I feel like a broken record with yet another disclaimer on the cigar being smoked for review. But once again these come gifted to me and this time the thanks goes out to Dylan over at Camacho. According to an email I got this week, Camacho Cigars has begun shipping it’s latest brand, Ramones. Ramones is an old brand originally introduced by Simon Camacho in the 1960′s. The new version is now shipping and features a Honduran interior blend with a choice of a Honduran Criollo (medium-to-full in body) or an Ecuadorian-grown, Connecticut seed wrapper (medium). The new Ramones is offered in (6) different formats, in both boxes of 25 and 50 (El Guajiro), with very accessible retail prices of $1.95 to $3.95 per cigar.

Cigar: Ramones by Camacho
Size: 4/5 x 50
Wrapper: Honduras Criollo
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Honduras
Strength: Medium/Full
Twitter: CamachoCigars

Ramones Criollo by Camacho

Appearance and Construction: The Criollo wrapper that adorns the Ramones cigar is clean looking leaf. The minimal veins are hardly noticeable and the roll on the cigar is well done.  There are no soft spots and the cigar has a nice weight to it.  Upon cutting the cigar I was a little surprised by how thin the wrapper was and made note to be careful of them becoming brittle. A thin wrapper usually occurs when the season they were grown in had less rain. The more rain, the more dense the wrapper.

Flavor & Notes : Prior to lighting up the the Ramones Criollo the draw offered some notes of nuts and earth, while the foot served up some earthy tobacco to the nose. Once lit the cigar had a nice cinnamon note that was especially noticed through the nose. The note grew as I smoked the first third but eventually gave way to notes of earth and nuts. The second third of this cigar continued the trend of nuts and earth but a nice spice was present too. The final third of the cigar began to build up in strength and had a pleasant aroma. The notes we nuts, pepper and a touch of leather.

Smoking Characteristics: Considering this was a mixed filler cigar I was happy with the burn. While it did smoke a little fast the flavor the burn was acceptable. It needed a quick touch up at the initial light but considering I was sitting directly in front of my air conditioner I will write it off as that. It was 89 degrees at 9:30 pm in NYC. The draw was a little loose but the medium colored ash held on well. I was also please with the smoke production.

Conclusion: Mixed filler cigars invoke a lot of reactions from cigar smokers. Some of them it is hard to notice you are smoking one, while others aren’t even worth a penny. This cigar is one of those that is hard to notice. The first third of the smoke was the best third, but it was enough to have me wanting to smoke another.

Price: Under $4.00 MSRP
Score: 88