Rodrigo cigars is probably a brand you haven’t heard too much about but it is a brand that has been making some appearances over the last year or so. George Rodriguez started his venture into the cigar world very recently in 2010. The story on the Rodrigo Cigars website is actually a pretty interesting one, take a read through it here.

At the moment, Rodrigo cigars has 3 different blends in it’s inventory. The Habano Classico, the Boutique Blend and today’s featured cigar, the La Fortaleza. All of the blends have filler from the Dominican Republic, where George first began his cigar making adventure, and each blend comes with a different wrapper.

The La Fortaleza line is claimed to be the full bodied and full flavored. It comes in 4 different vitolas and all have interesting names such as the Absoluto, Forte, Elegante and the Cinco 5. All of the cigars are also made at the Tabacalera Ventura factory down in Dominican Republic. 3 of the vitolas come in boxes of 24 but the Cinco 5 comes in an odd numbered box containing 55 sticks. There is an obvious link to the name here

Let’s dive in to the Rodrigo La Fortaleza Cinco 5 and see how it turns out!

Cigar: Rodrigo La Fortaleza Cinco 5
Drink: Pocas Special Reserve Tawny Porto
Vitola: Cinco 5 (6 x 56)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: About $6.75
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• A very nice, velvety smooth wrapper surrounds this cigar
• It does have a very appealing reddish-brown wrapper on it
• The squeeze shows an even firmness from cap to foot with just a bit of springiness
• There are only very small veins to be seen on this wrapper, they don’t look to have any potential problems with the veins
• The cap is cleanly finished and looks to blend into the rest of the wrapper nicely
• The foot looks nicely and cleanly packed with lots of filler leaves and all are a nice consistent color

Burn:
• Toasting was nice and easy and even, had a nice amber foot with very little effort
• Shortly after, the La Fortaleza started canoeing on me thanks for a giant tunnel/gap in the filler
• I touched it up but it started to happen again right after, hoping with one more touch up and we’ll be at the end of the tunnel
• Weird burn continues with more touch ups and canoeing
• This cigar needed touch-up after touch up to keep it burning properly
• Finally in the last bit, I got some decent burn without touch ups but it was a constant battle throughout the whole cigar

Smoke & Ash:
• The smoke is medium in body, not quite full and billowing
• It’s also taking me a couple draws to get a decent amount of smoke out
• The ash is coming along as very light grey, almost white
• Problem is the ash isn’t lasting very long with the tunneling and touch ups
• I keep tapping the ash off just short of an inch, it looks pretty weak and flaky, especially with all the touch ups
• Smoke continues to be pretty light throughout the cigar, would have been nicer to have a little more density to it

Tasting Notes:
• The notes on the wrapper seem to be mostly of mild cedar, not much else here
• I still get the mild cedar on the foot but now I’m picking up some tiny hints of spices, more baking spices rather than pepper
• The pre-light draw was very woodsy with just a touch of mild spices
• Initial few draws are telling a similar story of woodsy flavors backed by some cinnamon and also some leathery notes in there
• The cedar flavors are really shining through with a nice medium body to back it all up, also picking up some light coffee flavors
• The retrohale has a tiny little bite and is full of flavorful spices with a nice woodsy finish
• The body has been pretty mild, almost medium so far
• The constant touch ups from burn issues are continually making the flavors charred and harsh, it’s hiding the potential of the cigar
• I’m still picking up hints of good flavors such as coffee and cedar, maybe even some nuts or almonds but the charred flavors introduced from constant touch ups is ruining this cigar
• Throughout the whole cigar, the body never really passed medium making for a good early day smoke
• The last inch or so probably had the most flavors since I didn’t need any touch ups so the potential of this cigar really showed, no harshness here either
• I have to note that even though the cigar claimed to be really full bodied, I barely felt much past medium so I was pretty surprised.

Final Thoughts:
This is a tough one to judge and I have to say I will need a few more to make up my mind. The burn really ruined the experience since the constant touch ups negatively affected the flavors I was getting. I got very nice hints of flavorful cedar, coffee, cinnamon and almonds but they were always being overpowered by the charred notes. The Rodrigo La Fortaleza Cinco 5 is something that will leave me wondering “what could have been?”. I really wanted to like this cigar and I’m definitely going to seek out a few more, perhaps a different vitola and for sure a different box to see if the burn issues are persistent or if I just had a bad batch. Has anyone else had similar issues? I’d love to get some feedback on that!

*Sorry no ash pic here, the wind actually kept blowing the ash out of my ashtray so there was nothing left to take a picture of. The wind stole my band too… Some dog is probably chewing on it right now…

Pairings:
I had just a little bit of this port left so I decided to pair with it one more time, it’s gone now so you won’t see it again! lol. The Pocas Special Reserve Tawny Porto pours very very light and has some very fruity notes on your nose. The flavors follow those same lines with a very light flavor, fairly fruity, lots of oak flavors and not bold at all. It did offer a bit of saving grace to the charred flavors of the cigar today. The sweetness really helped to cleanse my palate after those touch ups. It would have been an excellent pairing without that set back though so I’d definitely pair this cigar with port the next time I decide to light one up.

The post Rodrigo Cigars La Fortaleza Cinco 5 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

There is another blend in the Tobacos Baez series that seems more familiar to more people and that is the Serie SF. Not sure why but it seems to garner most of the spotlight with this line so I decided I needed to bring some awareness to this blend. People who have mostly smoked Don Pepin Garcia’s fuller lines will get a bit of a surprise when they go to the Tobacos Baez Serie H as it promises none of the pepper blast that most of his cigars offer.

The smooth Habanos wrapped cigars are made at a slightly lower price point than some My Father branded cigars but still maintains the excellent quality of Cuban Seed Nicaraguan tobacco we’ve all come to appreciate from the Garcia family. The line is only available in 3 vitolas all at just about the same ring gauge. It starts with the Famosos (5×50) along with the Favoritos (5.5×52) and ends with the Monarcas(6.5×52).

One thing I wanted to mention is that in my searching I noticed a lot of websites with some incorrect info on this cigar. Seems some of them mention the Tobacos Baez Serie H as having a “Corojo wrapper and a spicy profile”. Now the spicy profile is subjective of course so I can’t talk to that but it does seem they have it wrong when it comes to the wrapper. Even the Serie SF has a Habano wrapper so I’m not sure where this info comes from. But enough with that, let’s just find out if these are even worth seeking out to begin with. On with the review!

Cigar: Tobacos Baez Serie H Famosos by My Father Cigars
Drink: St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout
Vitola: Famosos (5 x 50)
Wrapper: Cuban-Seed Habano
Binder: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan
Filler: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan
Price: A little under $6 if you look hard enough
Burn Time: Just short of 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The Tobacos Baez Serie H has a wonderful orangey-brown wrapper that has a ton of oilyness to it
• The wrapper on this cigar is so smooth and soft with almost no veins to be concerned about at all
• There is a perfect consistent spring from cap to foot when you squeeze the cigar
• The top of the cigar is finished expertly with a seamless triple cap and the foot looks to be fairly well packed, a bit of a gap in the middle
• The cap cut easily and cleanly with my double-bladed guillotine cutter
• This stick had a bit of a tumble as I was taking pictures, so the wrapper cracked a tiny bit, hoping it doesn’t cause any burn issues

Burn:
• Toasting was a bit spotty but after some effort and a couple draws I was able to get the foot glowing nicely
• Despite a little tumble and slightly cracked wrapper from my awesome clumsiness, the cigar is smoking razor sharp so far
• I did need to make a couple corrections as I burned through some of the cracked wrapper but this was uncommon compared to the other samples I’ve had
• The cigar smoked itself, it never even came close to going out on me which is a great quality

Smoke & Ash:
• This cigar produces a TON of smoke, right from the first draw I was overwhelmed by it’s thick plume
• The resting smoke is not as abundant but still makes itself known with a nice woodsy aroma to it
• Did I mention this cigar is a smoke machine? One little draw is all I need
• The ash is showing itself to be pretty strong and clean so far, no flaking or breaking apart
• The appearance of the ash is nothing overly special, most dark and light grey accents with some messy lines
• I tapped the first ash off at about the 1 inch mark since it was getting a bit windy outside
• The wind died down so at the second ash I was able to hold on until about the 1.5 inch mark

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper has the aroma of some mild sweet tobacco, fairly light aroma here
• The foot has a nice burst of sweet tartness and some woodsy notes
• Pre-light draw brought lots more woodsiness to the mix of flavors
• On the first few draws, the Toabaco Baez Serie H continues with the wood theme but there is no sweetness at all now, more of a roasted coffee or roasted almond type of flavor
• The medium bodied creamy and smooth finish is a very different profile compared to the usual pepper blast I’m accustomed to from a lot of Pepin made cigars
• The retrohale is also fairly mild with just a small kick and creamy roasted type of finish
• The roasted almond and roasted coffee flavors have really developed nicely through the first half, they are very tasty and compliment the smooth creamy finish perfectly
• I’m getting a bit of raw cocoa flavors sneaking in here, nothing sweet, almost like a tasty bakers chocolate
• The woodsiness is beginning to make a big comeback in the last third and I’m evening getting some mild spices that are new to the mix
• All the flavors seem to be picking up the intensity yet they are still very well balanced and the body remains in a nice medium range, the roasted coffee notes at this point is shining through awesomely
• I was left with nothing but an enjoyable flavor profile at the end, no harshness or bitterness, just a finger burning nub as I smoked it down to the very last bit

Final Thoughts:
When I first has a Tobaco Baez Serie H, I was expecting a fairly spicy smoke with lots of pepper. Reason being is that this comes from the tobacco master mind of Don Pepin and My Father Cigars. To my pleasant surprise, this cigar offers up a wonderful creamy medium bodied smoke with none of the in-your-face pepper. This is especially awesome if you’re not a huge pepper fan, like me (although I love Peppercorn Steak, go figure!). The flavors on this cigar, although not overly multi-dimensional or complex, were down right tasty. And the vitola was perfect to make them shine. If this was a churchill or some bigger vitola I may have gotten bored with it but it was perfect in a robusto. With prices ranging in the mid-high $5 mark, this is a well worthwhile purchase to enjoy and it has some great consistency so you know you’re always getting a good smoke. (Note: I saw these selling for as high as $7+ in some places so you may need to do a bit of searching)

Pairings:
I do enjoy myself a good stout, doesn’t really matter what time of day it is. I had seen this St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout in the stores a few times but for some reason I never picked it up. I finally decided to grab a few bottles and see what it was all about. I’m proud to say it turned out to be a tasty brew. It’s not as thick or heavy as I was expecting but it does have a ton of malt flavor to it as well as a touch of bitterness, but nothing off-putting. There’s also some nice roasted flavors in there to round it all out. A fairly straightforward Oatmeal stout and I really enjoyed it for exactly what it was. It paired well with Tobacos Baez Serie H although I think the flavors in the brew may have been a bit too rich for the cigar. A good Dark Ale or Amber Ale would have made a nice pairing, or even a nice cup of coffee.

The post Tobacos Baez Serie H Famosos appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.