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

Stallone Alagan Review: The Foot

Brownies, oak, earth

Stallone Alagan Review: The Cold Draw

Chocolate cake, earth, beets, black pepper

Stallone Alagan Review: First Third

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

Stallone Alagan Review: Second Third

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

Stallone Alagan Review: Final Third

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.

The reviewing process at Cigar Public ensures that each cigar is reviewed blindly. This cigar was sent without any bands and without any information about the cigar. Cigar Public does not attempt to influence or alter any scores given by any of our reviewers.

 

Joe Kenney

I am a Certified Consumer Tobacconist, have enjoyed cigars for over 10 years, and I run the Jonose Cigars cigar review channel on YouTube. My primary goal is to spread cigar lifetsyle to as many as possible while discovering as much as possible about the craft of cigars along the way.