wrapper was lightly oily with some tooth. Also there were some superficial blemishes towards the foot. The cigar was well packed head to foot, with no hard or soft spots. The cap was well placed, but did come undone a bit once cut.

Light/Burn: (14/15)
The CAO Brazilia lights up like a champ. A few moments with my torch produces an even white foot telling me I am ready to smoke. The burn was fairly sharp considering I was outside and those thunderstorms in the distance gave me some wind to deal with. As the cigar rested it had a very light and even smoke and produced a nice and solid grey ash. I found that the cigar burned at a very nice rate and never required any re-lighting.

Construction: (27/30)
The draw of the CAO Brazilia was near perfect to begin with. It did ease up into the second third but returned to a nice medium draw through the remainder. Despite my note about the head coming undone after I cut the cap, the wrapper stayed intact very well.

Taste: (35/35)
I could not find anything wrong with the taste of this cigar. The flavors are so intense and so enjoyable. The pre-light is tobacco with hints of chocolate. Once lit, this guy takes off. The dark chocolate flavors are pleasant and linger throughout most of the cigar. There is also a delicious coffee flavor under the chocolate. The spice picks up in the second third and remains ’til the end. The body of the CAO Brazilia starts off medium-full and progresses to full along the way. It’s such an enjoyable experience every time, which keeps me coming back.

Overall: (94/100)
Well. As I said in the beginning this is one of my all time favorites and I guess the score show that. I remember being introduced the the box-press late last year and it has quickly risen to the top of the line for me. The concentration of flavors from this vitola make it like no other. I would highly recommend picking the CAO Brazilia Box-Press. I highly doubt you’ll be disappointed.

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Normally I don’t do a review based on one cigar, but I was asked to do a review of this by   of Reyes Family Cigars.  He’s very proud of this cigar and it’s only being released in limited numbers to limited retailers.  At least that’s how it stands now.  Sometimes “limited” is subjective in the cigar world.  Anyway, I decided to get some good pictures of this nice looking cigar to put in here as well.

This is a 6×52 toro made up of Nicaraguan and Dominican filler tobaccos.  The binder and wrapper are Ecuadorian Sumatra

Appearance: The cedar-wrapped cigar seems to be going away, but this Cuba Aliados sports one.  Its red, white, and gold band is simple but sharp and bold.  The wrap looks pretty well done with only one small blemish where the wrapper was too wet and wrinkled as it dried.  A few prominent veins route their way through the leaf.  The cap wasn’t perfect, but the part that was folded under was to be cut off anyway.  The foot shows a very nice tight, even bunch.

Taste: This started out with a medium strength laced with a light pepper and a full leather.  There was some cedar too.  This maintained that leather flavor throughout.  And the best way to describe it is ‘dry.’  Dry as in dry wine.  Don’t know how to explain it other than that.  Anyway, it maintained this flavor profile for pretty much the whole of the cigar with the pepper going in and out.  The strength, however, grew subtly from beginning to end, morphing into a smooth full-bodied smoke by the end.

Aroma: Usually a cedar-wrapped cigar bears the smell of that cedar.  This one, however, had a sweet floral smell that broke through that cedar.  Very nice. The smoke was rather harsh.

Construction: The cigar had the appropriate firmness and sponginess too.  The draw was excellent.  It took a little bit to light, but once it was lit it burned exquisitely until the last two inches.  At that point one side just stopped burning altogether.  I can’t ding it too much, though, because again, this is based on only one sample.  The ash was always tight and firm and wouldn’t tap off unless it was over an inch.  That’s always a good sign of quality construction.

Overall Impression: I think the Reyes Family has hit a home run with this cigar.  Not being fully accessible to the public yet, you might have a hard time finding these, but I definitely recommend trying one if you can get your hands on it.  I’m hoping they keep it out of certain retailer hand (notice I didn’t particularly name Cigars International) so that it doesn’t get overburdened and ground into the ground like I feel the Puros Indios line did.

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Alright, y’all, here’s the last of the original group of lancero reviews: the La Aurora Preferidos Cameroon Lancero.  I’ve decided to continue this series so I’m breaking them up in groups.  This first group consists of this La Aurora, the Nestor Miranda Special Selection Lancero, the Oliva Serie V Lancero, and the EO Cubao No. 3 Lancero.  After this review, I’ll post a head-to-head comparison and then declare a winner from this group.

La Aurora is known for being the oldest cigar company still producing cigars.  The Preferido line, mainly associated with those pretty little tubes, is their top-of-the-line offering.  This lancero falls into that line, just without the tube.  At 6 7/8″, this cigar falls on the short side of the lancero range.  It’s a 40 ring guage.  La Aurora has long been rolled in the Dominican Republic and this cigar is no different.  Wearing a Cameroon wrapper, the binder and filler are Dominican tobaccos.

Appearance: The band is the standard pictured above.  It’s a nice looking band, just one that you’re so used to seeing it becomes familiar and unstriking.  What I love about this cigar is the deep brown richness of the wrapper.  It’s got some prominent veins with a very light tooth, but the color of this wrapper is just beautiful.  I love the sleek look of a lancero, though if you’ve read my other reviews in this series, you know that the lancero is my favorite size.  The cap is perfectly done and the foot shows an good even bunch.

Taste: At first draw, this cigar started cool and sweet. It quickly kicked into a nice full leather with some spice; kinda tangy.  This is definitely on the full side of the strength radar.  The flavor, when you relax in between draws, eases back and forth between leather and wood and definitely keeps your palate guessing as to what’s coming next.  Wish I could say there was more to it, but it’s somewhat straight forward.  Towards the end, though, it starts to become harsh, a little bitter even.  I put this down with about two inches left as the strength and harshness stopped being enjoyable.

Aroma: Holding the unlit stick to my nose I get a mild sweet tobacco smell.  Nothing too delicate or different.  The smoke was that great cigar smoke smell that your wife loves so much.

Construction: Running my fingers across this, it’s a firm stick and consistent in its feel.  Again, the foot shows an even bunch.  The wrap was well done.  It lit quickly and burned well.  Not great, but good enough.  The ash was tight, but wouldn’t hold firm for very long.

Overall Impression: Well, at $9-10, I’m a little torn.  The construction and quality of this stick is very good.  It burns well, draws well, looks good, etc.  I’m a full-bodied cigar lover, so I didn’t mind the strength, but this seemed like it was strong just to be strong.  I wanted to like this cigar more than I did end up liking it.  With the stick going badly at the end, plus the higher price tag, I just can’t give this more than I did.

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Okay, let’s kick this week off right with a cigar review.  These cigars were sent to me by Paul Bush who’s just recently created his own cigar line: Panacea.  Wanting to take what he calls an “old school” approach, Paul says his focus is on getting the best tobacco.  Instead of focusing on pretty packaging, he wants to get back to the basics of cigar making.  Let’s see how he does.  The torpedo is 6×52 and the blend is made up of a Brazilian wrapper with Cuban seed ligero and seco.

Appearance: This is a good looking torpedo.  It has a sharp point at its cap, and the cap is well done.  The chocolate wrapper has no tooth and some slight veins with a few prominent ones.  The wrap itself is visible.  Overall, this looks like a good torpedo.  I’m not a big fan of the band itself.  It looks a little cheap to me, but I’ve said many times you can’t judge a cigar by its band.  Also, band design and production can get expensive.  If you’re putting all your money into the tobacco itself, it makes sense that the band isn’t the focus here.

Taste: This is a pretty straight forward stick.  A mild-medium strength of a floral wood is consistent from beginning to end.  While not complex, it’s pleasant.  The strength starts out on the medium side, then mellows a bit, and picks back up toward the end.

Aroma: Holding the foot to my schnoz, I got a little floral cinnamon in there.  The wrapper itself is a mild tobacco.

Construction: Squeezing this stick, it’s a stout one. After clipping, the draw was fantastic.  While the burn wasn’t razor sharp, this stick was perfectly made.  The ash was firm and held tight for a long time.  I flicked the ash off the first time after I’d smoked half the cigar.  I didn’t have to flick again until I put the cigar down.  That’s a helluva well-made cigar if you ask me.

Overall Impression: I’m impressed.  The construction of this cigar is flawless.  It burns well and the ash holds well.  I’d like a little more complexity, but I can pick out many sticks I smoke on a regular basis that aren’t complex.  At around $6 for this stick, I think it’s a great buy.

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This is the final review of the Los Blancos Premium cigars. You can see all of the Los Blancos reviews by clicking here.  I want to say thanks to David Blanco of Los Blancos for sending these samples to me and for being so patient waiting for the reviews.  That being said, this cigar was held to the end because, well, I’m just not a huge fan of Connecticut wrapper cigars.  David told me he hopes that in this case, “[I've] saved the best for last.”  Let’s see…

Appearance: The band is the same as on all the other premium blends, only this time it’s blue, my favorite color.  Go figure.  The light wrapper has very few and very sleight veins.  The wrap is very well done and is almost seamless.  The cap was excellently done as well.  This is a fantastic looking cigar.

Taste: This started out with a very strong sweetness that I’m not accustomed to with Connecticuts.  If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought it was sugar-tipped.  Of course, it’s not, so the intense sweetness wasn’t unnatural nor unpleasant.  It was very welcome.  Eventually, some woodiness came through and took over, but it wasn’t the harsh wood that I usually associate with Connecticuts.  Some leather peeked its way in there towards the middle too.  The leather and wood held for the remainder of the smoke.

Aroma: Holding this to my snoz, I got a strong scent of wood and honey.  Very nice.  The smoke’s aroma is nothing to concern yourself over.  It won’t get you smoking in the house, but it won’t get you kicked out of the garage either.

Construction: The burn for the first inch was razor sharp.  It fell off after that but never got to the point where I’d be concerned about construction.  The ash was firm and would hold for an inch or more without dropping.  The draw was fantastic.  Very easy but not loose.

Overall Impression: Okay, okay…  I liked this smoke.  D’ya hear that, David?  It’s a mild to medium body, and that sits well with me for a Connie.  I could see this being an occasional morning smoke for me.  The construction is great and it’s a great looking cigar.  The blue band sits on the light wrapper well.  The flavors weren’t overpowering like I find other Connies, in fact, they were just right.  I can count the number of Connecticut wrappers that I really like on one hand, and while this one fits on that hand, I can now count it.

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