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: 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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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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Some days I just absolutely look forward to doing reviews.  This is one of those days.  I was happy when Tex Cigars sent me their cigars to review and saw the Padrón 5000 Natural in there amongst the others.  At 5.5×56, this is a stout cigar and is classified as a robusto.  Made in Esteli, Nicaragua, binder, filler, and wrapper are all made of sun-grown habano leaf that is aged 2 1/2 years.

Appearance: The Padrón series cigars won’t win any awards with their cigar band or plain look.  But don’t let that plain appearance fool you.  The dark brown wrapper has a slight tooth and some mildly prominent veins.  The cap is relatively well done, but not perfect.

Taste: This is where Padrón makes half of its mark.  The Padrón 5000 is not overbearing in its strength, but instead gives you a smooth mixture of spice, wood, and leather.  The pepper comes out in the beginning, but settles into a nice rich cedar flavor.  The wood is pretty consistent with leather coming in and out dancing on the taste buds.  And the best part is that it’s all creamy.  That just adds to a cigar if you ask me.

Aroma: Nothing special here but good-smelling tobacco.

Construction: This is where Padrón makes up the other half of its reputation.  If you haven’t experienced Padrón cigars, you should because there aren’t many examples of consistency and quality in the cigar realm that can match theirs.  The draw was great.  The burn was impeccable.  What else is there to say?

Overall Impression: I don’t smoke Padróns as often as I use to.  They were a daily smoke for me, and I’ve gotten away from that with all of the reviews I do and all of the new cigars coming out that need to be tried.  This was a very pleasant trip down memory lane that reminded me that I need to visit Padróns more often in the future.  If you’re looking for a well-made, great-tasting cigar, you don’t need to look much farther than this.  And the fact that Padrón is still very, very cheap as far as cigars go, well, that’s just icing on the great cigar cake.

Cigar Rating:

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Appearance: This is an unbanded cigar with a closed foot and a pigtail cap.  At 5.5×50, it’s a standard robusto size.  The corojo wrapper has a few major veins and a couple nicks and scars as well.  There’s no apparant oils in the wrapper.  Nothing special about this cigar from its appearance.

Taste: This started out pretty mild with some light spice and woodiness.  The spice declined quickly to be taken over by a light floral flavor that was pleasant, but not full.  The floral eventually morphed into kind of a dry grass flavor with the wood still lurking as the heavy base of flavor.  About half way through, the strength kicked up from mild to medium, and the flavor went all wood.  It stayed this way for the rest of the smoke.

Aroma: Not much to the unlit stick in the smell department.  A slight woody scent underlined by a raw tobacco aroma.  Not much to the smoke as well.  Just tobacco.

Construction: Feeling along the body of this cigar, it’s solid.  My first thought was that they might be plugged. The draw, however, was perfect.  It took to flame easily and burned perfectly for the duration.  I’m not lying when I say I was amazed, because those weren’t my expectations.

Overall Impression: This was a decent cigar.  Not bad, but not great either.  I guess not every cigar can blow me away, right?  There you have it, folks.  Talk about down and dirty.

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Anyway, this cigar carries a majestic band to go along with its majestic girth. The colorado wrapper was decently oily. The feel of the cigar was a little spongy and quite inconsistent, and its very ragged burn proved a bad roll. This wasn’t your typical improperly stored cigar burn, this was definitely a poor roll burn. It required touch-ups and would never correct fully. However, that being said, this had some great flavors. It started with a full, peppery spice and cedar that half way through settled into some hard leather and earth. Toward the end, there was quite a bit of tar build-up that didn’t sit well with the palate. That’s the danger of such a full-bodied smoke. Anyway, I put it down with about two inches left. It has a long finish.

At just under $5, I can see that this will be a cigar to stick around and I know many people like them. While I don’t think they’re bad (I think they’re pretty decent actually), I’m wondering how much CA sold the title of #1 Cigar for.

What are your thoughts on this cigar?

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Padilla Miami
Size: 5 X 50
Wrapper: Corojo
Binder: Cuban seed tobaccos from Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaraguan
Strength: Full

Pre-smoke
Scent of Wrapper: Cocoa
Scent at Foot: Tobacco
Appearance: Dark brown chocolate wrapper with one vein running from the head to the foot.
Wrapper: Very sweet looking brown wrapper with a triple cap
Feel: Very Firm
Tongue: Leather
Flavor on Draw: Earthy with hints of leather

Smoke
Taste: Earth, Leather and Spice
Flavor Changes: From the start it had a slight earth taste that picked up a strong leather and spicy flavor throughout.
Strength: Full Bodied
Feeling: This cigar really kept my interest all the way through. Very complex and very delicious smoke
Scent of Smoke: Slight smell of spice
Heat on Fingers and in Mouth: No heat at all
Draw: Easy draw with no burn problems
Finish: I really like the Miami line but this cigar has more of a sweet leathery taste that was outstanding and pleasing
Other Aspects of the Cigar Smoking Experience: Retro inhaled this cigar many times and each time I was very impressed with the taste and aroma. The only bad point is the price. At $7-$20.00 a stick I found this to be a bit pricey.

This was another triple cap cigar made known by some of the finest Cuban cigars made. The wrapper and taste was great and will always recommend to anyone looking for a great cigar.

I would rate this cigar as a “Great Cigar.”

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Okay, this is a cigar I’ve been looking to try for awhile.  I don’t smoke a lot of Altadis products, but when Billy of Cigars Direct asked what to send for review, I had him throw some Montecristos in.  I’ve had my eye on these since they came out, but never pulled the trigger.  As a maduro fan, and these being the only maduro in the Montecristo line, the Media Noche intrigued me.  The Edmundo is a fat robusto at 5×55.

Appearance: I like the cigar band.  The blue and gold that replace the brown and white of the traditional Montecristo label really make this cigar stand out.  The wrapper is a bit closer to oscuro than maduro, if you ask me.  It’s quite dark.  There’s a fine tooth to the wrapper and it has quite a few prominent veins.  There’s a slight shine to it from the oils in the wrapper.  It’s a fat little sucker, which is pronounced by its shorter length.  The cap was okay, though you can tell it was a little too wet when put on, as the drying caused it to shrivel a bit.

Taste: This is a mild maduro at the beginning.  You’ve got your usual cocoa and leather, but unfortunately on both samples, I got a very heavy dose of ammonia.  This isn’t pleasant at all.  It leaves a very chemical taste on your lips.  I couldn’t find any aging information on this cigar, so it may be that these were recently rolled and just haven’t settled.  Anyway, the strength never really picked up.  The claim is that these are medium-full, but I’d be hard pressed to say these even made it into the medium category.  Strength is subjective though.

Aroma: This had a mild earthy cocoa it it before lighting it up.  It was decently aromatic.  The smoke itself was just a regular tobacco smell.  Nothing too bad, but nothing too great either.

Construction: As I’ve already said, this thing is fat.  So, with larger rolls you have the ability to get more inconsistencies and soft spots.  These sticks weren’t too bad, though there were a couple of soft spots.  These led to an irregular burn that weaved from side to side, showing slight canoing as the burn passed over certain spots.  It never got out of hand where I needed to touch it up, but it was quite annoying in its inability to stay straight.

Overall Impression: Unfortunately, the ammonia killed these for me.  I could get over the ragged burn if the flavor was there, but it just wasn’t.  Montecristo is a popular brand, though, and it has to be for a reason; maybe I’m just missing it.  I will say that this thing burned slowly.  It took about an hour to get past the halfway point on this thing.  It’s a monster.  I consider that a good thing, since you get your money’s worth.  At around $8 a stick you want it to last.

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Here’s part 3 of the 4-part Los Blancos Premiere Selection series.  I’ve already reviewed the criollo and the maduro.  Not being much of a Connecticut fan, I’m saving that for last.  Anyway, David Blanco of Los Blancos Cigars was nice enough to reach out to me to get his cigars reviewed and so far I’ve liked them.  Enough of the chit-chat, let’s get to it.

Appearance: Again, all of these are double-banded and they look sharp.  This has the red band.  What I’m loving about this cigar, though, is its wrapper.  A deep golden brown, there’s a shine to this wrapper that I love to see.  It’s very well wrapped and has small veins.  The cigar is perfectly round in its parejo shape.  A double cap tops this.

Taste: Initially I was hit with a sweet yet tangy cedar overlying the slightest touch of pepper.  Yum.  The tang went away leaving the woodiness and the pepper lightened up.  This settled into a mildly medium stick fairly quickly.  After it hit the half-way point, the sweetness went away, the leather kicked in throwing the cedar to the background and it kicked the strength up to a definitely medium body cigar.  There was a slight creaminess, too, but not one that made you chew the aftertaste.

Aroma: Pre-light, there’s not much of an aroma.  Just some sweet tobacco-ness with a very light hint of cocoa.  The smoke itself was kinda nutty, you know as in smelling like cashews a bit.  That was a first for me.  It’s light too, so not too offensive when in the presence of others.

Construction: Again, this thing is round and solid.  From the outside, this is just a great roll.  The cap was well done.  The foot showed an even bunch.  Unfortunately, though, on both sticks they canoed early.  They never got so bad they needed a touch-up, but you could see where the roll was a little weak after the first ash dropped.  The burn eventually fixed itself about a third of the way through and stayed nice and even from then on.  This had a solid, tight white ash that had to be taken off, it wouldn’t fall by itself.

Overall Impression: So far, this is the best of the line.  Like I said, I haven’t had the Connecticut yet, but it’s gonna have to go a long way to beat this one.  The only reason it didn’t get a perfect score is because of the first little hiccup with the canoe.  Great flavors, perfect strength, interesting in its changes, just a great cigar.  It’s got a medium finish that doesn’t stick with you too long, but it’s not short, so you can savor the great flavors for just a little longer.

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Okay, thanks to Tex Cigars, I’m able to review this bundle robusto for those of my readers who are looking for reviews of cheaper cigars.  Now, I’ve smoked plenty of bundles in my day, but had gotten away from them over the years.  Bundles are great though, especially if you’re an everyday smoker or a multiple-cigars-a-day smoker.  They’re easier on the pocket book than full premium cigars and, depending on the bundle, can taste just as good.  Often, bundles are just premium cigars that didn’t pass quality checks of the factories, but are still good enough to be sold.

With a sun-grown wrapper and full of Dominican tobacco, this 5×50 Solamente wasn’t pretty.  There was some excess tobacco sticking out of the foot.  The wrapper was messy and the cap wasn’t all that great.  But what will surprise you when you light up is the flavor.  I was bowled over…really!  Sweet wood all the way through.  Mild to medium-bodied, this cigar tasted great.  The burn: blah.  The presentation: blah.  The taste: great.  And the bundle sells for less than $25.  If you’re on the golf course, or workin’ in the garage, then this cigar will satisfy you.  I’m surprised, really, cause I have my moments of cigar snobbiness.

You can try them for yourself by clicking the link below and buying some.  If you don’t like them, they’re cheap enough to give to your friends when they come mooching.

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