Wrapper: Ecuadorian Cuban Seed

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan

Size: 5.5 x 52 Mild Box Press

Body: Full

Price: $8.00 Single

THANKS TO HALFWHEEL.COM FOR THE PHOTO OF THE BOX

The My Father Atlantic 15^th Anniversario stick was released in Feb, 2012. Only 400 boxes of 15 sticks each were produced. A box runs $111.95. This is the second installment for the four 15^th Anniversary releases. The others by Viaje, Oliva, and E.P. Carrillo.

Atlantic says it best in their press release:

“While visiting the Garcia family & the famed My Father Cigar Factory in Nicaragua we came up with the idea, after smoking a few My Fathers, to try a box-pressed version of the blend. We decided to base the blend on the original My Father cigar, with some tweaks to the filler tobaccos. Samples were presented while watching Cuban Baseball at Pepin’s house where we all enjoyed them over good Cuban rum. The tobaccos were hand-selected for this project personally by Jaime Garcia.

“Under his careful eye the cigars were rolled by their best torecedores in a one-time only small batch run. The blend uses a Cuban seed wrapper grown in Ecuador by the Oliva Tobacco Co., historically some of the best wrapper in the business, blended with rich Nicaraguan binder & filler tobaccos. Additional aging rounds out this wonderful smoke making it ultra-smooth & extremely well balanced with just the right amount of spice & strength.”

Sounds good.

The wrapper color is a light brown, almost a Connecticut. There is a slight toothiness with some oil sheen. Seams are excellent and a minimal amount of veins. The cap appears to be a triple. It is really well done.

I sniff around and detect baking spices, cinnamon, cedar, leather, pepper, black tea and cardamom. Wow…that’s a lot. LOL.

I V cut the cap and light up.

Some sweet cedar, leather, pepper (but I can’t tell which one yet), and a bit of earthiness. The draw is great and the char line is terrific. It’s black pepper. Which I taste in the back of my mouth/throat. Red shows up on my tongue and lips.

The spiciness is not your regular Garcia Blast. It is prominent but it lays back a bit so you can taste the other components.

The Nic leaves are bringing cocoa and espresso to the picture. The strength of the cigar is medium from the get go. The ash is hanging nicely without me doing circus tricks to impress you. And as I type this, the ash falls off at the 1” mark. Go figure.

As the first third comes to a close, a dose of creaminess hits the pavement. I’ve had these cigars a couple months and only smoked one when I got them and it tasted too strong and had no character so I put them to sleep. And I’ve been rewarded.

The second third gets gooey delicious. There is something fruity, like me, but I don’t know what it is yet.

The double band is huge on a small cigar. It is 2” long which leaves only 3-1/2” of exposed stick. The band is very attractive with the standard My Father band and the Atlantic band below it. The two color combos make for an appealing cigar.

The leather comes to the forefront. The spice has maintained an even keel. The cocoa and espresso have moved to the background. There was some cinnamon way in the background too and it is determined to stay there.

The body is moving up and over.

There is too much glue on the Atlantic band and even though I carefully removed it, it tore some of the wrapper. So I got out my trusty cigar glue and patched it. Should be good as new. If you’ve never used cigar glue, it is worth its weight in Opus X’s. It is called El Ligador and goes for around $4-$5 a bottle of 5ml. A bottle lasts forever, but I bought a 3 pack so I have one in all the places I smoke. I even carry one in my travel humidor. Nothing as frustrating as a good cigar unraveling on you while you are driving. I recommend pulling over to do your repair. LOL.

The fruity flavor is dried fruit…either figs or raisins or both. Sort of that deep dark complexity like molasses. It’s nice.

I move on the last third….and the body is full on now. The creaminess really takes off. So does the cocoa. Yes. Diet Coke.

The burn line is a bit funky but needs no repair.

It is in the last third that things get complex. The flavor profile intertwines all of its components giving you a nice chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream.

The burn passes the torn wrapper with ease. And now it’s time to remove the big band. Fingers crossed.

The band tears the smallest bit of wrapper and no repair necessary.

The last third ends smooth and without the slightest harshness and cool. The body is very strong. And I slow way down to keep from getting the spins. But the flavors keep drawing me back. If I can handle the strength, I hope to nub it. Kudos, Atlantic Cigar.

And now for something completely different:

I slept like shit last night. We got a 3” memory foam mattress to lie on top of our bed mattress. We only bought the bed 17 months ago, and we bought a good one, but we didn’t consider a foam bed.

We’ve had it for 5 days now and my back is in mortal pain. Apparently, it can take as long as a month for your body to acclimate to the pressure of the foam on the pressure points of your body. Everyone that has one of these things, or a whole bed, tell us the same thing. “Oy. Give it a month and then you will fall in love with it. We were gesindt geschmaltzed too the first few weeks. Your body is not used to having total support. And so it hurts.”

Yeah it hurts, I can barely sleep.

On the mornings that my wife works, she lets the boxer (dog, not Ali), on to the bed and she loves going to sleep next to me. She puts her head on the pillow like a person and drapes her front leg across my neck like a sleeping partner…kinda’ gives me the creeps. And she snores. And then the cat comes in and finds a really uncomfortable place to lie so I can’t move. This is living hell. An old man needs his sleep.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS