-Tony

Last year, I reviewed the Flor de Selva No. 20 LE Lancero which was made to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Maya Selva brand.  Consequently, the company decided to blend a regular production line based on the No. 20 LE and released it to the European market in 2016.  This year, this Honduran puro was brought to the US in four sizes:

• Egoista – 3½ x 56
• Petit Corona – 5½ x 42
• Robusto – 4¾ x 50
• Tempo – 6 x 60

Prices range from $9 to $14.50 in boxes of 10.

I acquired a couple of the Petit Corona size from the good folks at Cuenca Cigars.

The Basics:

Wrapper: Honduras Habano Jamastrán
Binder: Honduras Olancho Azacualpa
Filler: Various tobaccos from Honduras
Size: Petit Corona 5½ x 42
Price: $9
Smoking time: One hour, twenty-five minutes
Pairing: Silver City Brewery Luminous Libation Tripel-style ale (ABV 9%)

Pre-light:

The Flor de Selva Colección Aniversario Nº20 is a nice looking cigar, sporting a light chocolate brown wrapper with a red/orange cast with slight darker mottling.  Veins are minimal and the seams are virtually invisible.  The cigar is extremely firm in its pack, and has a bit of heft to it.  I like the simplicity of the color scheme of the two bands, which is red, white, and gold, although the ones on the Petit Corona were obviously printed for the larger vitolas and the wraparound cuts off part of the copy.  The aroma off of the wrapper is very light, showing earth, tobacco, and a somewhat meaty scent and dissipates quickly once out of the cellophane.  Likewise, the foot scent also requires some effort to pick up, and is mainly natural tobacco.  An easy clip of the cap reveals a snug, but tolerable, draw that gives up notes of sweet spice on top of cedar and tobacco.

First third:

The sweet spice is present in the opening draws of the Flor de Selva Colección Nº20 Aniversario, along with cedar, earth, natural tobacco, and light white pepper.  The sweetness soon falls back as the earthiness becomes more prominent.  The burn line is fairly sharp and straight, with a layered light gray ash that holds on for ¾”.  The earth fades a bit as the flavors blend together in a smooth and balanced mix.

Middle third:

The sweetness and earth have been swapping places every few puffs and the pepper has been making a very gradual climb up on the retrohale, as the cigar settles into the medium bodied range.  The wood notes have become stronger and darker, as well.  Some sourness creeps in, but I find that spacing out the draws a little longer helps to alleviate that issue and turns it toward more of a sweet/sour citrus.

Final third:

As the Flor de Selva Colección Nº20 Aniversario enters its final third, the body, which had moved to the plus side of medium, has shifted back down to medium, melding the flavors together so that no particular one stands out; not necessarily a bad thing.  Earthiness once again nudges forward and the cigar burns down to a firm and cool nub, finishing at medium-plus, with low medium strength.

Conclusion:

First off, I just have to say it: I don’t like the name of this cigar just for the length and the fact that it requires some Alt+codes to type, which is why I avoided doing so as much as possible.  Rant over.  The Maya Selva Flor de Selva Colección Nº20 Aniversario is a good cigar, and I enjoyed smoking it, even though there is something about Honduran puros that normally don’t quite fit my preferred flavor profile.  I think it is the preponderance of that earthy flavor that needs a good dose of sweetness and spice to balance things out for me.  I did, however, enjoy this one quite a bit more than I did the more expensive (and limited) No. 20 LE, as the flavors in that one leaned a little too much on the earthy side for me.  With its solid construction and the fact that I didn’t have to think about corrections or re-lights, even after letting it sit for an extended amount of time, I think this is a cigar worth giving a shot.  Although the price of $9 for a petit corona seems a bit high, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker for those who love the Honduran flavors, as it also provided a surprisingly long smoking time for a smaller cigar.

Pairing:

Matching this cigar with a beer seemed pretty easy: stay away from the bitter brews and ones that would tend to overpower the body of the smoke, such as stouts and quads.  I chose to go with Silver City Brewery’s Luminous Libation, a Belgian Tripel-styled ale.  This Bremerton, WA brewery’s creation is pretty much a typical American tripel, with banana, citrus, sour apple, and grassy hops combined with a light sweetness and mouthfeel.  Those flavors played well with what the Flor de Selva Colección Nº20 Aniversario had to give, and helped bring out a little more sweetness from the cigar, while filling in any gaps with its fruitiness.  I can also see a sweet, aged rum, or even a sweet sherry or Madeira wine, going well with this smoke.

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The Good Stuff:

There isn’t a ton of information out there about Casa de Entrada’s Entrada, so I decided to slack out and let them do the talking. Here is the information about the cigar found on the Entrada Website:

en·tra·da

noun \ə̇nˈträdə, en\ : entry; an expedition; a journey.

Entrada has been our purpose for this journey.Passion is the fire that lights this journey. Passion for the leaf and it’s history as a form of trade, commerce, pleasure, memories and as an accomplishment by man.

“Respeto de los que vinieron antes de mí.” – Respect for those that came before us. We believe in the farmer, the field hands, the sorters, rollers, blenders and many others who are instrumental in the development and growth of an industry that we are very fortunate to be a part of.

We believe that when purpose, passion and talent are combined they work together and the end result is a masterpiece: Entrada.

“The virtue of a good cigar man is patience,” says Arsenio Ramos, a 4th generation tobacco master. Patience in the hands that first planted the seed in rich Nicaraguan soil and in the workers who carefully tended the fields, harvesting the full, vibrant tobacco plant only at the precise moment when it was ready. Patience in the Casa Fernandez artisans who crafted a blend that hits only the right notes, then rolled it in its wrapper not so it would be good enough, but so it would be perfect.

We only ask that you have the patience to slow down, savor this rich flavorful cigar, and breathe in this moment. Because life is too short to smoke a cigar not worthy of your time.

ORIGINS

The Entrada cigar was hand crafted exclusively for Casa de Entrada by Casa Fernandez. Using Cuban seed in their fertile Nicaraguan fields, Entrada is born from over three decades of experience. Entrada was specially blended only for Casa de Entrada by the master himself, Arsenio Ramos.

As a vertically integrated business, Casa Fernandez is able to control every step of the cigar making process ensuring that every time you light up an Entrada, you will get a consistently delightful smoke. From the authentic Cuban-sourced seed, seedlings are transplanted to fields and nurtured by hundreds of skilled tobacconists to harvest. In every inhale of Entrada, you will notice the care and love that went into the production of your cigar.

A pamphlet that I received from the company states that the cigar was the work of Chaz Kline who is the founder of Casa de Entrada based in Omaha, Nebraska. Matt Zimmerle is the General Manager of Casa de Entrada while Rusty Mcaulay and Arsenio Ramos were the men behind the Entrada blend.

I’m a huge Casa Fernandez fan so I’m very much interested in how this cigar pans out. The Entrada comes in four sizes: a 6×60 Gordo, a 6×54 Toro, a 5×52 Robusto, and a 5 1/2 x 44 Corona. All of which come packaged in boxes of 20 which run between $8.20 and $10.60 a stick. The company states they are currently working on releasing other vitolas as well including a lancero, which I’m always a fan of. (EDIT: as I read through another site, I noticed the Lancero is actually already available as well). Huge thanks goes out to the Casa De Entrada team for sending a few of these our way for review.

Size: 5.5 x 44
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan Criollo, Viso, Corojo
Body: Full
Strength: Medium
Price: $8.20
Pairing: Descutes The Stoic 2015 (Belgian style quad 10.9% ABV)

Prelight:

The Entrada starts out with a very rough, rusting looking wrapper that’s consistently dark brown in color with a few lighter brown areas around the smaller veins found throughout the cigar’s body. The texture of the wrapper is extremely toothy, and almost as gritty as sandpaper with a very hard/firm feel. The cigar is very slender, but is rock hard giving nothing as I press it between my fingers. Leading up through the small, box-pressed body the wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself before coming to a round double cap. The cigar is polished off with 2 bands, the first is a white, and red stamp designed band with the Entrada crest and logo as well as “Hecho con El Amor de Trescientas Manos” which means “Made with the love of 300 hands”. The second band rests on the foot and simply states “1st Edition”. It’s worth noting that I absolutely love the band design on this cigar.

The wrapper on the Entrada is faint in aroma giving off nothing more than some soft spice and tobacco scents while the foot of the cigar is a totally different story boasting of strong pepper, spice, cedar, and grain. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar double bladed cutter. The cold draw is much of the same as the foot aromas kicking out a ton of spice, cedar, pepper, and natural tobacco flavors.

First Third:

The Entrada starts out with a whole mess of molasses, bold cedar, sweetness/brown sugar, spice, and vanilla. What an absolutely stunning flavor profile right off the bat. It’s bold, yet contained. The draw on the Entrada is flawless. Each little puff kicks out a great amount of thick, white smoke while the box-pressed cigar fits perfectly in my hand and mouth. The burn line is razor thin and dead even. Even thought he dark/medium gray ash looked pretty compact, it fell into my lap about a half inch in which is why I didn’t get a good shot of the first ash as I usually do.

Second Third:

The flavors remain consistent going into the second third. Lots of sweetness, spice, vanilla, cocoa, cedar, and some great berry flavors started to creep into the mix. The retrohale showcases a much more cedar-heavy, spicy profile which coats my nasal passages. The burn line has started to get slightly wavy, but nothing too concerning as I close out the second third with absolutely nothing in terms of a nicotine kick.

Finish:

The flavors are still ramping up into the final third of the Entrada. The cedar leads with charge backed by bold spice and berry with subtle sweetness, cocoa, and vanilla. The flavor profile in this cigar has been amazing. The burn line is all cleaned up and I never once had to reach for my torch to tough up or relight the cigar. As instructed, I really took my time with this cigar. It took almost 2 hours to take this cigar down to the nub and I never once experienced any harshness or extra heat build-up.

Overview:

For some reason, Casa Fernandez-made cigars are very distinct, and I can always pick them out, it reminds me how Padron, and Davidoff all carry certain district flavor profiles. Anyways, maybe it’s just me. The Entrada by Casa Entrada is a great cigar with falls in line with everything you would expect a Casa Fernandez-made cigar would be. The flavor profile is very bold right from the start, and pours on the flavor until the nub. While complex, all the flavors marry in very well with each other. The strength never peaked over medium, and the burn was flawless. This is a solid cigar for the price and once that I would love to have in my regular rotation.

Pairing:

The Stoic (not to be confused with “Not the Stoic”) is a Belgian style quad brewed in Bend, Oregon by Descutes brewing, which is no stranger to Casas Fumando. This 10.9% Quad is a hefty little beer and one I stock up on every time I see it. It’s a “Tony” beer through and through. The beer starts with some bold booziness, lots of spice, dried fruit, sweetness, and cinnamon with a heavy mouthfeel before finishing a bit tart with more booziness and heavy spice leaving behind a very sweet, honey/molasses aftertaste. Honestly, its like they too the Entrada and turned it into a beer and the Stoic was the outcome. It’s very easy to see why I paired this cigar with this beer, they are almost identical and it made for an incredible pairing.

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