Friday, April 16, 2021

El Bravo Cigars Serie Popular Maduro in Review

lo-fi & lovely

El Bravo Cigars 
Serie Popular Maduro

WRAPPER: Mexican
BINDER: Dominican
FILLER: Undisclosed

FORMAT: Toro (652)
ORIGIN: Dominican Republic & USA*
INTENSITY: Medium/Medium-full

WEBSITE: elbravocigars.com

NOTES:
Molasses | Mocha latte | Toasted rye

"Turtles all the way down." According to Wikipedia: The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports the flat earth on its back. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly large world turtles that continues indefinitely (hence, "turtles all the way down"). Now instead of turtles, Russian Black Bread.

Below is a list of Russian Black Bread ingredients courtesy of the King Arthur Flour website. The full recipe can be found at: https://bit.ly/3trDKSc I'm sure it's tasty.

1 1/8 cups (255g) water, lukewarm 
2 tablespoons (28g) apple cider vinegar 
1 cup (106g) medium rye flour, plus more for dusting 
1 1/4 teaspoons (8g) salt 
2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter 
2 tablespoons (43g) dark corn syrup or molasses 
1 tablespoon (14g) brown sugar, packed 
3 tablespoons (18g) black cocoa 
1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee powder 
1/4 to 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, to taste 
1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast 
2 1/2 cups (298g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, divided

It's all there, here in this smoke, amazingly-so. But also weakly-delineated. Wrapped loosely around a teensy yet dense af core of barnyard. Consistent not transitional. Nice enough balance. Not much complexity but decent nuance. Excellent heft lingers into a long finish of a simple extension.

Performance-wise I have nary a complaint. Even burn, smooth draw, Goodly ash-build. Packing does soften some ahead of char, un-egregiously. Seams hold, as does cap/shoulder assemblage. Quite a smoky-smoke out-put both active & passive--culminates in a Soviet bread-line manner but everyone is sitting in leather chairs. Wait... they're also in wood-paneled dens. This is nice, & quite the character. 

TASTE: B+
DRAW: A-
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.

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::: very :::