La Sirena Jaxx | Cigar Review

By The Katman on August 12, 2015 • ( 1 )

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan (Banda Criolla)
Filler: Nicaraguan Seco & Ligero (Jalapa), Brazil Viso (Mata Fina)
Size: 5 x 50 “Robusto”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $8.00 MSRP (I paid $6 on Cbid)

Today we take a look at the La Sirena Jaxx. I’m only a year late.

BACKGROUND:
Manufactured at Tavicusa S.A in Nicaragua.
Remember Old School Cigars? No? I don’t either. But apparently, they were bought by La Sirena last year. Owners, Danny Ditkowich and Arielle Ditkowich had their Jaxx brand made at the Rocky Patel factory.

There are three blends: Jaxx, Jaxx LT, and Stixx.
Erik Espinosa stepped in. It made its debut at the 2014 IPCPR trade show.

The Ditkowich’s are getting rid of the old inventory as is before they apply a new cigar band that adds the name La Sirena. So the current supply still says “Old School.”

At the 2014 trade show, it was announced that production would move to the La Zona Cigar Factory.
There is more information about the background but you don’t really care. Do you? I don’t. On with the cigar.

DESCRIPTION:
Solid little bugger. Lumpy, bumpy and rustic looking. Exposed seams, lots of veins but a nice triple cap. The cigar band is interesting but you will get a better look at it later in a photo.
The wrapper is a dark and oily coffee bean brown.

SIZES AND PRICING:
Robusto 5 x 50 $8.00 MSRP
Toro 6 x 52 $8.50 MSRP
Gordo 6 x 60 $9.00 MSRP

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
The shaft gives off aromas of sweetness, floral notes, chocolate, coffee, cedar, and fruit.
From the clipped cap and foot, I can smell the same notes as above.
The cold draw presents flavors of chocolate, sweetness, fruit, cedar, leather, rich tobacco, and malt.

FIRST THIRD:
This review will be different from the last few. This stick ain’t no tree trunk. Just a small robusto. So, I should be able to keep the word count under 2,000.

The start has a great draw.
Two flavors compete at the beginning: Red pepper and sweet hot cocoa with marshmallows.

But methinks that this cigar has a lot more to give. The start is a littles slow getting off the ground. I’ve had the cigar for a month.
There is a good cigar underneath the current mediocrity. Waiting to break free.

I got also got a couple of the Jaxx LT to review. Fingers crossed that this one goes well because I bought mostly singles on Cbid for review.

Okie doke. Half an inch in, changes are in the making. We have some creaminess, dried fruit like figs and dates. There is a nice dry malt flavor.

I found another source with an even better listing of types of malt:
Aromatic Malt, Biscuit Malt, Black Malt, Brown Malt, Cara Munich, Cara Vienna, Caramel Wheat, Chocolate Malt, Chocolate Rye Malt, Chocolate Wheat Malt, Coffee Malt, and Crystal/Caramel Malt.

If you go to “Specific Malt Types,” you will see the basis for each malt. Very interesting. I really think I’ve made a breakthrough in finding some nuances to cigar blends.

Here they are all bright and shiny: Chocolate, creamy, caramel malt, Chocolate rye malt, dried fruit, rich tobacco, leather, cedar, and what happened to the spiciness?

I’m surprised at just how oily this wrapper is. I’ve got no sunlight as I got up at the crack of dawn because I tossed and turned last night. That damn spinal implant has turned out to be near worthless.
Anyway, the La Sirena Jaxx shows its long aging process with the gorgeous oily wrapper.

In this photo below, you see a match box that was a curio from Blackpool, England. Got it in a little shop in that town while touring with Curved Air. From the 1920’s. Blackpool is a big vacation beach spot. I saw it and used it for storing weed in it while walking about town during a tour.

The little box opens on both front and back. And has a match striker along the side. The back side looks like it was meant to hold stamps. Just a guess. I used it to hold folded rolling papers.

Strength is medium body. For a supposed full bodied cigar, it has a long way to go yet.
Spice returns. Fickle woman. That helps give the La Sirena Jaxx some oomph.

Funny, I never heard of Old School Cigars. I am a complete anachronism. I am a total cigar outsider and yet I compete with the big guy reviewers for audience numbers.

The downside is that I wish I had the chance to be a cigar insider so I’d get all the scoop and dirt about what goes on within the industry. And I’m lazy, so I don’t spend my spare time researching.

I lay in bed last night thinking of how I might have spent my life better. Music remains paramount. But instead of that *#(_#@#&())&^&%^ commercial construction, I would have loved to have had the chance to be in the cigar business from the ground up. I think my instincts would have done me proud. Oh well, woulda’, coulda’, shoulda’.
Just before the start of the second third, the flavor profile makes a prison break.
We have complexity. We have balance. And we have a nice long finish.
Sweet spot 1.0.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 20 minutes.

Now we’re talking. I suppose several months of humidor time will fix that first third.
The spice has not only returned but has become leader of the pack. The other flavors have a nice edge to them and they have splintered into sub particles of those flavors.

I’m impressed with the construction. Especially since this t’weren’t a good looking cigar to start with. Good char line. No wrapper issues.

On no! The radio is playing “A Horse With No Name.” I HATE that song. A two chord song. And stupid lyrics. YUCK!

Let’s see what the flavors are up to: Spice, chocolate, creamy, caramel malt, chocolate rye malt, caraway, dried fruit: raisins, dates, figs, rich tobacco, leather, cedar, fresh summer fruit, and a generic sweetness.

HALFWAY POINT:
Smoke time is 35 minutes.
The flavors are really clicking now.

Know what I need to do? Update my lists of great cigars. It’s just such a pain in the ass.
Strength has moved to medium/full.
Sweet spot 1.5.

This is a very pleasant cigar. But great? No. The price point influences this.
Unless, the flavor profile of the La Sirena Jaxx explodes on me, it is just a really nice cigar.
Construction is still good. The char line is dead nuts.

If you’ve ordered from CI, Cigar.com or Cbid, you probably got a plastic card that gives you $100 off after spending $160 on wine at a boutique wine web site. Well, the old lady loves her wine. To save money, she buys box wine.
So I treated her with this as a surprise. Each bottle retails for around $20 and most of the wines come from small wineries in Napa/Sonoma. The location of my skydiving accident.

So the retail on that $160 case of 12 bottles is around $240. Charlotte tried the Riesling and said it was to die for.
It’s not a recurring club. You have no obligation to buy more. So we shall see. I added this because I’m sure you got the same gift card with your cigars. And probably wrote it off as a scam. It isn’t.

Back to the La Sirena Jaxx. It’s now screaming laughter. Huge flavors!! If a few months of humidor time makes this happen at the start of the cigar then I would rate it very high. But since it didn’t start til the second half…well, I will have to think about it.
I’m not crazy about the limited sizes. I wonder if when it came out there were more?
A corona gorda would be nice. So would a 5.5 x 54.

Now you can see how pretty and interesting the cigar band is. I couldn’t see with the naked eye that on the left is a picture of kid’s jacks.

LAST THIRD:
The complexity has mellowed out the flavors.
The sun came out a while ago. You can see in my photos the nice caramel color to the Oscuro wrapper. Artificial light just doesn’t pick that up.

There is a lemon custard flavor now. Delicious. Years ago, a Baskin Robbins near us had that flavor. It’s all I ever bought. Lemon custard ice cream.

It also has a nice Biscuit Malt flavor (A lightly roasted malt. Imparts a biscuity flavor and aroma).
You should study the chart I provided a link to above and see that I discovered the grail. See how many malt flavors you can pick out in your next good cigar.

With 1-1/2” to go, the La Sirena Jaxx heats up. Not good.
This will affect my scoring.

The heat makes the spiciness very strong. And over shadows the great flavors.
Strength ends at full body.
OK. Here we go. I give the Jaxx an 86. Possibly a bigger size might not have the heat issue.
Final smoke time is an hour.

PRICE POINT:
$8.00? Don’t think so. Should be in the $6.50-$7.00 range at the most.
If you look at my “Best” cigar lists (I will update them. Don’t nag), you will find hundreds of cigars that are cheaper and better.

But as I said earlier, I got mine for $6.00 on Cbid. That is exactly the right price. I also bought a couple singles of the Jaxx LT. Got them for $4.00. You see where I’m going with this. This ain’t no regular La Sirena. If Erik Espinosa did, in fact, tweak the blends, then I look forward to trying that blend to see how he improved it. But until they rid themselves of the Old School blends, we will have to wait.

SUMMATION:
The La Sirena Jaxx definitely had its moments. But overall, I wasn’t blown away.
It’s a decent cigar but the late coming of the nice flavors and the heat at the end make me feel I overpaid at $6 each.
Tomorrow, I will review the Jaxx LT. A medium body cigar.
I find it difficult to recommend this cigar. Maybe in the Toro size? I might look out for this on Cbid but I’m not putting out $6.00. Just checked Cbid and none for sale.
I do have a La Sirena Oceano to review. Maybe after the Jaxx LT.