Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Sun Grown Ligero

Binder: Esteli Habano viso

Filler: Esteli ligero, Jamastran ligero, Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Nicaraguan Ometepe ligero

Size: 4.5 x 54 Dagger

Body: Full

Price: $10.00

This is another A.J. Fernandez blend. Big fan of Fernandez. And this is a magnificent example of his blending technique.

The sniff-o-rama presents something odd…starting at the cap and moving towards the foot, I get hay and barnyard and then at the halfway point, I get a sweet peach aroma…intensified at the foot.

The construction is solid. Tight seams and a few big veins but mostly very small veins.

The color is that of dark chocolate.

I love the chisel. I wish all cigars had a chisel cap. You would never need a cutter again. Simply push in at opposite ends and voila! The cap is open without worry of not enough or too much being relinquished to the cigar gods.

I light the cigar and get an immediate rush of red pepper. It also finds itself quite comfy at the medium body level.

Cocoa pops out and along with it, some creaminess. Very odd for all these flavors to appear this early in the cigar: ½”.

A very nice sweetness emits from the tobacco. But no peach.

The draw and char line are perfect.

The cigar moves to full bodied very quickly. The flavors are mixing together like a #9 bartender.

I find my nose is running from the spice. And my sinuses are clear.

The first third comes to an end with a panoply of flavors….cocoa, spice, creaminess, some nuts, and sweetness.

The second third digs deep into the well of souls to become even more complex. This stick is in the same category as the San Lotano Oval; another Fernandez creation.

The cigar ain’t cheap but it is an experience, not something to while away the time.

The cigar is redolent of a cappuccino now with the cocoa, coffee(new flavor) and creaminess. The finish is long and the cigar becomes very well balanced.

I am going to have to take another look at the La Herencia line now that I know what Fernandez can do with his blends for this line. Clearly, this is the top of the blends for his La Herencia portfolio.

Normally, by now, I would be grabbing a Diet Coke to augment the cocoa flavor and turn the cigar into a chocolate phosphate…but alas, none in the house.

The stick is very meaty and full of bold flavor. The full body is full on at the halfway point and I automatically slow down not wanting a nicotine buzz.

The burn line is a bit erratic but no canoe on the horizon, so who cares?

There is also a toastiness to the profile. And the creaminess almost makes it taste like it is buttered.

The flavors keep getting wilder. Now I took the chance of reviewing this cigar because I have only had it a week in my humidor. It probably didn’t even need that. I gotta’ grab some Kleenex to wipe my nose. LOL!

Before I came back to the review, I went on to cbid and placed my bid on a 5 pack of these cigars. Having never tried these before, I thought I was taking a chance. Now I know I made a lucky guess and want more.

While CI may charge $10 a stick, cbid can get you the cigar for about half the price.

A big dollop of coffee becomes a dark espresso as I leave the second third behind me. The creaminess dies down a bit due to the strength of the espresso. The spiciness has peaked at a good place. The cocoa is reinvigorated each time I take a swig of water.

The cigar has become very, very rich. The sweet tobacco component is strong counterbalancing the pepper.

As I enter the last third, it has become a wonderful experience. At this point, I have invested about 90 minutes in this blow up girl. It reeks of fun.

The draw continues to be flawless and the billows of smoke fill the room as it wafts to the ceiling above.

The last third is a compliment to the first 2/3 of this cigar. The stick kept building in flavor and body never looking back.

The cap is structurally sound without a single piece of tobacco becoming loose. Kudos.

The use of 6 tobacco leaves in this masterpiece is brilliance that comes from genius. Ferenandez can do no wrong in my eyes. Yet he seems to be a step child compared to the makers of Viaje, Tatuaje, and Illusione…but shouldn’t be. His talents at blending are not surpassed by anyone. This man has a giant future in front of him.

I start to nub the cigar in my new pipe. I want to experience every bit of this cigar.

Fortunately, this is a big production cigar. So there is no hurry to go out and purchase it but I highly recommend that you do to complete your Fernandez experience.

And now for something completely different:

I had a large group of friends back in the early 80’s. I owned one of only two recording studios in Long Beach, Ca.

We did well. While we recorded hundreds upon hundreds of bands, we specialized in dong radio commercials.

Plus we were young and vibrant souls. Age had not taken us down yet.

All sorts of bands recorded with us…but there is one that sticks out: a radical punk band whose name I cannot remember.

They were always fucked up on speed. And they insisted on recording at 8am on Sunday mornings….probably to keep the buzz going from staying up all night and partying.

None of their songs lasted more than one minute. And they insisted we record them directly to two track instead of the 16 tracks we offered.

This meant no overdubs. No mixing.

They would come in and lay down 20 songs in 4 hours. It was exhausting. They always brought an entourage with them and I brought in extra security when they were recording because they had a tendency to steal things.

One Saturday night, they decided to rent our rehearsal studio next door. It wasn’t so much a rehearsal as it was a massive party with hundreds of their friends showing up.

The first and last time they did this, I carried a 38 revolver in my pants. They got unruly early.

An hour or so into the party, they were ruining our P.A. system we provided with the rental. If it didn’t work right, they had a tendency to bang on it. Not good.

We had a nice lounge outside the actual rehearsal space and it was full. And there was a big crowd outside because there wasn’t enough room inside.

I saw with my own eyes as men and women were vomiting on the outside  and inside walls of the studio. I saw one guy actually peeing in the corner of the lounge. That was enough. I called 911.

The cops heard the words punk band and they showed up in droves. They completely blocked the 4 lane road outside our studio near the beach of downtown. Two cars of K-9 units arrived. And the biggest cops I had ever seen arrived as well with their clubs at the ready.

They began to arrest people as they were caught unaware as they smoked doobies.

The head cop asked what I wanted? I told him to get them out of my studio. Fast!

About 15 cops started to round up everyone and shooed them outside, frisking most of them; discovering drug paraphernalia.

The band had trashed my studio. And they started screaming they wanted their money back. $10 an hour…or they wouldn’t leave. Wrong thing to say.

Cops dragged people out of the studio by their tri colored mohawks.

Several news crews showed up. And then a riot began. More cops showed up and with them came a SWAT truck.

I stood very closely to the largest cop there. He had his arm around me to make sure the idiots noticed that I was under protection.

It took almost an hour for things to calm down and for the bums to be removed by their own volition or by being arrested.

One of the band members threatened to kill me right in front of my big cop. So that cop drew his club from his belt and beat the living shit out of him, the whole time asking, “Who are you going to kill?”

When it was all over and the cops left, I perused the damage done. It looked like Hurricane Katrina had moved through there. I sat on a pee stained couch in the lounge and put my head in my hands.

The PA was ruined. And it would take us several days to clean up.

Needless to say, the punk band was not allowed to return and I always kept my 38 nearby.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS