by Tim Rollins
This is an easy cigar to describe, at least from the tobacco standpoint. It’s all Brazilian Mata Fina. The wrapper, binder, and filler are Mata Fina. This is another of Dona Flor’s Premium Blends.
The cigar is very dark brown in color and is dense feeling in the hand. This cigar is very densely packed.
For a cigar with such dense packing the test draw was great. The initial flavors are very dark. The consisted of leather, wood, coffee and pepper. There was touch of sweetness that I could not distinguish at this early point. I let the cigar sit for a minute to come around.
About 1/2 inch in the flavors settled down into leather, cedar with some sweetness, coffee and earthy flavors, like wood. The leather is the main player at this early stage. The pepper is about average. The finish is rather short with cream notes and no lingering pepper at this point. You get the cedar initially on the draw but when you expel the smoke the leather engulfs the flavors. The cigar is medium bodied at this point and feels like it’s working it’s way to medium to full bodied.
At the one inch plus point there is some richness developing in the cedar notes. There are also some cream notes. The leather has toned down a bit. Coffee is still there but the wood notes have gone away. The cigar has changed to a nice cigar. The finish is a little longer and still one of cream. The ash is very tight and has little splintering.
After removing the lower band the flavors remained much as I previously described. The finish has become much longer with those cream notes and there is lingering pepper now.
After removing the upper band the cigar continues to burn very evenly. The cream notes on the spice have gone away. What’s left are sweet notes of cedar and leather with a nice amount of pepper. There is not a lot or richness to the cedar but there is a little.
With about 1 1/2 inches of the cigar left the cedar notes now have some wood notes attached to them. The leather and coffee finish out the flavors of the spice.
The cigar ended up as one that I would term “dark”. It started with heavy leather notes that gave way to sweet cedar and coffee with nice pepper. I could easily see this cigar as an after dessert cigar with coffee. If you like dark note cigars with some sweetness you will like this cigar. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
SCORE: 90