A nice looking rustic stick with a candle wick cap and a closed foot. The wrapper had a very fine tooth on the surface and a grocery bag feel. A few visible veins and tight seems and a even dark reddish brown coloring. Upon lighting the cigar delivered a good amount of smoke with a very good draw. The texture on both cigars was fairly dry. I wouldn't call it tannic really, but not much oil to speak of after the first third. Flavors were on the dark side of the spectrum with a dose of spice on the draw and retrohale. The balance was a little off in my opinion, but decent enough to still be generally enjoyable.
Construction was very good throughout on both samples, with a solid white ash. My biggest criticism is the flavor range and balance. It seemed like the flavors were all wanting to be more pronounced and recognizable, but instead felt a bit muddled, sort of lost in the shuffle at times and none really jumped out at me aside from the Dr. Pepper notes in the second sample. That second sample of this cigar did have a brighter, cleaner feel that was more enjoyable. Highland Scotch, XO Cognac or brandy, and Dr. Pepper would make for nice pairings.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Dark Habano/ Binder: Nicaragua / Filler: Nicaragua
Vitola: Corona Gorda / Size: 5 x 46
Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. / Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Dried apricot, hay, natural tobacco.
Much the same owing to the closed foot.
Damp wood, mulch, earth and raisin.
Black pepper, minerality, black cherry, charred oak, earth, burnt pie crust, walnut
Retrohale: Black pepper, chili powder, Dr. Pepper like effervescence
Dark dried fruit, more charred wood notes, Dr. Pepper soda, an increase of cayenne spice, dark pastry and anise on the finish
Retrohale: dark caramel, cayenne pepper, oak, a slight maple note, grapefruit zest
Minerality, charred wood, bitter tea leaves, dried fruit, dry nut shells on the finish
Retrohale: bright citrus zest, white pepper, nut shells, charred oak
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.