I recently took part in a cigar pass on one of my favorite websites, cigarlive.com. A cigar pass is when a group of people get together and pass around some sticks. The pass starts with someone sending out a batch, and the next person takes what he wants and puts in others at equal or greater value and the USPS delivers our smokes to the next person.

The last cigar pass that I took part in I took a couple of cigars including this one. I had never heard of the Los Blancos and the label attracted me to the cigar. The bright yellow on the dark maduro cigar offers a wonderful contrast.

The Los Blancos website has this to offer, “Our family grows premium Habana 2000 wrapper in Esteli, Nicaragua, and allows it to age through the traditional and time honored Cuban process. The result is this beautiful maduro wrapper. These cigars are blended with tobacco from our fields in Esteli (Nicaragua)and the Jalapa (Nicaragua) and Jamastran (Honduras) valleys. The result is a Maduro cigar that has all the elements and taste of a great Maduro without the heavy smoke of a full-bodied cigar. Habana 2000…simply exquisite!”

The Skinny:

Cigar: Los Blancos Maduro
Origin: Nicaragua
Size: 5 x 52 (Robusto)
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Nicaragua

Pre-Smoke: As I stated before the eye catcher on this cigar is the bright yellow band which is on the foot and the body of the smoke. It offers a wonderful eye catching contrast. This maduro is dark, toothy and full of oils. The scent of the wrapper was an extremely strong cocoa bean with a touch of Jamaican spice. I wanted to go have some jerk chicken after smelling this stick. The foot offered notes of wood and pepper, while the pre-light draw offered the same but not as strong. I was really looking forward to smoking this beauty.

Smoke: As I smoked this stick the similarities to the Partagas Black Label caught my eye. The stick looks a lot like that cigar and the smoke has a few similar qualities. The notes I picked up off of this cigar were cocoa and pepper to start. Around the half way point of the stick, some notes of wood were introduced which created a well balanced cigar with absolutely no burn issues.

Overall: Whenever I come across a cigar that is new to me, and the results are this good I am more than ecstatic. I would hope that Los Blancos would do a little better job of marketing these in the future as it is a very enjoyable smoke and I plan to keep a couple in my humidor

Rating: 88
Price: $6.00