It has been a while since I stumbled on a new cigar. I recently tried the Caldwell “Long Live the King” line I will review another time, but about a month before Christmas I stumbled on these Casa Cuba from Arturo Fuente and the Tabacelera factory in the Dominican Republic! I think this is the nicest cigar since I stumbled on Roma Craft a few years back.
Size: The box says 4.5 x 54″, but I measure them out to 4.75″ x 52. In either case a classic robusto.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Havana
Binder: Dominican (unspecified)
Filler: Cuban seed Dominican
Smell: light, tobacco and fresh hay.
Cold draw: hay, grass, and salt
Pack: firm and even but medium in weight. Not dense.
Lighting up the first thing you notice is the draw, just enough to tell you something is there, but not in any way a strain to smoke. It stays exactly this way throughout the smoke. I’ve had 8 of these now and they are one of the best and most consistently constructed cigars I’ve smoked. I had to make one small burn correction on this one at the beginning, and then never again. You also notice the smoke output. This cigar is a rich and creamy smoke producer. Again, the same all the way down.
The flavors are sweet and distinct if somewhat light. The first notes are light tobacco, pepper, and hay. A half inch in I get nut, leather, hay, and mowed grass notes. There is pepper all the way along too but not overwhelming and none of the sour notes often found in Dominican blends. The retrohale is filled with roasted nut, nutmeg, sweet burning wood, wintergreen, and hay. In the last third of the cigar the sweetness fades but never disappears as the pepper comes forward.
Strength stays a solid medium all the way along the smoke. It’s nice and slow too, this particular example took an hour and thirty to finish with flavors persisting all the way down to the nub. I was surprised how long it lasted given the gentle draw, but despite a light/medium pack, the tobacco burned very slowly. The flavors are never in your face, but always there hanging around. They don’t vary much throughout the cigar either, there are not a lot of transitions, but it’s good all the way along to the end.
If I remember these sticks were near $9 a stick at the box level. That makes them a little expensive for me. I’ve smoked more flavorful $9 cigars, but given the construction, smoke output, sweetness, and all the other great things about this stick, including some very sweet if light flavors, I’m sure I will want more if I can ever afford them again.
The rum being paired here is a Foursquare Zinfandel Cask Blend Reviewed here.
Ruminations 