Specifications:

Year of Manufacture/Box Codes: 2007

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper Color: Colorado Maduro

Wrapper type: Nicaraguan Habano Criollo

Filler: Nicaragua

Binder: Nicaragua

Vitola: Machito (petit Corona 4.75x42)

Manufacturer: Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua, S.A

Factory: Esteli, Nicaragua

Humidimeter Reading: 66%

Environment:

Temperature: 72 degrees

Humidity: 21%

Wind: 10.4mph


Setting:
Gorgeous weather and in my favorite spot to smoke my cigars and gaze at the trees changing colors and of the mountains.

Paired with:
Iced Coffee

From Cigar Aficionado’s December 2011 review (closest in age I could find anywhere) with a score of 92 and describes it: “A dark, full-bodied smoke full of woody flavor, cocoa notes and a dried fruit finish. The draw and burn stay full and even.”

A very smooth wrapper with only one, half length, thin vein, medium smooth cap, hard bunch, and completely invisible seams. With the tasty, chocolate brown wrapper, it had an overall very attractive appearance and feel.

Cold draw had no airflow at all, so the PerfecDraw was used and there was improvement, but we'll see if it was enough improvement.

Cold draw taste was simply of plain tobacco.

A nice, even burn through the duration, a strong, dark gray ash, good, flat coal, but unfortunately, even after some work with the PerfecDraw, an extremely tight draw still, for the entire length.

Very poor smoke volume obviously, but a fragrant, plain tobacco aroma that was a little biting in the nose on retrohaling to get the best amount of smoke for smelling the aroma, as for some reason, that’s the only way I ever smell my cigars at all, even held right under my nose, and it was especially necessary here with such little smoke to work with.

Note: it was extremely difficult to get enough smoke for evaluating the following characteristics, but with enough rapid puffs, you could get an idea, but I still feel the very poor smoke volume had a significantly negative effect on the overall score for this section, so keep in mind that when you see the final score, it’s likely quite skewed by the very tight draw and very poor smoke volume severely effecting other sections, which I don’t feel gives an accurate impression of the cigar.

That said, it had medium richness, body, and flavor, with a one-dimensional balance of only a woody flavor.

Finish was weak, but with a very light burn on the tongue.


Keeping in mind what I already said about the draw and smoke volume, the overall score was 71 out of 100, which puts it into the “fair “ category and overall scale to me although I have no set scale, I just wing it with each cigars score. I probably should copy down Cigar Aficionado’s scale as it should work just fine or only need a little bit of tweaking.

I am fortunate that Bruce aka @Ljutic sent 3 of these compared to any of the others I have reviewed , so I plan on a re-do for this cigar, as I could tell it had potential, but the draw just ruined any hope it had at an accurate, and I suspect, much better score.

I highly suspect the next one will be free of the draw and smoke volume issues as Bruce has told me he has a friend who absolutely loves these and buys a lot of them, so obviously if the draw were a common problem, his friend wouldn’t keep buying them, so if you are interested in reading a more accurate review of the aging potential of these, keep your eyes peeled over the next couple weekends for the re-do review, as I plan to do it relatively soon so people can see the more accurate review not long after this skewed one so no one gets the wrong idea about these.

I even considered not posting this review and just trying again with another one shortly, but even though one thing skewed the entire review, its still true and accurate information, and something that happens to all of us from time to time.

No matter the marca or vitola or factory, everyone puts out the occasional dud. Its just the nature of an organic, 100% handmade product, and is entirely unavoidable.


I friggin love cigars