WRAPPER: San Andres
BINDER: Nicaraguan
FILLER: Nicaraguan
FORMAT: Gordo (560)
ORIGIN: Esteli, Nicaragua
INTENSITY: Medium-full
NOTES:
Spiced earthiness | Smoked Nutella | Toasted pecan
Smoky and toasty. Warm, round notes. Big 'uns, with a slight-brittle cracked black pepper jaggedness to their edges. Mainly rich, and dense. Nice delineation and superb balance. What's the difference between balance and harmony? Not sure, but there's slightly less of the latter here. Concentrated jabs of somewhat bitey espresso, enforced by heavily toasted grains.
It's all about the earthen core and its cumin-forward red spaces. Leather envelopes that, thinly but securely, adding a nice crisp savoriness. Charcoal-smoked Nutella is prominent and quite nice. The structure is all about a distinct nuttiness that features toasted pecan... more shells than nuts. Blackstrap molasses and some alfalfa grass add nifty dimensions. Molasses sweetens to buckwheat honey at the half.
Puts out a lot of smoke. A lot. Big bouquet, too--sweet-savory in aroma and in settling room-note. Dark but not broodingly-so. Lip-smacking and nostril-tingling. Never cloying nor barnacle-like. I keep seeing Bluto from Popeye. Old black & white cartoon toughs. The draw is perfect. Ash builds as long as you'd like. Line wobbles a bit and self-corrects at a fast pace. Construction holds. This thing is campy, raunchy, and cool.
TASTE: A-
DRAW: A
BURN: B+
BUILD: A-
FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
::: very :::