Blind Man's Puff Review: Herrera Esteli | Toro Especial

[rhetorik]

Herrera Esteli | Toro Especial | Score 89

Vital Stats:

Vitola: Toro
Length: 6.25"
Ring Gauge: 54
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Nicaragua
Factory: La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate
Blender: Willy Herrera
Number of reviewers: 4 ----- Sandeep (Djangos) Jason (bigslowrock) Aaron (aaron72) Ron (shuckins)
Price: $9.00
Contributed by: Emmett (rhetorik)

Initial Impressions

Appearance: 89

"Nice feel to it, with a good looking smooth brown wrapper." -Ron (shuckins)

"The cigar seems well wrapped with no major flaws visible. The wrapper is slightly toothy with some visible veins running the entire length of the cigar." -Sandeep (Djangos)

Aroma: 89

"The prelight draw and foot aroma has a nice barnyard and tobacco." -Jason (bigslowrock)

"Pretty standard tobacco aroma from both the wrapper and the foot." -Aaron (aaron72)

Construction: 91

"Very firm, solid, hefty feel to it. No soft spots, but one noticeable vein." -Ron (shuckins)

"Well constructed cigar with a nice triple cap. Firm throughout." -Jason (bigslowrock)

First Third

Flavor: 89
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

"The flavors that hit me were mostly earthy flavors with a slight white pepper on the tongue. The flavors of dry grass and hay were predominate. As the third progressed the pepper seemed to slightly increase and move to the back of the throat. There was a lot of thick white gray smoke with a perfect straight burn line. Towards the end of the first third a I could taste a slight bitterness to the tip of the tongue. The white and firm ash held on for a little over and inch before falling off." -Sandeep (Djangos)

"A fair amount of tobacco sweetness on the pre-light draw. On the first couple of draws I got a hot spice that reminded me of those old red cinnamon hard candies. That flavor then gave way to a taste of cedar. The third finished up with some creaminess. The ash appears to be very thick, not as perforated as the ash on most other cigars. It held on for about an inch and a half." -Aaron (aaron72)

Second Third

Flavor: 90
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

"In the second third, there is a transitions to a largely woody dominated flavor with a nice undertone of almost roasted marshmallow." -Jason (bigslowrock)

"Cedar is not as dry, and the sweetness has faded. a taste of white pepper shows up as the cocoa and nutmeg start to get creamy with a faint whisper of leather joining the mix. The fresh cut straw aftertaste of the tobacco has faded." -Ron (shuckins)

Final Third

Flavor: 87
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

"Now I can feel a small change in flavors but mostly still the same earthy flavors predominate. Now there is a slight tobacco and leather with each puff. The bitterness is more predominant and it is a little detracting to me at this point. I look to see if there is any tar build up but there is none. Towards the end, in the last inch and half the wrapper started to unravel exposing the binder. There was also a tear in the binder that popped open as the burn line hit it. I could not finish the cigar beyond the last inch because of these problems. However in the last third I am able to appreciate a slight nicotine kick." -Sandeep (Djangos)

"A little more leather is coming through boosting the creamy level up and is kind of nice. The same cocoa and nutmeg flavors are there, but the pepper has kicked it up a notch adding a much appreciated zing to the cedary tobacco taste."-Ron (shuckins)

Overall Impressions

Draw: 91

"The draw didn't give me any issues." -Aaron (aaron72)

Very smooth draw that produced clouds of smoke." -Ron (shuckins)

Burn: 88

"The burn was a mess, it never had an even burn. It required several touch-ups and had some tunneling issues." -Jason (bigslowrock)

"Burn was good, but I had to keep my eye on it a couple of times." -Ron (shuckins)

Overall Experience: 89
Overall Strength: Medium
Overall Body: Medium

"The cigar started off good but was very unilateral with no significant changes in flavor as it progressed. The burn and smoke were to die for and were almost perfect. The last third fell apart on me and this cigar would have scored higher if the construction had held together till the very end. Over all a good cigar." -Sandeep (Djangos)

"The burn and draw detracted from the overall experience. With that said, I did enjoy the flavors of the cigar." -Jason (bigslowrock)

"Overall the cigar was just ok. Not a bad cigar, but not something I would be eager to try again." -Aaron (aaron72)

"A good middle of the day cigar, lot's of flavor without being overpowering. If the zing I got at the end had showed up earlier, I would have scored this one higher." -Ron (shuckins)

Smoking Time (in minutes): 82

Total Score: 89 (good)

For the original review with pictures and others, visit blindmanspuff.com

 

[KoreanCowboy]

I checked out your website because this is a really interesting concept and I would have to believe it's the only good way to get a "fair" rating for a cigar. However, I did notice that the lowest score any cigar has received was an 88 which in my book is still a strong grade. I haven't been smoking cigars for more than a decade but I've smoke way more sticks that I would grade as average than I have sticks that I would say are upper tier sticks, and in my book anything over an 85 is upper considering on an A-F rating scale an 85 is a solid B. I've even had a few very high end sticks that were not up to par and had I smoked them in a blind review I'd have graded them as 75 or less. I guess my point is that I've noticed most magazines and cigar ratings rarely have "crap" sticks. Why is that? I know that every B&M sells them so why don't they end up in "blind" reviews?

 

[rhetorik]

I checked out your website because this is a really interesting concept and I would have to believe it's the only good way to get a "fair" rating for a cigar. However, I did notice that the lowest score any cigar has received was an 88 which in my book is still a strong grade. I haven't been smoking cigars for more than a decade but I've smoke way more sticks that I would grade as average than I have sticks that I would say are upper tier sticks, and in my book anything over an 85 is upper considering on an A-F rating scale an 85 is a solid B. I've even had a few very high end sticks that were not up to par and had I smoked them in a blind review I'd have graded them as 75 or less. I guess my point is that I've noticed most magazines and cigar ratings rarely have "crap" sticks. Why is that? I know that every B&M sells them so why don't they end up in "blind" reviews?

Thanks for the feedback. We did just have a cigar score an 87, which was the Cuban Peso Selectos Brevas. I think part of the reason we haven't had many low scores so far is that because up until this point we (members of BMP) have been donating our own cigars for others to review, so I think a lot of us were wanting to see how some of our favorites, staples, and bargains stack up. Now we have two websites that are donating sticks regularly for us to review and a few of us are headed to IPCPR next month where we hope to make more contacts for sponsors and getting manufacturers to contribute sticks for us to review. I set up the rating system to line up with Cigar Aficionado's so people have some sort of known reference. I created the site to kind of take their system and do it better with more descriptive reviews that were smoked more than the first inch, and get ratings that were not influenced by advertising. Here is how we interpret the CA rating system and in turn, set up ours:

98+ = epic
95-97 = Extraordinary
93-94 = great
90-92 = very good
88-89 = good
85-87 = fair
80-84 = sub-par
below 80 = bad

 

[Chief StrongLeaf]

Very descriptive indeed, another well done review. Thanks guys :tiphat:

 

[rhetorik]

Thanks Chief

 

[KoreanCowboy]

[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the feedback. We did just have a cigar score an 87, which was the Cuban Peso Selectos Brevas. I think part of the reason we haven't had many low scores so far is that because up until this point we (members of BMP) have been donating our own cigars for others to review, so I think a lot of us were wanting to see how some of our favorites, staples, and bargains stack up. Now we have two websites that are donating sticks regularly for us to review and a few of us are headed to IPCPR next month where we hope to make more contacts for sponsors and getting manufacturers to contribute sticks for us to review. I set up the rating system to line up with Cigar Aficionado's so people have some sort of known reference. I created the site to kind of take their system and do it better with more descriptive reviews that were smoked more than the first inch, and get ratings that were not influenced by advertising. Here is how we interpret the CA rating system and in turn, set up ours:

98+ = epic
95-97 = Extraordinary
93-94 = great
90-92 = very good
88-89 = good
85-87 = fair
80-84 = sub-par
below 80 = bad[/QUOTE]

Excellent explanation. I appreciate that and it makes perfect sense. If me and my buddies were doing blind reviews from our humidors I guess we wouldn't have any junk sticks either. I'll be really interested in seeing how your reviews evolve over time. I'll keep you book marked!

 

[rhetorik]

Thanks for the feedback. We did just have a cigar score an 87, which was the Cuban Peso Selectos Brevas. I think part of the reason we haven't had many low scores so far is that because up until this point we (members of BMP) have been donating our own cigars for others to review, so I think a lot of us were wanting to see how some of our favorites, staples, and bargains stack up. Now we have two websites that are donating sticks regularly for us to review and a few of us are headed to IPCPR next month where we hope to make more contacts for sponsors and getting manufacturers to contribute sticks for us to review. I set up the rating system to line up with Cigar Aficionado's so people have some sort of known reference. I created the site to kind of take their system and do it better with more descriptive reviews that were smoked more than the first inch, and get ratings that were not influenced by advertising. Here is how we interpret the CA rating system and in turn, set up ours:

98+ = epic
95-97 = Extraordinary
93-94 = great
90-92 = very good
88-89 = good
85-87 = fair
80-84 = sub-par
below 80 = bad[/QUOTE]

Excellent explanation. I appreciate that and it makes perfect sense. If me and my buddies were doing blind reviews from our humidors I guess we wouldn't have any junk sticks either. I'll be really interested in seeing how your reviews evolve over time. I'll keep you book marked![/QUOTE]

Thanks, appreciate the love Yeah now that we have some companies contributing sticks and hopefully we'll have some newer stuff from IPCPR, there will be a wider variety of scores.

 

[Alwayslit]

nice review