Macanudo Cru Royale

Macanudo Cru Royale
Poco Gordo 4X60
Ecuadorian Habano Wrapper
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican with Brazilian Mata Fina
Retail Price: $7.00 (in Colorado)

We just got this cigar in at Old West Cigar and I’ve been quite excited to try it.  The Poco Gordo size reminds me of a Nub cigar, which I am a big fan of.  The first thing I noticed about this cigar is how attractive it looks.  I try not to let things like the band design affect my opinion of a cigar, but this one just looks good sitting in the box.  It has a dark brown wrapper which has a decent amount of oil on it.  It is not at all toothy, and has a few veins running through it.  It smells very earthy and the construction feels great.  I can feel one or two very minor soft spots, but nothing that concerns me.

The first thing I notice when I light it is the volume of smoke put out by this cigar.  The initial flavor is that of earthiness, which stays throughout the first third.  occasionally I get a hint of spice and wood, but earthiness remains the dominant flavor.  It burns incredibly slow, and is going to be a longer smoke than I expected from the size.  There is a bit of harshness in the first third that goes away as you transition into the second third.  The woody flavors come out a little more in the second third.  The ash builds up to over an inch on the cigar before I knock it off.  The spice notes remain throughout the entire cigar, but never become a dominant flavor.  The final third has a combination of earth, wood, and a hint of leather.  There is a little harshness to the final third, but nothing that makes the smoke any less enjoyable.  The spice starts to come out a little more towards the finish and the cigar becomes more full-bodied the closer you get to the end.

I would say that this is a great cigar for 7 dollars and one that I will definitely be smoking again in the future.  The harshness at the beginning and end detract slightly from it, but by no means does it make it a substandard cigar.  This is one that I will definitely recommend to my friends.

Drew Estate Java Mint

Size: Corona

Wrapper: Brazilian Mata Fina maduro

Filler: Nicaraguan Long Filler

Let me start by saying that I am always a little nervous about smoking any kind of flavored or infused cigar.  It seems that most flavored cigars are the cheapest tobacco the manufacturer can get and then they throw some flavoring on top of it to try and cover that up.  Too often it is far too easy to forget that you are smoking a cigar because the flavoring covers up any hint of tobacco.

This cigar looks and smells great out of the wrapper. It has a dark, oily wrapper that looks very appealing to me.  There are a few veins on it, but they are very small and you have to be looking for them to find them.  Construction of this cigar is phenomenal.  I love the feel of a solid box pressed cigar in my fingers.  As hard as I searched I could not find any soft spots or discrepancies in this cigar.  The cigar has a great aroma.  A lot of times with a flavored or infused cigar the tobacco quality and aroma is covered up, lost, or ignored all together, but this cigar still has a great tobacco aroma with a hint of mint and chocolatey coffee under it.  The dry draw shows a sweetened wrapper with an easy draw.  The tobacco flavor comes out as earthy and pure with the hint of mint showing through in the flavor.

The cigar lit easily and proves to be much the same in smoking as it did in aroma and pre-light flavor.  The tobacco is light in flavor and body and produces a white, whispy smoke.  The coffee flavor comes through a lot more than you would expect from the aroma, but does not even come close to covering up the tobacco.  The mint shows up more as an aftertaste than as an actual flavor in the cigar, almost a sweet hint of mint that seems to linger in your mouth just after the smoke is gone.  It is hard to pick out individual cigar flavors because of the infusion in this cigar, but I suspect that not all the coffee flavor is coming from additives.  There is a hint of spice that seems to be more in your nose than in your mouth.  There is a good volume of smoke produced from this cigar and more flavors seem to come out on the exhale than when you draw the smoke in.  The cigar did burn a little uneven and I had to correct it a couple times.  I started to pick up a few hints of a burnt flavor, but the seemed to disappear after another puff or two. The ash produced is mostly a white-grey ash and holds together very well before chunking off in one piece.

The mint and coffee flavors stay right in their place as I moved into the second third of this cigar.  They are constantly reminding you that they are there without ever overpowering the tobacco.  The mint seems to take even more of a back seat in the middle of the cigar and let the tobacco come out a little more.  The coffee flavor is still there, but is still just a hint, supporting the flavor of the cigar instead of being the flavor of the cigar.  It is still a little difficult to pull out some of the cigar flavors, but I am getting hints of leather and a bit of a woody taste as I near the final third.

The mint flavor is essentially gone in the final third.  Every once in a while I catch a hint of it and then as soon as I notice it it’s gone.  A large portion of the flavors I have tasted thus far are not noticeable anymore.  This cigar finishes very light and does not at all feel heavy.  The coffee flavor comes back ever so slightly as a bit of a burned coffee flavor.  I am not sure if this is due entirely to the flavoring or if the tobacco has a hand in it as well.  There is a bit of sweetness to the end of this cigar.  I can’t really pick up on the mint, but I still know it’s there.

Overall I was quite pleased with this cigar.  It is a good one for when you don’t necessarily feel like sitting down and smoking a cigar.  It can be enjoyed while doing another activity and I really don’t think you will feel like you have missed anything.  Drew Estate has definitely done a good job of flavoring cigars without ruining them.  At $8.75 a stick I would also call this cigar a good value that will be highly enjoyed by a younger, more novice smoker.  I also think that more experienced smokers with a refined palette will get a lot of enjoyment out of this cigar as long as they open their minds to it.