TacoSauce NC Diary

[TacoSauce]

39 minutes ago, clickbangdoh said:

Bummer, the 2022 LE belicoso was a standard in my rotation, really enjoyed them.

I'm not a huge fan of Maduro wrappers, so our tastes might not align. That being said, I've read a bit about those yearly LE Belicosos, and apparently they are a stand-out in the line and aren't the same as the standard blend. 

[TacoSauce]

Patoro Terre Blanche Robusto (+): A robusto with a slightly larger than normal ring gauge and a very light colored wrapper. Cold draw is just a light hay flavor. Upon lighting I get a nice initial blast of baking spice, but that is gone after the first puff and the first 3/4 inch is just slightly bitter construction lumber -- the classic Dominican profile. After this point, a bready note joins as well as a nice cream flavor. By the half way point there is a sweet, buttery note as well. This is the profile for the rest of the stick. It is mild-medium throughout and had very good performance from start to finish. Overall this kind of reminds me of a "dud" Epi. 2 -- one that delivers the hay and creamy notes, but none of the other classic Hoyo flavors. By the end I can feel the nicotine creeping in. This would be an excellent first smoke for someone trying cigars for the first time, but I probably won't reach for it again. I am, however, impressed enough to try one of their other blends with more body.

[TacoSauce]

West Tampa Red Toro (++): A nice smelling stick with a reddish San Andres wrapper. The size is bigger than what I like, but ends up being an okay size for a session at the local lounge. The stick opens at medium body and stays at that level for the duration. Flavors are toasty tobacco, bread, and in the final third some honey sweetness. No changes or dazzling flavor notes, just a nice consistent flavor throughout. A nicely balanced cigar.

[TacoSauce]

Warped Chinchalle Robusto (+): Not much in the way of pre-light aroma or cold draw -- just a faint tobacco smell and taste. After lighting, the body is just under medium and there is a nice toasty tobacco flavor. This initial flavor burst quickly fades, replaced by a predominate flavor of "nut skins." By this I mean the thin, woody, and slightly bitter skin that surrounds the "meat" of nuts such as hazelnuts and walnuts. The flavor of the actual nut itself isn't really present. This flavor profile is pretty consistent for the entire smoke with a faint musty butterscotch note showing up a few times in the final third. No sweetness in this stick; and that is a shame since it seemed to lack balance as a result. At the halfway point there were hints of ammonia joining which almost made me ditch the stick, but it didn't get any stronger so I persisted. Overall the best thing I can say about this stick is that it isn't terrible.

[TacoSauce]

Southern Draw Firethorn Robusto (+): This stick is 54 x 5.5", way too big to qualify as a robusto in my opinion. The pre-light aroma and cold draw are a little spicy and very nice. After lighting, the body is just under medium and the flavors are a nice mix of wood and nuttiness. There is also a nice note that reminds me of some rosado sticks I've had in the past. Gratifyingly, after smoking I looked up the details on this stick and it indeed has a rosado wrapper. This flavor profile is consistent through the first half. After that the body jumps to medium-full and the stick gets slightly bitter. This remains until the end. I liked the first half, but didn't really enjoy the second half. I recommend the La Palina Rosado over this one.

[KCCubano]

21 hours ago, TacoSauce said:

Southern Draw Firethorn Robusto (+): This stick is 54 x 5.5", way too big to qualify as a robusto in my opinion. The pre-light aroma and cold draw are a little spicy and very nice. After lighting, the body is just under medium and the flavors are a nice mix of wood and nuttiness. There is also a nice note that reminds me of some rosado sticks I've had in the past. Gratifyingly, after smoking I looked up the details on this stick and it indeed has a rosado wrapper. This flavor profile is consistent through the first half. After that the body jumps to medium-full and the stick gets slightly bitter. This remains until the end. I liked the first half, but didn't really enjoy the second half. I recommend the La Palina Rosado over this one.

I have had good luck with Firethorn Pome Lancero. Also the Toro as well. My fave SD has been Desert Rose Lonsdale

[TacoSauce]

51 minutes ago, KCCubano said:

I have had good luck with Firethorn Pome Lancero. Also the Toro as well. My fave SD has been Desert Rose Lonsdale

Agreed on the Desert Rose. I smoked one of those before I started keeping this diary and I had made a mental note go go back and try another one. Should be coming up in the rotation soon.

[TacoSauce]

Warped La Hacienda Superiores (++): A nice sized stick with a 46 ring gauge. That's a nice starting point. Pre-light aroma and cold draw both remind me somewhat of a blondie-style brownie. After lighting, the body is medium and the flavors develop into a mix of wood, light coffee and eventually some nuttiness. The overall experience is balanced out by a little bit of sweetness. This persists until the last inch and a half where it gets bitter and harsh. Very flavorful overall. This isn't a very Cubanesque stick, but the balance and good flavor delivery at a consistent medium body make this a stick that I think CC smokers would enjoy. This probably ties the Cloud Hopper as my second favorite across all of the Warped blends I've tried.

[TacoSauce]

Illusione ECCJ Robusto Extra (++): After trying the Illusione Epernay 10th Anniversary D'Aosta (and others in the Epernay line, vide supra), I concluded that the Epernays were just too light for me. Online research suggested that the ~eccj~ blend was the progenitor blend to the Epernay, and that it had a more substantial body. This stick fits that description exactly, it had the same toasted italian bread core flavor with a little sweetness and just enough extra body to make it a better fit for me. Great construction and smoke output. This is the sweet spot for certain (at least until I try others in the Illusione line). The profile isn't at all Cubanesque, but it is a terrific smoke.

[TacoSauce]

Warped Eagle's Decent Toro Especial (+): This stick is perhaps a little too big to choose for outdoor winter-weather smoking, but it is next the rotation so I must brave the cold in the name of exploring new (to me) NC sticks. Nothing remarkable on the pre-light aroma or cold draw. After lighting, the stick opens at medium-full and one side of the cigar immediately starts burning twice as fast as the other side. Not great. The initial flavor is strong intensity tobacco with nothing else. I am worried I will have to toss the stick at this point. I persevere, and after 2 inches, the burn line partially corrects and the flavor profile shifts to coffee and toffee with occasional hints of chocolate and bread. The retrohale is manageable and pleasant. This profile is maintained through the rest of the cigar with the body staying at medium-full the whole time. The cigar needs to be constantly touched-up with the lighter as it does not want to burn evenly. A lot of good flavor in this cigar, but it required too long to settle down, too much maintenance, and it doesn't come in any smaller sizes, so I will not be going back to this one again.

[TacoSauce]

Aladino Corojo Reserva LE No 4 (++): This is a heavy stick for its size. The pre-light draw is tighter than normal, but not plugged. Not much aroma off the wrapper and the cold draw has a slight ice-wine note. After lighting the body is just above medium and the flavor is a nice toasted tobacco. The delivery is smooth and musty indicative of some good age on the tobacco.  This stick delivers this profile well for the entire smoke with no changes. Notably, there were no extra flavor notes, complexity, or nuance. But for what it it did delivery, it did it simply and well. The burn, construction, and smoke output were top notch. I liked this better than the other Aladinos that I've tried and would have this one again.

[TacoSauce]

Warped Moon Garden Especial Toro(-): A NC with two bands! It must therefore be Cubanesque, right? Nope. Nothing notable pre-light. After lighting, the predominate flavor is a slightly bitter/sour flavor and the body is medium. The sourness isn't too strong, but it is the predominate flavor delivered other than the slightest hint of nuttiness. This stays the same until the half-way point where I start to get an occasional sweet butter note. That note is nice, but very infrequently experienced. Cigar tossed at this point. Just a boring, sour cigar. End of story.

[TacoSauce]

Padron 1964 Anniversary Exclusive Maduro (+): A recommendation from the Lizards. I've had this same stick before, but in the natural wrapper. I bought a 5-pack of those, smoked the first one, and wasn't impressed enough to smoke through the rest. It was a little too punchy and peppery for me. Since the Lizards seem to prefer the Padron maduros, I decided to give this stick another go, this time in the maduro wrapper. The maduro stick had very little pre-light aroma and the cold-draw had a slight note of raisins or dried fruit more generally. After lighting, I immediately notice that I don't get the classic Padron flavors that I know from the natural wrappers. Everything is more subdued and a little sweeter. The flavors are musty tobacco, light earth, and dried fruit. This persisted until the final third where I started to get some indole flavor which wasn't very pleasant. Indole is a catabolic byproduct of protein degradation -- specifically tryptophan, and is hard to describe other than to say it has a slight medicinal taste and is reminiscent of old people smell. It is indicative of heavily (perhaps overly?) fermented and aged tobacco. Overall, the maduro version is more approachable than the natural, but the whole experience was a bit muted and the earthy maduro experience overshadowed the types of lighter flavors that I like in a cigar. I'm just a not a maduro fan. I won't be going back to this stick again.

[TacoSauce]

Perdomo Double Aged Vintage Connecticut Robusto (+++): This is a solidly packed stick measuring 5x56. 56 is too big, however it is the smallest ring gauge available in this line -- what a travesty. I have previously identified the regular Perdomo BBA CT as a top ranking stick and I got this one to see what the effect of additional aging would be. Pre-light aroma reminds me somewhat of Chai tea. The cold draw  gives a faint impression of a light lager. After lighting, there is a bit of cayenne pepper, but it is not overwhelming. The first 3/4 inch is pepper and slightly bitter wood. At the inch mark, the pepper fades and the sweetness, vanilla, and cardamon profile of the BBA join. This stays consistent until the end of the smoke. The cigar started at a mild-medium body and built only slightly over time ending just under medium. I love this profile and recommend it to CC smokers looking to try NC sticks. This stick is substantially similar to the normal BBA CT, but perhaps some of the flavors are a little bolder. With my limited experience, I think they are close to interchangeable, so going with the regular-aged BBA might make better sense from a $$ perspective. 

[TacoSauce]

CLE Connecticut Robusto (+): I have previously tried the gigantic Gordo size of this blend and really liked some of the Cuban notes, but was disappointed by the light body of the cigar. I got the robusto version thinking that the smaller size might concentrate the flavor.

This stick has little in the way of pre light aroma or cold draw. When you clip the cap you notice that the filler tobacco is much darker in color than the wrapper and usually that is a good sign of a flavorful stick. After lighting, the cigar opens with a mild body and the only flavor for the first 2 inches is paper bags with a gritty white pepper taste. After that point some occasional caramel and white wine flavors join, but the core is still paper bags. By the end, the body is up to a mild-medium. Overall I am disappointed that this stick was worse than the gordo version; it was similarly mild, but with less interesting flavors.

[TacoSauce]

Arturo Fuente Rosado Sungrown Magnum R 52 (++): I've mentioned that I only like Fuentes if they have a Cameroon wrapper. Someone recommended the MagR line and suggested that I might also like this one even though it doesn't have a Cameroon wrapper. I bought this single, forgot about it for a year, recently found it, and gave it a try. This is a beautiful looking stick and is packed solidly. As a result, the pre-light draw was tight to the point of being plugged. Upon inserting the PerfectDraw (but not yet pulling it out), the wrapper split in three places. I removed the PerfectDraw and found that the draw opened up quite a bit! In this case it seems that the draw improvement was due to stress release from the wrapper splitting, rather than the removal of any tobacco. After lighting, the body is medium-full and the first 3/4 inch was the classic Dominican profile of bitter, dry wood. No bueno. Also it immediately started canoeing. Looking at the ash, I was surprised to find that this cigar was rolled entubado; and the place where the "tubes" met was packed much less densely than the remainder of the cigar -- hence the poor burn performance. Also, one of the three places where the wrapper split was leaking smoke and making it hard to get a good draw unless I firmly pressed on that location with my finger while I smoked. All in, the construction and performance of this cigar was atrocious. On the up side, after the first inch the body settled down to medium and the flavors shifted to a slightly sweet, nutty, and musty profile with the occasional creamy coffee note on top. A really nice flavor profile even if the delivery was awful. It was a lot of work to smoke this cigar, but I liked the flavor enough to give this a '++' and will try again in a smaller ring gauge.

[TacoSauce]

Foundation Olmec Claro Corona Gorda (++): A nice looking stick with a pronounced box-press. Pre light aroma and cold-draw both had a light tobacco note. After lighting, the first 1/2 inch was toasted tobacco with a manageable amount of Nicaraguan spice. After this point, the flavors kicked in, giving a strong flavor of crusty bread and coffee. In the final third there was a sherry note that joined. Medium body throughout. Very nice, consistent delivery of toasty flavors from this one. Not Cuban-like in the least, but a nice experience that I would repeat.

[TacoSauce]

Crowned Heads La Verada No 50 (-): A nice dark looking stick with a spicy aroma off the wrapper and a cold draw with a hint of dried fruit. After lighting, the cigar opens with a medium full body and the flavor is bitter wood with a little bit of citrus sourness at the edges. The bitter wood dominates and is a very Dominican profile, except classic Dominican cigars taste like cheap construction lumber, whereas this tastes like a more expensive hardwood (must be the Nicaraguan tobacco they blend in). The profile stays the same until the start of the second third where a mustiness joins as well as the occasional flavor of sweet graham cracker. The graham cracker flavor is nice, but is intermittent and is drowned out by the unpleasantness of the bitter wood. I tossed the stick shortly after this point. Not enjoyable. The best part of this cigar was the foot smoke, which stood out and was quite nice. The second best part was the construction, which was excellent.

[karp]

These are great reviews - thanks for posting them. Lots of good info here to process. Keep it up!

[TacoSauce]

33 minutes ago, karp said:

These are great reviews - thanks for posting them. Lots of good info here to process. Keep it up!

Thank you for the kind words! Glad others find some utility in these mini-reviews.

[TacoSauce]

Casdagli Club Maerva Spalato II (+++): My second tasting from Casdagli (after the D' Boiss). This stick has an interesting shape where it is thickest at the foot and tapers significantly, but linearly, toward the head. The pre-light aroma off the wrapper is amazing: spice, chocolate and wine. The cold draw is open and has a slight sourness. After lighting, there is a lot of flavor immediately. The first inch is medium-full and has a fruit-cake profile. After this point, the body retreats to a medium level and the flavor profile shifts to a Monte-like mix of light chocolate and citrus. Very Monte-like, but more intense individual flavors and more sourness. Waves of musty tobacco come and go and add a nice elegance. This profile persists until about an inch and a half remained, at which point the profile became starkly more sour and bitter and so I ended it there. This cigar required multiple touch-ups throughout due the the wrapper burning unevenly. The performance was a bit frustrating, but the flavor delivery was top notch.

[KCCubano]

9 hours ago, TacoSauce said:

Casdagli Club Maerva Spalato II (+++): My second tasting from Casdagli (after the D' Boiss). This stick has an interesting shape where is is thickest at the foot and tapers significantly, but linearly, toward the head. The pre-light aroma off the wrapper is amazing: spice, chocolate and wine. The cold draw is open and has a slight sourness. After lighting, there is a lot of flavor immediately. The first inch is medium-full and has a fruit-cake profile. After this point, the body retreats to a medium level and the flavor profile shifts to a Monte-like mix of light chocolate and citrus. Very Monte-like, but more intense individual flavors and more sourness. Waves of musty tobacco come and go and add a nice elegance. This profile persists until about an inch and a half remained, at which point the profile became starkly more sour and bitter and so I ended it there. This cigar required multiple touch-ups throughout due the the wrapper burning unevenly. The performance was a bit frustrating, but the flavor delivery was top notch.

I have had a few and they were very good. 

[TacoSauce]

EP Carillo La Historia Parientes (++): Almost a Lonsdale -- I like it! But it is a gnarly looking stick. Very rustic and bumpy. Box-pressed and not entirely straight. Pre-light aroma and cold draw are both interesting and remind me a little of a red-wine reduction. After lighting, the body is immediately medium-full and the flavor is predominately rich, toasted tobacco with an earthy core. The retrohale is a little too strong and so I avoid full retrohales. By the half-way point the retrohale is much more tolerable and the flavor is much sweeter than the start with occasional caramel notes joining. From the half way to the end some fruit notes also join which reminds me a bit of maraschino cherry. Also, I start to get a nice dose of mustiness which elevates the experience. At the inch point quite a bit of ammonia joins and so I stopped there. I'm not a huge maduro fan, but this maduro did a nice job of delivering a lot of sweet flavor without an overpowering earth flavor. Reminds me a bit of the Ashton VSG line.

[TacoSauce]

Cavalier Geneve Viso Jalapa Lancero (+++): It seems surprisingly small in the hand for a lancero, but supposedly this is a true lancero at 7 x 38. Not much going on with the pre-light aroma or cold draw. After lighting there is an immediate hit of sweetness and toasted grain flavor. The flavors dance around occasionally hitting caramel, occasionally butterscotch and the grain crosses wheat, oat, and barley at various times. All that praise aside, it did occur to me the whole time I was smoking this cigar that the core flavor was "shoelaces." This wasn't a pejorative assessment. Shoelaces, it turns out, make a pretty good flavor base for a cigar. This amazing profile is maintained all the way to the end. Body is mild-medium the whole time.  This was an outstanding smoke and is highly recommended.

[TacoSauce]

Rojas Street Tacos Barbacoa Robusto (+): I've had the Rojas Street and Breakfast Tacos, both in Carnitas (CT wrapper) and was epically disappointed in their absolute lack of flavor. This Barbacoa has a Sumatra wrapper and so was expected to deliver more in the flavor department. Sure enough, there was a lot of flavor right on the light. The moment the flavor hits the tongue, my brain cries out, "cinnamon!" However, the spicy part of cinnamon flavor never arrives. This flavor is like cinnamon without the cinnamon. Or maybe just the woody, slightly incensey, part of cinnamon. The Warped Companion de Warped and the CAO BX3 both have a flavor that is in the same neighborhood. While the not-quite-cinnamon flavor dominates, there is also some light earth and cedar flavors as well. This profile is nice and lasts for the first two thirds. In the final third, the body shoots from medium to full and it isn't pleasant. I stopped with an inch and a half remaining.