danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
Size: 5.5" x 42
Filler: ?
Binder: ?
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Price: $6.30 ($315.00/box 50)
This is a cigar that's been sitting in my humidor for a while and I keep telling myself I'm going to give it a whirl, but haven't gotten around to it. Well I finally got around to it the other day while I was doing some work on a project. This cigar is a release from CAO's Escaparate Collection which is a hodgepodge of concept cigars, special cigars, and cigars that CAO doesn't have enough supply to make a full release (what other companies would call and LE). Various stores around the country are given exclusive rights to sell certain cigars from this collection. The Habano is only available from Emerson's Cigars or Havana Connections.
Visually this cigar is appealing. The first thing you'll probably notice is the label, which is designed (much like the CAO America, Brazilia, and Italia) to reflect a particular country...in this case Cuba. However there is no Cuban tobacco in this stick (or is there, since the filler and binder seem to remain unknown :dunno: :grin
and instead the cigar is named for the Nicaraguan Habano wrapper. Perhaps they should have used a Nicaraguan flag for the design :dunno:. At any rate the wrapper is a medium brown color, little oily, not really any veins to speak of, and the seams were well hidden. The only real defect was a piece of wrapper missing near the cap and it's not so much a defect as just what can happen when a cigar gets shuffled around enough. Shouldn't effect the smoke anyway. Pre-light aroma is a medium tobacco with a bit of sweetness to it.On the first draw I was met with a peppery, medium tobacco flavor with a bit of wood and some caramel like sweetness in the background. The pepper wasn't in your face like some Nicaraguan cigars, but just enough to say "Hey I'm here". After about an inch or so the pepper faded to the background and a woody, slightly cedar/slightly caramel sweetness became the main flavors. Really was quite nice and I was pleasantly surprised. The burn on this cigar was also quite good. As close to razor sharp as I've had in a cigar recently and this despite the fairly aggressive breeze blowing through. The ash did develop a flowery look to it later on, but the burn line was still razor straight. Right around the half way point the flavors turned a little sour for me. The woodiness was there, but the cedar/caramel was over powered by what I would describe as the taste of nicotine. Yes, nicotine. I've only had that experience with one other cigar and it was with an Opus X PL. I'm not comparing the two cigars at all...they're both very different. Just the taste of the strength of that Opus is similar to the flavor I was getting in this cigar. While things weren't bad, it was definitely not anywhere as good as it had been up to this point. About half an inch after this flavor change the cigar started having troubles staying lit. Uh oh Houston, we have a problem. After relighting a few times I finally noticed that the cigar had tunneled pretty bad. I clipped some of the cigar off to even it out and relit. The nicotine taste still hung on a little in the background, but it was quite a bit better now. It continued like that all the way til the end...me keeping close tabs on it the whole way.
So how was it? Well, without the tunneling issue I think it would have been a fairly good experience. As it were I'm on the fence. The first half was nice, but I don't think I got a proper showing from the rest of it. I'm pretty sure I have another Habano in my humidor (of a different vitola) and I'll have to root around to find it. Certainly worth revisiting down the road. I tend to have a soft spot in my wallet for unusual and interesting cigars so I'll probably see if I can't find some more of the Escaparate Collection to try.
Dan
