Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra Oscuro
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 5 x 52 “Robusto”
Body: Medium
Price: $5.50

I ordered a 5 pack of Mi Barrio by Pepin Garcia on Cigar Monster. When the package arrived, lo and behold, inside was a one cigar sampler of this cigar. I had seen it in Famous Smoke’s catalog and was tempted to just smoke it at some point.

But as I researched it, I discovered that this is a house brand for Famous made by LGC. So, instead of smoking it for fun, I decided to review it.
The gimmicky part of the cigar is its name. It is supposed to harken us back to the art deco period of the 1920’s. Why? I have no idea. Like I said, it’s a gimmick so commonly used in other brands as well.

The cigar is extremely rustic looking. And lumpy. At one location, there is a depression easily seen by the light and shadow of the huge cigar band. Either it is a depression or a couple of very large veins. The cigar is covered in very large veins. The wrapper is a medium brown color. There is the slightest bit of oil and the wrapper feels toothy. The single cap is kind of sloppy. It is actually not very fair to diss this cigar when I only have one example. It is what it is.

In its PR, Famous implies that this is the new era for LGC. Meaning that this cigar is akin to the blends by the New Breed Tattooed Ones. In other words, it is not old school LGC. And those 3 weeks of humidor time should be enough to enjoy the blender’s intent.

I clip the cap and find aromas of luscious, deep, dark cocoa. This is wonderful. It almost smells like brownies baking. I also smell spice, cedar, earth, and black coffee.
Time to light up.

It is an earthy and sweet taste on the first puffs. The draw is great. Smoke permeates the room. And then, BAM. I am hit with a load of red pepper. Almost Garcia-like in its intensity. I like it.

The sweetness turns into buttery caramel. Sweet and sticky. Well, Famous’ claim was on the money. The cigar burn is less than half an inch and striving for flavor bomb status. This ain’t your daddy’s LGC.

The spice is so powerful, it is difficult paying attention to more subtle flavors vying for attention. The cocoa fights for its right. There is a bitter lemon quality aboard. Lemon peel. Just like the kind you put in your apple martini. LOL.

I have a great story about martinis and a Monet exhibition I will end with in this review.

At the one inch mark, the flavors sort of flatten out. I don’t mean they become subtle; they just flatten out. The excitement of the beginning is wavering.

The cigar is jam packed with tobacco and, therefore, a slow burner.

Creaminess shows up halfway through the first third. Normally, the tamping down of flavors occurs as the cigar becomes more complex. But this cigar is a long way from complex at the moment.

In order of appearance: Sweetness, creaminess, cocoa, caramel, spice, earthiness, and cedar. All very, very subtle. It is moving away from being bold and flavorful.

And then as the first third comes to an end, I get a strong salty pretzel flavor. I’ve had this before and it usually only lasts a few minutes. It’s death to a cigar if it goes on past that.

I enter the second third. Flavors are becoming more straight edged. They are definitive and not glossed over like a filtered photograph.
For the first third, the char line was dead nuts perfect. Now in the second, it becomes wavy but there seems no need to correct it.

The giant cigar band needs to be removed now. A reviewer’s nightmare. No pretty band for the photos.

The second third sees the flavors flatten out once more. A fickle cigar. They are bright, then they are dim, then they are bright, then they are dim. Maybe three weeks is not long enough humidor time after all.

The salty pretzel element is still with us. It makes me thirsty. And with a sip of water, that saltiness washes over my palate and feels like I ate some too salty potato chips. If this doesn’t stop, it is the death knell for this stick. Again, in all fairness, I only have one stick from which to make my observations.

The cap gets sloppy as it sort of disintegrates. I trim it and all is well.

At the halfway point, there is a resurgence of flavor. The spice has dissipated completely. Maybe a faint shadow of itself in the background. The caramel, creaminess, cocoa, and earthiness are about the only flavors still there. The sweetness seems to have moved to the background.

Uh-oh. The wrapper at the cap has cracked. I quickly grab my Kingpin cigar glue. I observe closely and the crack is traveling. The cap itself is a real mess now.

My humidity settings in my humidors are perfect 69%-70%. I keep three digital hygrometers in each humidor as a fail safe precaution. So it is not the fault of my humidor. Fortunately, Kingpin glue works almost as fast as Krazy Glue.

So back at it. The cigar goes out on me waiting for the glue to dry. I relight. The crack continues to move down the cigar. I grab more glue. This is really ruining the experience.

I hit the last third and flavors come back. The creaminess works in cahoots with the caramel. No sign of red pepper. The sweetness returns. So does the cedar. It remains an earthy cigar.

The cap end of the cigar is a complete disaster. It looks like an explosion.
The saltiness, while faint, is still there.

As you can see from the photos, I am not making this stuff up about the poor construction of the cigar. I smeared some glue past the last crack and it seems to have stopped its forward momentum.

The last third rests on its laurels of just a few flavors. The creaminess and caramel are pleasing. The sweetness augments those flavors.
Now the price point on this cigar is very reasonable. But I can name a dozen cigars at this price point I would purchase before buying this cigar. Hopefully, if you try this cigar, you won’t have the problems I had with the construction. Also, I would advise you allow it more than 3 weeks in your humidor. If it was meant to be a new age cigar that normally needs just a few weeks before you can smoke it then two things are happening: First, this is by no means a flavor bomb. It started out like that was its future. And second, it failed miserably at that expectation. The flavors were very inconsistent and sparse.

The cigar has become very difficult to smoke because the cap has exploded from its poor construction and gotten very big and wet. The draw is miserable now.

The vertical crack is now moving sideways on me. Oh lord. I decide to pack it in with most of the last third unsmoked.

To be fair, the construction issues could be a fluke. But the roller coaster, inconsistent flavor profile isn’t.

It is a shame as I was expecting more from this cigar. If you do try this stick, get a 5 pack before you purchase a box just to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

And now for something completely different:
1998. Phoenix, AZ.
A traveling Claude Monet exhibit was moving around the country and spent a week at the Phoenix Art Museum. My wife is a Monet lover.

To entice people to come at night, they threw a one time extravaganza. For $50, you get entrance to the museum. Out back, on the patio, were at least two dozen booths set up by the finest restaurants in Phoenix doling out free samples.

They served liquor. But you had to drag out your wallet for the booze. They had wine booths and they had martini booths. I headed for the martinis while my wife, the lush, headed for the wine booths. We both had a couple drinks and then went in to the museum. We decided to come back outside and eat something after we saw the paintings. Bad decision.

Inside that museum were some of the most striking paintings I have ever seen. It was just beautiful; with probably close to 50 Monets.

Armed guards were everywhere. And strangely, none of the paintings were cordoned off by ropes.

So after a few minutes of wandering, we come across a giant painting. Probably 8 feet square. It was magnificent. My tipsy wife wants a closer look even though that was not the intent of Monet onlooker.

I watch as she gets closer and closer to the painting until she was nose to nose with it. And then in horror, I watch as she decides to touch the painting. I quickly look around for where the guards are. None are looking our way.

Charlotte actually puts a manicured finger nail up to the painting and scratches away at the paint like there was something on it that must be removed.

Like a jack rabbit, I run to her and grab her hand just in time to hear the scraping of the paint. I whisper sternly in her ear, “What the fuck are you doing?”
She looks at me through glassy eyes and says, “What?”

I pull her hand away and I pull her to the next room. With all those guards everywhere, not one of them saw my wife scratching paint off a Monet masterpiece.

Charlotte kept denying that she did it. I pulled her outside and got some food in her. There were a few people nearby when she pulled that stunt but I don’t know if they saw her. I didn’t want to take the chance of being ratted on; so after munching on some fine samples, we made our getaway to the car.

It was a short evening.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS