This cigar was enjoyed with Sparkling water
Pre-Light: 17 Points of 10 Possible
This cigar looks Cuban. The wrapper is that same dusty brown color, slightly mottled and with some uneveness in color that gives it a bit of a candy-cane look. The wrapper is more silky than oily, with moderate veining, and the seams on mine were not quite flat. The bunching was good, and it was well filled, with just a touch of give. Gorgeous band, if you're into that sort of thing, ornately embossed and colorful. The triple cap was very nicely applied and it sliced easily. Unfortunately, my particular sample had a bit of damage, a little cracking near the foot.
I didn't get much aroma, but the cold draw delivered some pepper on the tip of my tongue and a distinct flavor of hay.
Lighting and Burn: 14 Points of 15 Possible
The initial lighting was easy. The crack near the foot caused a little running through the first inch, but once it burned past that spot the burn evened out. Overall, the burn was generally good, with some occasional wobbly, but no touchups were necessary. Burn rate was nice and slow: this toro gave me 1.5 hours of smoking time. The ash, white with gray striations, was good, a tad soft and slightly flaky, but it clung well, dropping only with some help in 1" pellets.
Construction: 26 Points of 30 Possible
I expect a cigar made by Don Pepin Garcia for Ashton to be well built. This one was mostly well built. Draw was very good to excellent, with some resistance, which I like. As noted above, there was some damage near the foot, but I'll chalk that up to the wear and tear of travel and haven't deducted any points as a result. The filler was nicely bunched, but I expect the seams to be more, well, seamless. The cap was excellent, no problems there, but I did get a little bit of wrapper cracking during the smoke. The first was a small crack along a vein at about the halfway point, which didn't cause any problems. A second crack appeared in the final couple of inches, and this one was more of an issue because it grew and gapped open as the filler swelled from the heat.
Flavor and Aroma: 29 Points of 45 Possible
The flavor on lighting was very Pepin, with spice and pepper on the back palate and the exhale. The front palate was hay, a flavor that I don't care for much.
After the first inch, the hay receded, happily, yielding to cedar notes, which grew in strength. The pepper had largely disappeared, resulting in a fairly mild flavor profile with a woody, dry finish.
As I approached the midpoint, the flavor filled out a bit, and I caught a couple of brief notes of coffee. The coffee didn't stick around long, and the cedar regained prominence. The flavor was smooth, no spice to speak of, and, frankly, a bit flat. There just wasn't much going on here. The finish was still dry cedar.
Things picked up as I entered the last third. The body picked up and the flavors started to round out nicely. The cedar yielded, the coffee reappeared, and I was pleased to detect some faint sweetness on the exhale -- this was a nice, unexpected shift. The last third was easily the best part of this cigar, a nice treat for having persisted through a boring middle.
Summary
I'd enjoyed some regular LADCs and knew that CA had given very high marks to the Edicion Especial robusto, so I was looking forward to this smoke. Overall, I was a bit disappointed. I expected grade A construction, but got A-/B+. Ashton's description led me to expect a fuller, bolder Nicaraguan flavor profile with real complexity. I got a somewhat flat flavor profile that showed a little dynamism in the last third. This wasn't a bad cigar by any means, not at all, but it wasn't exceptional either.
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(6 Review(s))