Wrapper: Nicaraguan Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6.25 x 52 “Torpedo”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $6.00
Today we take a look at the Esteban Carreras 187 Maduro.
The cigar comes in three sizes:
Sixty (6 x 60), Toro (6 x 50) and Torpedo (6.25 x 52).
Blended by AJ Fernandez.
The cigar is gorgeous. It looks like a dark chocolate candy bar. The oil simply oozes from the wrapper. Lots of attractive road map veins. Invisible seams. Very, very toothy. A perfect triple cap.
I clip the cap and find aromas of spice, herbal notes, chocolate, hay, barnyard, grass, and leather. Just yesterday, I said that when a cigar tastes of hay and grass, it usually means it is not ready to smoke. My fingers are crossed that aromas don’t translate to flavors this time.
Time to light up.
This big stick takes a while to toast the foot.
The draw is good considering what a big ol’ log this is and with it being packed to the hilt.
First puffs display chocolate, sweetness, cream, cedar, and roasted nuts.
The Esteban Carreras web site doesn’t say much about their blends but only to give you their leaf stats. I found no information on the usual news sites. But I did find this: The cigar came out sometime in 2010. The EC 5150 came before this and then the 211.
And the big conglomerate online stores don’t carry the brand. But the lesser known and a touch smaller list of online stores carry the line.
There is a touch of saltiness. Tastes like a chocolate covered pretzel.
Flavors take their time joining the group. 5 minutes in, the coffee element jumps in giving the creaminess something to really pair nicely with.
As a Nic puro, it will most certainly display what we have all come to love about the country’s output of tobacco. So I doubt there will be any surprises. Just a solid blend.
About ¾” into the burn, spice rears its lovely head. Black pepper.
I am having some minor issues with the burn line. Figures. I smoked one last night to determine if it was ready for review. Not a single touch up was required. I’m cursed by a witch. And no, it’s not my wife. She’s a demon.
An inch or so in, the flavors really take off. The spiciness is a blast. The chocolate, coffee, creaminess, nuts, cedar, and sweetness are terrific.
Once again, my theory of big cigars not having intensity in the flavor department is dashed to the rocks. But then this is my boy, AJ.
Caramel enters. It really boosts the sweetness.
The Esteban Carreras 187 is a very relaxing cigar. I’m sitting here, like a schlub, at not even 8:30 on a Sunday morning writing. Stayed up late last night to attend my daughter’s fiancée’s surprise birthday party at a big sports bar. I wore my Marlon Brando biker outfit. I have the coolest black leather jacket with chrome buttons and double breasted zipper formation. And not a soul in the bar over 30. All getting shit faced. I left sort of early. Charlotte took a taxi. The bar was only 10 minutes from the house.
The Habano wrapper has slowly moved into contention for the most used wrapper in the last couple of years. The Maduro is slipping in its place of preferred wrappers.
This Maduro is heavenly. All the perfect Nic puro elements. The strength started out at medium body.
The second third begins.
The strength moves up to medium/full. There is some real oomph to this stick now.
For a chomper, like me, the pointy cap is a pain. So I lop it off.
I use that Screwpop Tool sent to me by the owner of the company. I even published a press release for him announcing it as a new product.
I am on the third one. The first one had a spring that was too tight. The next one was better, but not by much. The third one is a complete waste of time and money. The cutting edges are so dull that you literally are using a butter knife to cut the cigar. I’m throwing mine away. That “clomp” sound it makes when lopping off some of the cap traumatizes the cigar and makes it shake, rattle, and roll. The shattering effect actually makes the ash jump two feet across the dining room table.
I sent my observations to the owner. Clearly, there is no quality control on this cutter and should be avoided at all costs. The butter knife cutting of the cap actually caused some cracks in the wrapper. This thing must be made in North Korea.
Fortunately, the wrapper came loose near the foot so I hope it just burns away.
The Esteban Carreras 187 just ambles along happily dosing the palate with pleasant flavors. Nothing extraordinary or spectacular. A solid Nic puro flavor profile. Nothing complex about it. A nice balance.
The price point. $6.00 is right on the money for this stick.
I’ve been on an AJ bender with Fallen Angel. That stick, with a few weeks of humidor time, is a real flavor bomb and bloated with spiciness. I love that.
I need to thank Eric Anderson for sending me a 5 pack of the Esteban Carreras 187. He took the time to see what I hadn’t reviewed and scored big time with me. Thank you, Eric.
I reach the halfway point. And the strength is a booming medium/full. Should only be minutes before it reaches full bodied.
The flavor profile takes a leap up and over. It is approaching some complexity.
Here they are again: Spice, chocolate, creaminess, coffee, roasted nuts, cedar, leather, caramel, and wood. There they are, ladies and germs, your stereotypical Nic puro flavor profile.
The cable classic rock station is playing Rod Stewart singing “People Get Ready” from the Jeff Beck album. What a gorgeous song. I can’t decide if Stewart sounded better with Beck or the Faces. My all-time fave Stewart song is “Every Picture Tells a Story.” Doughnut, doughnut?
And then in his old age, he got rid of the band equation and used strictly session players for gigs and recordings and whoosh. There went his credibility; in my eyes. His songs no longer had that early soul. A real shame.
I’ve invested a good 45 minutes in the Esteban Carreras 187. It is a real shame that the only three sizes are behemoth ones. This would make a terrific robusto or corona gorda.
Charlotte is asleep upstairs. When I get up, I get the dog out of the bed to do her thing. And then I close the door so the ball and chain can get some real rest. The dog is always cold like her mother and shoves herself into Charlotte’s back. Now I hear the dog snoring, lying on the couch, with the space heater right in her face. Yes, we had to get a space heater for the living room for the dog. Yikes.
More cracks form. All from that goddam stupid cutter. It really rattled the cage of this cigar. This is the sound of me throwing it away. And I plan to take down the press release I published. I don’t want my dear readers to buy this piece of crap.
I use my trusted Palio cutter to snip the nasty looking cap and cuts like butter. What was I thinking with that Screwpop thing?
The Esteban Carreras 187 backs off on the complexity. This is just a nice tasting cigar. Maybe this is why you can count the online reviews on one hand.
And the one A List reviewer summed it all up in a small paragraph. Even though these guys get the first of everything, I feel sorry for them. Clearly, the cigar etiquette comes first. And the writing second. Spending so much time making sure you don’t offend anyone or step on the toes of the manufacturer must be exhaustive.
Where’s the fun in that?
I see some review sites and these guys are debuting cigars I’ve never even heard of. I must admit it would be nice to be an insider with access to all that new stuff. But then, I’d be a drudge reporter like the rest of them and I wouldn’t get 1/3 the readers I get now.
I am truly amazed at how many people hate me. But then I am happily amazed each day when I look at the site stats for the day before and see that thousands of readers hit my site.
The last third begins.
Not a single change to the flavor profile. I like that the spiciness has maintained an even keel throughout.
I have some tiny Chupacabras from Esteban Carreras. But the 4 x 42 size seems too small to review. Instead of my usual 1700 word review, it would only be 1600 words.
I believe that Esteban Carreras made a huge mistake in only offering the huge sizes. I don’t know why the trend is for bigger and bigger cigars. Experienced cigar smokers stay away from them. And yet they keep getting produced on a mammoth scale. It’s baffling.
The wrapper is a complete mess on one side while the other side is near perfect.
If you like your cigars brimming with chocolate, coffee, creaminess, caramel, cedar, and nuts, then this is your cigar. And whose strength is medium/full. Although, at this point, the Esteban Carreras 187 has reached full bodied.
For $6, you can’t go wrong. I’ve found that most AJ blends take less humidor time than most cigars. So while this cigar only comes in three large sizes, they won’t need months and months to be ready to go.
Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Cigar Reviews by Phil 'Katman' Kohn 
Leave a Reply