Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition 2011 Toro
I sat down last night with a Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition 2011, which was kindly gifted to me by Bob.
Ill give you a brief background on the cigar, despite most of you knowing the story, already. This was the first limited edition cigar made solely by Jaime Garcia. Its a 6.5x52 Toro. Production of this cigar was limited to 3,700 boxes. The boxes were packed with 16 cigars, with 15 cigars being wrapped with the viso priming of Connecticut Broadleaf, and one cigar having a Connecticut Shade wrapper. The binder of the cigar is Nicaraguan Pelo de Oro, with Cuban-seed Nicaraguan filler. This cigar is supposed to be similar to the original Jaime Garcia cigar, with a richer depth of flavor.
While enjoying this cigar, I drank iced water, and enjoyed a locally brewed Mothers Brewing Company Three Blind Mice. TBM is a dark ale paying homage to three types of traditional brews: a German Altbier, an Irish Red, and an English Brown Ale. With a subtle, yet complex, profile of coffee, chocolate, and caramel notes, with just the right twist of hops, I thought this would compliment this cigar well.
Construction:
This cigar is draped in a gorgeous dark chocolate brown wrapper. There is minimal veining, with a satin sheen texture to the cigar. The cigar feels firmly packed, yet not too dense.
Draw:
The cap clipped cleanly and perfectly with my Xikar Xi carbon fiber cutter. There was a slight resistance to the draw. Not too tight, and it proved throughout the cigar to be the perfect draw for this profile.
Burn:
This cigar lit easily, kept a razor sharp burn the entire way, and never needed touched up. The only time I had to light the lighter was to purge a little in the finish of the cigar.
Prelight:
A nose on the beautiful wrapper revealed a rich barnyard and rich cocoa combination. A sniff of the foot continued with the barnyard, and added some sweet note to the aroma maybe a dried fruit, maybe cherry. A cold draw from the cigar gave cocoa and hay. This combination of aromas and tastes really got me excited to light up.
First Third:
Immediately, I was greeted with a strong peppery spice on the tip of the tongue, and another more rich pepper flavor in the throat upon the finish. Mainly notes of sweetened cocoa, espresso, and a little grilled meatiness worked through this first portion of the cigar.
Second Third:
The middle portion of this cigar showed a muting of the peppery spice on the back of my throat. It become a bit muddled and only showed in the finish of each mouthful of smoke. The cigar remained full-bodied with a mouth-coating creaminess. Some more sweeter notes became more prominent in the mix. I would again call it a dried cherry flavor. Other notes making the mid-point very nice and complex are leather, wood, espresso, and a very slight hint of black tea.
Final Third:
Towards the end of the cigar, it tried to get just a little bitter. I purged the cigar by blowing through the cigar, with flame near the end. It seemed to really help this stick. A rich leather, woody profile came on to finish this cigar. There was still some coffee and slight spice at the end. I didnt really notice the major strength of this cigar until the end. I noticed a very little head spin when I was concluding my time on the patio.
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this cigar. It was full-bodied, and fairly full-strength. I really enjoyed the complex, rich flavors contained within it. It made for a very enjoyable smoke, without having to ever touch it up, and only once having to purge some bitterness from it at the end. It was well complimented by the beer I chose. I have not had the regular Jaime Garcia cigar with which to compare this cigar. As with a lot of Garcia productions, I feel this cigar will only improve with some aging. It has the strength and the flavor complexity to stand up to extra time in the humidor.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review!
I sat down last night with a Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition 2011, which was kindly gifted to me by Bob.
Ill give you a brief background on the cigar, despite most of you knowing the story, already. This was the first limited edition cigar made solely by Jaime Garcia. Its a 6.5x52 Toro. Production of this cigar was limited to 3,700 boxes. The boxes were packed with 16 cigars, with 15 cigars being wrapped with the viso priming of Connecticut Broadleaf, and one cigar having a Connecticut Shade wrapper. The binder of the cigar is Nicaraguan Pelo de Oro, with Cuban-seed Nicaraguan filler. This cigar is supposed to be similar to the original Jaime Garcia cigar, with a richer depth of flavor.
While enjoying this cigar, I drank iced water, and enjoyed a locally brewed Mothers Brewing Company Three Blind Mice. TBM is a dark ale paying homage to three types of traditional brews: a German Altbier, an Irish Red, and an English Brown Ale. With a subtle, yet complex, profile of coffee, chocolate, and caramel notes, with just the right twist of hops, I thought this would compliment this cigar well.
Construction:
This cigar is draped in a gorgeous dark chocolate brown wrapper. There is minimal veining, with a satin sheen texture to the cigar. The cigar feels firmly packed, yet not too dense.
Draw:
The cap clipped cleanly and perfectly with my Xikar Xi carbon fiber cutter. There was a slight resistance to the draw. Not too tight, and it proved throughout the cigar to be the perfect draw for this profile.
Burn:
This cigar lit easily, kept a razor sharp burn the entire way, and never needed touched up. The only time I had to light the lighter was to purge a little in the finish of the cigar.
Prelight:
A nose on the beautiful wrapper revealed a rich barnyard and rich cocoa combination. A sniff of the foot continued with the barnyard, and added some sweet note to the aroma maybe a dried fruit, maybe cherry. A cold draw from the cigar gave cocoa and hay. This combination of aromas and tastes really got me excited to light up.
First Third:
Immediately, I was greeted with a strong peppery spice on the tip of the tongue, and another more rich pepper flavor in the throat upon the finish. Mainly notes of sweetened cocoa, espresso, and a little grilled meatiness worked through this first portion of the cigar.
Second Third:
The middle portion of this cigar showed a muting of the peppery spice on the back of my throat. It become a bit muddled and only showed in the finish of each mouthful of smoke. The cigar remained full-bodied with a mouth-coating creaminess. Some more sweeter notes became more prominent in the mix. I would again call it a dried cherry flavor. Other notes making the mid-point very nice and complex are leather, wood, espresso, and a very slight hint of black tea.
Final Third:
Towards the end of the cigar, it tried to get just a little bitter. I purged the cigar by blowing through the cigar, with flame near the end. It seemed to really help this stick. A rich leather, woody profile came on to finish this cigar. There was still some coffee and slight spice at the end. I didnt really notice the major strength of this cigar until the end. I noticed a very little head spin when I was concluding my time on the patio.
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this cigar. It was full-bodied, and fairly full-strength. I really enjoyed the complex, rich flavors contained within it. It made for a very enjoyable smoke, without having to ever touch it up, and only once having to purge some bitterness from it at the end. It was well complimented by the beer I chose. I have not had the regular Jaime Garcia cigar with which to compare this cigar. As with a lot of Garcia productions, I feel this cigar will only improve with some aging. It has the strength and the flavor complexity to stand up to extra time in the humidor.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review!
