Wrapper: Nicaraguan Shade Grown Corojo Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6 x 54 Box Pressed Toro
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $13.75

I bought my sticks from Atlantic Cigar in early February…thereby, giving the cigar 3 months of naked humidor time.
This was a very limited cigar released a year and a half ago…1500 ten count boxes. And yet, they are still for sale…never a good sign. On the upside, the price has not come down…except at Atlantic Cigar: $10.59 each.

BACKGROUND:
From Atlantic Cigar:
“The Casa Fernandez Limited Edition Aniversario Series is a small batch release rolled in Miami by only one expert Cuban Roller using the finest Aganorsa grown vintage tobaccos. Every year since this series was first released a new size is add to the lineup, each slightly unique from last years efforts. The cigars are produced at the Casa Fernandez factory in Miami and uses AGANORSA vintage tobacco, featuring aged Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, each are produced in limited quantities.

SIZES AND PRICING:
Short Churchill 5.375 x 48 $13.75
Toro 6 x 54 $13.75
109 Maduro 6.25 x 54 $13.09

APPEARANCE:
A good looking broad…(sounds like the start of a bad joke). The very oily wrapper shimmers in the light as if it is a thousand miles closer to the sun. A nice mottling going on. The box press is barely visible as the eye travels from the cap to foot. It has that bizarre closed foot that we all know looks like a vagina. The band’s chick singer in the 70’s, had surgery to tighten up the lips of her underworld. It went from looking like two elephant ears to a more aesthetic version. She showed it to us while we were on tour in the car. We all applauded which then swayed her permission to allow us to touch it.

The silver on white cigar bands is a bitch to photograph when you are me. The stick is very firm with me wanting more give; but it does mean that I will be here all day smoking this thing. At least 2-1/2 hours if I must be truthful, which I hate.
Not many veins; and what is visible melts into the darkness of the wrapper. The seams are jam up and jelly tight.

SMELL THE GLOVE:
Aromas are faint. I do a couple burpees and let my nose go to work…there are elements of barnyard, black licorice, my leather belt, black pepper, strong cinnamon, cedar, and a touch of citrus.

I figured the cigar to be a mouth breather but, in fact, the air flow resistance is on the money. My PerfecDraw draw adjustment tool slithers away in a moody sulkiness.
The cold draw presents flavors of strong licorice, barnyard, black pepper, cinnamon, brown sugar, espresso, raw almonds, cedar, and a bit of maple syrup.

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
The cigar’s strength hits me in the puss with a sledgehammer. Wow. Black pepper, spicy cinnamon, and C-4.

A significant flagellating set of signal flags sends disjointed messages to my brain that this cigar is kicking in with a nice complex mix of flavors that are tobacco flavors; not flavor wheel flavors.

If we are starting with medium/full, God help this funkadelic old man by the time I get to the last third and I’m spinning out of control as my brain makes an escape plan.

But I like it…I can’t wait for the blend to spread its wings.

The cigar blend is dense, both physically and in its attack. The potency of this no foolin’ around blend takes it off the shelf of a good morning cigar. I’m pretty sure you want a full belly before lighting up. This cigar is going to kick my ass. Unless it settles down as the leaves are given up to the Norse god of passing out: Jævla.

The box press burn is spectacular, and I genuflect twice at my desk. Both times, I must yell for Charlotte to help me up. Sammy the Cat laughs and points at me…I then remind him he is de-nutted so shut the fuck up. And his schwanz wouldn’t impress a Barbie doll.

I know exactly what is going to happen. The first half will stay in its own neighborhood and then in the second half, takes off like a bottle rocket.

I took a gander at a couple written reviews who seemed to agree the cigar deserved a rating of 90. But if a reviewer doesn’t state how much time the cigar has humidor rested, it is like comparing apples and oranges.

The fruitsy tootsie flavors are very subdued and mostly overwhelmed by the intensity of the tobaccy.

Needing to get halfway through the cigar before it flies like a duck to West Hollywood, usually means the cigar really did not get more than the standard aging by the manufacturer. And the three months I gave the cigar to sleep, is not sufficient. Or this is what you get no matter the humidor time. Well executed blends usually don’t fool with that mishegoss. They Will Smith slap you in the puss one minute after lighting up.

Complexity begins to really make an effort by wearing support hose with high heel sneakers. Creaminess appears for the first time.

Creaminess is the gateway to a big leap forward in the intensity of a blend. Just like smoking cannabis is the gateway to injecting heroin into your optic nerve. I always blink and fuck it up.

With 2” burned (at the 20-minute mark), the blend does settle down considerably. Hence, it allows the flavor spectrum to widen. I’m now picking up a variety of flavors in transition mode. The finish, though, is somewhat deaf and dumb.

In the mid 60’s, I took 5 string banjo lessons from Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member John McEuen. He must have had too many teeth as he always drooled on my right knee during my hour-long private lesson at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Long Beach. Saw Keith Richards there when they came in to buy some dulcimers for recording. I was 16, so I just stared and sat there like a garden vegetable.

My prediction of the first half’s push appears to be correct. Not bad, but nothing special either.

My fingers are crossed that the blend goes into sprint mode from here.
Sips of water doesn’t bring out flavors other than spiciness and licorice.

I’m a bit underwhelmed at the halfway point.

Word of mouth probably killed this cigar’s chances of disappearing quickly. Casa Fernandez, or Aganorsa Leaf, seems to have lost its way in the over all scheme of producing one fine blend after another…very chancy. For $14, this stick should be having a palate orgy in my mouth. Instead, it lays dormant like a beached flounder on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The cigar suddenly becomes salty. Either I am not hydrated sufficiently, or the cigar was rolled next to a deer lick.

The complexity is on a sabbatical. I mean it’s OK, but if blind taste tested, it could be one of a million $8 cigars.

I see now why the cigar got a universal rating of around 90. The cigar is the little engine that could…but so far, it is out of gumption.

Strength maintains its medium/full status. I can still see out of all three eyes.
Additional sips of water are of no help.

I am convinced the cigar needs a lot more than three months of humidor time. Giving the cigar a 90 is sort of like a pity fuck. The blend seems totally confused.

Improvement of the cigar is incrementally very slow. Flavors hover somewhere in the ether looking for a place to land.

I wish I had bought more than just two sticks. I truly believe the cigar will shine brighter after 6-9 months of humidor time.

Strangely, the cigar is not boring. But neither is it a joy to smoke.
The second half doesn’t see my prediction of becoming Mothra destroying Tokyo.

It does confirm my prescient vision that this is a long smoke. It will easily go over two hours.

The blend is in stasis. It will not be surprising me with a chest of gold. A shame. I had higher hopes.

With 1-1/2” to go, it seems futile to continue to review it.

Atlantic Cigar has them for $3 less than the going price everywhere else online.

RATING: 85

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS