Cigar Tasting

Montecristo Leyenda Puro Made in Cuba Wrapper, binder, filler: Cuba Gros robusto 165 mm × 55 (21.83 mm) Price: €20.90   Appearance: Beautiful silky and soft maduro wrapper. Well filled, with a little hollow at the head. Flavors before lighting: Notes of cedar with a little ammonia. Good draw. FLAVORS AFTER LIGHTING: First third: A fairly mild start where precious

  ARTURO FUENTE OPUS X Belicoso XXX 22,00 € Immediately full-flavored, with very peppery notes (black pepper) and undertones of dried fruit. The Belicoso is changing, with good complexity, and the strength builds to a crescendo. Flavors of dry earth dominate a particularly persistent, dark and tannic flavor profile. A little cigar that is full of energy.   Year 2017 Country

Montecristo Linea 1935 Maltés Puro Made in Cuba Wrapper, binder, filler: Cuba Grand robusto 153 mm × 53 (21.04 mm) Price: €18.20 Appearance: Beautiful smooth and silky colorado wrapper. Supple to the touch. Flavors before lighting: Notes of cedar, earth and gray pepper. Decent draw. FLAVORS AFTER LIGHTING: First third: Nice earthy and oily flavors with bark in the first

  CAO PILON Churchill 7,80 € The start is full and round, with a good volume of smoke. Initially very woody, the aromas quickly turn to fresher notes of underbrush and moss. The cigar then becomes smoother with a very fine, woody flavor profile. Increasingly intense roasted notes join the party. Pronounced aftertaste and slightly too strong in the finish, this

Knocked off its pedestal and stripped of its fifth band in the last edition of the Havanoscope due to a flat and muddled finish, the Bolivar Royal Coronas seems to have rediscovered its luster. Based on the very inconsistent recent samples, it wasn’t clear that it would ever regain its place in the sun. Considering how the Cuban climate has

The flavor of chocolate is still unexplained by science. There are no decent synthetic dark chocolate flavorings because scientists have never been able to reproduce its taste. But why not? By Bernard Burtschy Aficionados will remember the Partagas Serie D N° 3, with its maduro chocolate wrapper, which came out in 2006. Boasting four years aged tobacco, its maduro wrapper made

Sir Winston Gran Reserva – Cosecha 2011 –  H.Upmann Puro Made in Cuba Wrapper, binder, filler: Cuba Churchill 178 mm × 47 (18.65 mm) Price: €55 Appearance: Soft and silky wrapper. Supple to the touch. Very well filled. Flavors before lighting: Notes of mushroom and wet earth. Draw too easy. FLAVORS AFTER LIGHTING: First third: A delicate and subtle start.

Pastry chef and chocolate-maker, Arnaud Larher, divides his time between Athens and Tokyo. But it’s in his workshops in the 18th arrondissement of Paris that he tweaks his recipes and dreams up his creations, like his chocolate cigars that are a big hit with aficionados! One doesn’t venture into the creation of pastry chocolate cigar without having a certain affinity

CAO Pilon Churchill Wrapper : Ecuador Binder and Filler : Nicaragua Churchill 178 mm x 48 (19 mm) 7,80 € The start is full and round, with a good volume of smoke. Initially very woody, the aromas quickly turn to fresher notes of underbrush and moss. The cigar then becomes smoother with a very fine, woody flavor profile. Increasingly intense roasted notes join

Balmoral Añejo xo Gordito Wrapper: Brazil Binder: Dom.Rep. Filler: Brazil, Nicaragua,  Dominican Republic Strength: Medium Short 102 mm x Ø 58 (23.02 mm)€ 8.10 The start toys with deep woody notes before the first third delivers an excellent volume of smoke and more organic, complex and tasty notes. The second third continues with good strength and an intense aftertaste with toasted

Flor de Selva Doble Corona 191 mm x 52 (20,64 mm) 10 € Delectable last year, the Double Corona was given the coveted 5-band status. This year, its performance earns it the title of Best Honduran 2017. Full-flavored and eloquent from the get-go, it offers a pleasantly woody (cedar) range of flavors with a sprinkling of peppery notes. Reasonably full-bodied, its

  Don Tomas For its affordable prices and its energy Rock bottom prices for the Clasico range (Honduras) with consistent, enterprising cigars that get the job done, no muss, no fuss. The N° 4, a 4-band cigar, comes particularly recommended. Plus, the brand is innovating with an excellent Nicaraguan range that is just as affordable. Bravo! Oliva For its high-quality

No, it’s not the latest hare-brained experiment, there really is salt in your cigar, and in your wine too. Let me explain…   By Bernard Burtshy   SALTINESS is one of the four basic tastes (or five, if we count Japanese umami), and salt is, and always has been, a precious commodity. Salting is one of the oldest methods of

Chemically speaking, nothing distinguishes a pleasant smell from an unpleasant one. Why, therefore, do some people say that cigars “stink”? By Bernard Burtschy “Bad smells” are unclassifiable You barely need to perceive an unpleasant odor to elicit an immediate reaction of disgust. Whether the source be a dog, a toilet, or a cigar, the response to this type of stimulus will

The purveyor of many a fine smoke, CAO needs no introduction. A big innovator, this brand regularly launches very well-crafted and original ranges, each with a singular style and a refined concept. The result is sophisticated and attractive cigars that outlast their initial buzz and become classics. One of CAO’s specialties is rooting out exceptional varieties of tobacco from all

  CAO PILON Robusto Blend Made in Nicaragua Wrapper: Ecuador Binder, filler: Nicaragua Dimensions: 127 mm × 52 (21 mm) Format: Grand robusto Price: €6.30 A bold and powerful start, but the first third, though lively, has a fragile balance of toasted and nutty flavors that struggle to impose themselves with such pronounced strength from the outset. A deeper and

BALMORAL XO Lancero   Limited edition Blend Made in the Dominican Rep. Wrapper: Brazil Binder: Dominican Rep. Filler: Brazil, Nicaragua, Dominican Rep. Dimensions: 178 mm × 40 (15.87 mm) Format: Grand corona Price: €11.50 A very woody and elegant start, perfectly coherent with this attractive, all-too-neglected format. The flavors are more organic and earthy, with notes of bark in the

Par Bernard Burtschy Derrières les odeurs se cachent bien souvent des molécules de synthèse qui ont remporté la bataille sur les arômes naturels. Ne les confondons pas, et ne simplifions pas ce qui est complexe. Le nez chimique Il est prodigieux de penser que nous pouvons détecter jusqu’à 400.000 odeurs et en mémoriser environ 10.000 ! Les molécules naturelles qui constituent les