Monday, January 13, 2020

Regina Cigars Honduran Collection Raphael in Review

“Have you Kaplowitz’d to-day?”

Regina Cigars
Honduran Collection "Raphael"

WRAPPER: Maduro
BINDER: Undisclosed
FILLER: Undisclosed
BLENDER: Christian Eiroa

FORMAT: Toro
ORIGIN: Honduras
STRENGTH: Med. Full

WEBSITE: www.reginacigars.com

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NOTES:
Creamy milk chocolate, cereal grain forward rich earthiness. Nice sweetness. Good pepper-spice kick, smoothly -- white & black pepper. A bit of red. Cumin, paprika. Spices play softly in the creaminess. Undertones are sweet/creamy aspects of calmly bright dense earthen core... nougat, caramel, coffee (heavy on cream & sugar).

Traces of orange blossom honey. Not quite a melange but not quite not. Peppers hold just 'nuff delineation. Barnyard & chicken coop for the underbelly. Savory comes in at the mid-point via a thick leather & its oils. Really quite nice, lends even more to the already full-ish amount. Not super-complex but kindly-so & staves off boring flatness. Excellent nuance as the notes entrench & a bit of salt is added to sweet.

Burns mainly even outside of a slight 1/3 puckering which self-corrects. Rolled quite firm, & softens just a hair & evenly via progression. No hard/soft spots per se. Excellent draw. Very smoky both active & passive -- offering a pleasantly sweet meaty earthy aroma. A bit muted by dustiness which comes onto draw notes in the 3/3. A candied lemon comes in then, as well. Excellent balance throughout. An attainable & enjoyable thing, this.

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

::: very :::