Monday, October 14, 2019

Maya Selva Cigars Villa Zamorano Reserva in Review

“Have you Kaplowitz’d to-day?”


Maya Selva Cigars
Villa Zamorano Reserva

WRAPPER: Honduran (Jamastran)
BINDER: Honduran
FILLER: Honduran

FORMAT: Robusto
ORIGIN: San Judas Tadeo, Danlí, Honduras
STRENGTH: Medium

WEBSITE: www.mayaselvacigars.com

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NOTES:
Mulled wine & potpourri. Dense dark (at the onset) earthiness. A bit of finely-ground pepper, smoked paprika. Undertones are actually the lead-ins to these notes but quite high therein... Mulled wine & potpourri, to be clear...

& they do steer the profile from draw onto finish. There, a separate toasted citrus can be seen on moderate legs. While dense, there are some rough edges here, particularly as the notes brighten some via progression. Crisp but awkwardly-so given the context. Sinewy.

Beefy in a jerky manner comes midpoint. Teriyaki, though that's fleeting. Aroma is a sharp leathery thing with more pepper-spice than the puff. Smoke out-put is a tick less than moderate, perhaps somewhat due to a tighter than comfy resistance to pulls. It does ease throughout but hampers some of the experience till. 

Contributing to that is a tighter roll at the cap than the rest of the barrel. Also, a soft-spot sits at the start of 3/3. Burn is even on-down, requiring a re-touch to stay lit at the 2/3. Seams hold well, as does cap assemblage even in the light of me puffing hard.

Not complex, but what bothers me more is a lack of nuance. This offering sits in the value side of the Maya Selva portfolio and fits it in a quite serviceable manner. Dependably over brilliantly. But too, that's where the tight draw & mandated re-touch create a big ding in grading.

FINAL GRADE: B
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59

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