Every now and then I wind up in the city of Brotherly Love and when I do I manage to find my way to Holt’s on Walnut. A few weeks ago I was scheduled to make a trip to the store for a Fuente event but life got in the way and I had to postpone my trip. I finally made it down there the other day and if you smoke cigars Holts is the place for you. Every time I walk into the shop I feel like Norm from Cheers being greeted by friendly hellos. People like Anthony, Lee and Robyn make this the place to go for cigars. There lounge might be a little small but with Mahogany the renowned Philly Cigar Bar right upstairs does it really matter?

When I was there this week they had some of the great Fuente rarities in stock. Opus X Maduro, Opus X Scorpio and more. That is how I got my hands on these cigars for review today, the Don Carlos Lancero which is an extremely rare Fuente stick.

Cigar: Arturo Fuente Don Carlos
Size: 6.75 x 38 (Lancero)
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Strength: Medium
Facebook: Arturo Fuente

Don Carlos Lancero - Cello

Appearance and Construction: The Don Carlos line of cigars utilize a Cameroon wrapper that has a beautiful look about it. The wrapper has some sheen in spots from the oils and is virtually vein free. The Cameroon wrapper is usually a brittle wrapper with minimal veins due to the lack of rainfall in the region they are grown. This Lancero is rolled to perfection with a slightly pig tailed cap giving it a truly elegant appearance.

Don Carlos Lancero

Flavor & Notes: Both the foot and the cigar have me wondering if this is a cigar or a piece of candy. They both offer a wonderfully sweet cinnamon note with a slight bit of molasses. I could just enjoy the cigar at this point without lighting it as the notes drain all the stress from my body. Once lit and I dive into the first third it starts off with some slight leather to begin with but after a half inch some of that delicious cinnamon comes back with some cedar and nuts. The second third of this smooth cigar is mouthwatering. The notes of nuts and cinnamon continue with some cedar and seem to be amplified a bit making it oh so enjoyable. The final third of the cigar continues to impress with coffee notes added to a spicy cinnamon note with cedar and nuts along for the ride giving this stick and incredibly long finish.

Smoking Characteristics: Perfect. A part of me wants to leave it at that, but I will go into some detail. For starters the cigar burned razors edge straight with the carbon line being as thin as one. The medium to dark color ash held on firm with absolutely no flake. The draw was perfect and the amount of smoke produced by this vitola was more then Ive come to expect from the size. The aroma was as sweet as the prelight draw making it enjoyable to those around me.

Conclusion: The lancero is probably the most flavorful of all cigars due to the ratio of wrapper to filler and binder. A lot of cigar smokers don’t understand this or comprehend this. In a market that is trending toward bigger is better very rarely will you see me smoke a cigar larger then a 50 ring gauge with my preference being a corona or lancero. If you smoke a bigger ring gauge I challenge you to smoke the same cigar in a small ring gauge to see the difference, you will be amazed. This particular lancero is among the best I ever smoked in the vitola and despite the hefty price tag before taxes I can see smoking these again, except in NY after August 1st because of the tobacco tax making this a $27.50 cigar.

Rating: 94
Price: $20.00 before taxes