El Bravo Cigars Habanos Serie Superior
WRAPPER: Ecuadorian
BINDER: Undisclosed
FILLER: Dominican
FORMAT: Toro
ORIGIN: Dominican & USA*
INTENSITY: Medium
WEBSITE: elbravocigars.com
NOTES:
Dark chocolate | Cafe Americano | Almond butter
A cigar that takes a bit to come online. A bit more from there to evolve into something of a thing. Silky-smooth dark chocolate is first w/ molasses attachment, coming out of a compost/soil intro. Then an Americano--watered-down espresso--flows in. But all that isn't until darn-near the 2/3. Thinly-syrupy. Retro-haling adds a fusty pepper-spice, the penultimate profile entry. Black pepper, chili powder. Ultimately, leather fills in the soil under that compost.
Once all is/are aboard, it all holds but rather shakily. Feels like taking a posed photo but tapping video accidentally... moving/not moving. A ten-second capture. Back-end into finish is almond butter and a wood structure, a wet seasoned hickory type thing. Dried wood, aged, then left in the rain. Musty. Well-balanced and rounded but also lacking in complexity and nuance. The 1/3 floods back in the 3/3 mundanely-so via top-soil, then more of it. Then the whole profile is tilted that way. A bit drying and still damp. Delineation folds-some. Goops altogether.
Could be rolled better. Soft-spots & overall spongy packing. Draws nicely tho. Burns evenly after self-correcting in the 1/3. Grows ash well 'nuff. Smolders slowly, coolly. Nice out-put as far as smoke volume, but aroma is sniffed-at-thru smog. A good bit of paper lunch bag, palate-wise too (drying). Room-note: some spice, scant dark sweetness. Darkly-semi-sweet, a stuffy sort of spiciness, smoothly--gate-to-wire & simply-so. Serviceable as an everyday option but there's no shortage of those.
TASTE: B-
DRAW: B+
BURN: B
BUILD: B-
FINAL GRADE: B-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59
*The literature sent my way from the co. stated: "Each cigar is hand made by master artisans in the Dominican Republic and the USA." I attempted to clarify but have not heard back as of yet.
Other El Bravo reviews: