La Palina Blue Label

The cigar looks quite pretty with a very even roll and uniform coloring, though with a few blemishes. Upon lighting I wasn't too sure what I thought of the balance, as the flavors were rather aggressive and gritty. But after a mere 5 minutes in, the balance and finesse began to prevail and the midway point truly wowed me. The texture was very dynamic, starting off spicey, calming down to a creamy feel, and eventually becoming lightly tannic. Ultimately a very impressive and satisfying experience. Coming out the gate bucking like a wild mustang before taming its power into the refined and pleasing trot of a thoroughbred. This one is dynamite after a charbroiled steak, with dark chocolate, coffee, or a nice tawny port.

Wrapper: Honduran Habano Maduro / Binder: Honduran & Nicaraguan / Filler: Honduran & Nicaraguan

Vitola: Robusto / Size: 5.5×50

Factory: Plasencia / Country of Origin: Honduras 

Leather, dry cocoa

Brownies, oak, earth

Chocolate cake, earth, beets, black pepper

Oily dark chocolate, red pepper spice, dry walnut, dark earth, and a gritty charred pepper steak are the first notes, followed up later by an excellent blend of chocolate covered almonds, pistachio, subtle hickory, and mocha espresso

Retrohale: charred oak, earth, red chili pepper, menthol, and later a floral and cedar sweetness

Roasted pecans, milk chocolate, cream, caramel syrup, cola, vanilla, sweet grassy nuances, menthol sweetness, and a fairly long, musty kind of finish.

Retrohale: fragrant cedar, nutmeg, orange bitters, sweet florals

Plenty more of that fragrant cedar now on the draw, with additional notes of dry roasted peanut, lavender florals, more general mustiness, sandal wood, with a lingering note of that menthol sweetness. Towards the very end I am met with a rebound of the grittiness that I got very early on, except now it reminds me more of a burnt sugar with touches of florals and wood.

Retrohale: white pepper, citrus zest, charred cedar.

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