by Tim Rollins
Nestor Miranda Art Deco cigars boast a full-flavored team effort by Nestor Miranda & José Pepin Garcia. The blend consists of 60% Nicaraguan Corojo 99 and 40% Dominican San Vicente, plus Dominican Criollo ’98 & Nicaraguan Habano 2000 binders rolled and triple-capped in dark, shimmering Nicaraguan Corojo ’06 wrappers.
The cigar is dark and oily. As stated above, it is triple capped and it is quite dense and feels so in the hand. After cutting the cap the test draw was firm. The initial flavors were sweet cedar, cinnamon, and a nice amount of pepper. So, I let it sit for a few minutes. About 1/2 inch in the ash was a little splintery. The flavors settled down into a rich cedar and cinnamon. On the back end of the spice you get a little raw almond. The pepper is above average. The finish is a toasted vanilla and lingering pepper. Just a bit further, about 3/4 inch in, the ash really splintered! The flavors are now quite rich. The cedar and cinnamon have a very nice richness to them. The almond is still detectable but quite faint and on the back end of the spice. The pepper remains very good. I expect the splintering to take care of itself very soon. About 2 inches in the richness continues. There are now coffee notes. The almond notes now mix into the main flavors at times and sometimes you detect them on the end of the spice. The cedar has crept over to the finish and now combines with the toasted vanilla. The lingering pepper is above average on the finish and quite nice.
With the band removed the flavor breakdown is rich, sweet cedar initially closely followed by the cinnamon. The pepper is all around the spice. The coffee brings up the back end of the spice. The almond notes have pretty much disappeared. The finish remained the same.
As the cigar wound down it was still rich and very nice. This cigar reminded me of the Special Select series with a little more richness. The rich, sweet cedar was very nice combined with the cinnamon and coffee notes on the end. The pepper was above average and quite nice. The finish started with sweet cedar notes and ended with toasted vanilla notes. The pepper on the finish was above average and quite enjoyable. The cigar was medium to full bodied and took just over 1 hours to smoke. I enjoyed this cigar a lot.