Garo Habano Los Lectores

The Los Lectores comes in 6 sizes:

Robusto “G” (6.25×54), “R” Robusto (4.75×52), “T” Torpedo (6.5×52), Churchill (7.48), DC (7.5×54) and Salomon (7×58)

You can notice that all the sizes are fairly large ring gauges and as mentioned, the one up for review today is the Churchill. I was hoping to end this string of reviews on a high note but unfortunately this cigar was not the shining star of the bunch. I’m lighting this up on a sunny day and hoping to settle in for a long enjoyable smoke…

Garo Habano Los Lectores

Cigar: Garo Habano Los Lectores
Drink: Diet Dr. Pepper
Vitola: Churchill (7×48)
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Ligero Cubano / Seco Piloto
Price: $8.00 from Garo Habano Website
Burn Time: ??? Did not fully burn either sample

Construction:
• Fairly even and round throughout, one sample had a very soft 2 inch spot near the foot
• Light brown colored wrapper
• No major veins
• Small crack in wrapper just above the band, nothing major
• Messy triple cap
• Tightly packed foot but there is one small hole, hope it doesn’t cause any tunneling
• Fairly soft when squeezed throughout
• Draw is a very open
• Draw improved about half-way through

Burn:
• Messy at the start, the wrapper is bubbling just past the burn and is quite wavy
• Needing extra attention to stay lit near the first couple inches
• Lots of canoeing that needed attention
• Cigar went out just past halfway point and needed re-lighting
• After going out twice more and cutting it once I tossed the stick with over 2 inches left
• Also tossed the second sample early due to more burn problems

Garo Habano Los Lectores

Tasting Notes:
• Wrapper and foot both have a barnyard/hay aroma
• Pre-light draw left a strong peppery flavor on lips and tongue, with an added hay flavor
• Initial draws offered none of the pepper I was expecting from the pre-light draw, mostly just a simple tobacco flavor and some burning wood taste
• Retrohale is very mild and smooth with a short finish, again just tobacco flavor so far
• The burning wood flavor turned to a woodsy/cedar flavor
• Flavors went very bitter after the re-light, let’s hope they come back
• Flavors came back after about 6 or 7 draws
• More relights and nothing but bitterness, nowhere near enjoyable anymore
• Even before relights the flavors were very bland and boring

Final Thoughts:
This was a disappointing cigar. The other Garo’s may have been one dimensional but they did have decent flavor. This particular cigar suffered from multiple flaws in flavor, burn, draw and construction. I’d be curious to hear if anyone else has tried one of these and if they had the same problems I did. Perhaps a smaller Vitola would do away with some of the problems I experienced?

Pairings:
I can’t suggest a great pairing for this cigar simply because of the problems I encountered. If I had to go by what the website says, the Ligero would likely need a good strong pairing like coffee or scotch to be well balanced.

The post Garo Habano Los Lectores appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Baritone (4.5×52) – Tenor (5.5×52) – Alto (6×50) – Soprano (6.5×52)

Garo Habano Maduro

Garo Habano Maduro

Cigar: Garo Habano Maduro
Drink: Mill Street Brewery Coffee Porter
Vitola: Alto (6 x 50)
Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Piloto Cubano
Price: $5.40 from the Garo Habano website
Burn Time: 2 hours

Construction:
• Very bumpy wrapper with two large veins
• A nice dark brown color but no oily sheen which I see on most Maduro’s
• Slightly messy triple cap
• Slightly springy and even firmness throughout
• Very open draw…

Burn:
• Very bad start, started to canoe, gave it an inch to fix itself but never did. Needed a major touch up
• After touch up, the burn was still wavy
• Another canoe at the halfway point but it fixed itself
• Big tunnel right at the band that caused the cigar to go out and needed a re-light
• More tunneling problems as I smoke through the last few inches, also having problems keeping it lit
• Needed another relight about 1.5 inches from the end
• Tunnels/Canoes seemed to affect both my samples, one of them had a hard time staying lit because of it

Garo Habano Maduro

Ash:
• Very flaky
• The massive amount of flaking makes it very weak and little pieces of ash are falling off all over me
• Light grey in color

Tasting Notes:
• Dry aroma on the wrapper is sweet coca
• More sweet cocoa on the foot with an added hint of coffee
• Initial draws are strong notes of coffee and a hint of bitter cocoa
• The bitter cocoa flavors got stronger when I reached the band, leaving a nice finish on the palate
• The body started off mild and has approached the medium range near the end
• Retrohale throughout the cigar has been sweet tobacco with a small bite and short finish
• Harsh bitterness creeping in after the last relight

Garo Habano Maduro

Pairing Suggestions:
This cigar was a good pairing with the Mill Street coffee porter I had. It’s a light porter with mild flavors. I wouldn’t opt for anything strong or overly flavored since the cigar has plenty of flavors to offer. A good option would be a similarly light beer, a diet soda, water or a light red wine like Beaujolais. I would personally stay away from stronger drinks like scotch or cognac since this is a lighter cigar.

Garo Habano Maduro

Garo Habano Maduro

The post Garo Habano Maduro Alto appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Garo Habano Centum

Robusto (4.75×52), Corona (5.5×42), Toro (6.52), Churchill (7×48), and Salomon (7.5×58)

You can read a little bit more about the Garo Habano Centum by visiting their website at www.garohabano.com. The cigar comes wrapped with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. I was excited to try this one out since I’ve had some great smokes that have wrappers from Ecuador. The description on the site also had some nice notes in it like toast, cocoa and espresso.

I’ve added a new section at the bottom of this review for pairings. Let me know what you all think of that little section at the bottom. If I get good feedback I’ll keep adding it to my reviews to help give you all some suggestions on what to pair the cigars with.

Garo Habano Centum

Cigar: Garo Habano Centum
Drink: Taylor Fladgate 10 year old Tawny Port
Vitola: Robusto (4.75 x 52)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Honduran Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $6.00/stick from the Garo Habano Website
Burn Time: 1.25 Hours

Construction:
• Very nice orange and cream colored band, almost antique looking with lots of little detail
• Very appealing medium brown and oily wrapper
• Two large veins running down the sides that will likely cause burn issues
• Cleanly applied double cap
• Foot has some holes in it and some of the filler appears to be very dark brown, almost black in color
• The bit of dark filler was also under the cap after cutting
• Consistent firmness throughout with a bit of spring to it
• Pre-light draw was very open on one sample, others were just right
• Lots of glue under the band and it caused a small tear in the wrapper, didn’t cause any major problems though

Garo Habano Centum

Smoke:
• Big mouthful of smoke
• Very light resting smoke

Ash:
• Light grey in color
• A bit of flaking
• Held on for over 1.5 inches

Garo Habano Centum

Final Thoughts:
The tasting notes on the website promise a variety of flavors (espresso, toast, cocoa) and complexity that I did not pick up in this cigar, the flavor was pretty straight forward. As with all my Garo’s so far, the flavors have been quite enjoyable. The downside is that they never change throughout the cigar. Let me be clear that this is not necessarily a bad thing. It is just a preference of mine to have some dimension to a cigar. The body never passed medium and it wasn’t overly complex, which makes this a good early day or beginner’s cigar.

Pairing Suggestions:
I paired this with some Tawny port and thought it made an ‘okay’ match. The flavors in a port are usually quite strong and sometimes very sweet and I find they match better with a full bodied cigar. The Habano wrapper made me think this was going to have a little more body than it did. A good red wine such as a merlot, or a dark porter/stout would make an excellent pairing. Light beers would not mix well. For non-alcoholic pairings, I’d suggest a diet soda.

Garo Habano Centum

The post Garo Habano Centum appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Garo Habano Aniversario X

I had high hopes for this cigar since it had the highest price point of the 5 samples sent to us and the Sun Grown Corojo wrapper with some Ligero filler sounded like a tasty and strong cigar. Unfortunately, my samples were plagued with wrapper issues and the body barely passed medium. The flavors were very enjoyable but didn’t change throughout the cigar. Once again, I’m braving the cold Canadian climate with the help of my propane heater to bring this review to our loyal readers.

Cigar: Garo Habano Aniversario X
Drink: Chateauneuf Du Pape French wine
Vitola: Bellicoso (6.25 x 54)
Wrapper: Sun-Grown Corojo
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Seco Cubano/Lijero Peru, Nicaragua, Criollo 98 & Cubano
Price: $8.40 from the Garo Habano web site
Burn Time: 2 – 2.25 Hours

Construction:
• Light Brown in color
• Slightly tapered head, not quite a typical Belicoso
• Small curly tail finish on top of a triple cap
• 2 prominent veins but not large enough to cause problems
• Tightly packed foot
• Good consistent firmness with a slight spring throughout
• On one sample, tight draw after two cuts, didn’t want to cut any further
• Still needed a third cut after lighting, past the tapered head now so it’s design seems kinds wasted, draw still tight but manageable
• Other samples had good draw
• At about halfway the wrapper split from the cap to the band in a straight and deep line, ruined the draw even more (see picture)
• Cigar kept expanding so the wrapper was barely burning
• Another sample split near the foot just after lighting…

Burn:
• Toasting was nice and even
• The bad draw sample felt like it was going out so I had to give it a lot of extra draws
• Burn is a little wavy but no touch ups needed through the first half
• The sample that didn’t split at the end never needed any corrections until I put it down

Smoke:
• Good amount of smoke
• Slight resting smoke that is nicely aromatic

Ash:
• Very nice light grey/white ash
• Ash is tight with no flaking
• Strong ash stuck on for about 1.5inches before I knocked it off

Tasting Notes:
• Not much aroma on the wrapper, just a slight hay/barnyard scent
• Foot has a stronger barnyard aroma and a bit of spice on the nose
• Very spicy on the lips after cutting
• Initial retrohale has a bite of spiciness that lingers
• Initial puffs are woodsy and earthy, very smooth with a great finish
• I was expecting this to be a strong smoke but it’s been consistently mild-medium bodied
• Approaching the halfway point and no flavor changes. They are good flavors but a little change would be nice
• As the wrapper expanded and stopped burning the flavors disappeared and was left with just bitter tobacco, was enjoying it until that happened…
• The sample that I was able to smoke to the nub was good to the end with only some minor bitterness

Final Thoughts:
• On the sample with the tight draw, the extra draws it needed made me feel like I was smoking it fast and I usually like to take it slow. Took away from my enjoyment of this cigar
• The flavors were tasty and very smooth but never changed. Some people may like a good consistent cigar but I prefer a little more dimension
• Cracking/exploding wrappers plagued all my samples
• The flavors were good and worth trying but they didn’t jump out at me. If they would have developed a bit or added a bit of complexity this would have been an excellent smoke minue the construction issues…

The post Garo Habano Aniversario X appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The first one I decided to light up was the Garo Blue. This seems to the mildest of their line and thought it would be a good starting point. Here is a short description of this cigar from their website:

“With mild bodied flavor and wrapped in a golden brown Connecticut shaded wrapper, Garo Blue smokes smoothly and maintains the same consistency through and through. Delicious flavors of nuts culminate in a lingering ceder-like light finish. The solid ash refuses to fall off from this hand crafted masterpiece. It is an excellent addition to your humidor collection.”

I am sitting down to enjoy this cigar on a Sunny Canadian morning in my backyard, the weather is just a bit below freezing and I have my propane heater keeping me warm.

Cigar: Garo Habano Blue
Drink: Diet Coke
Vitola: Robusto (4.75×52)
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Olor Dominican
Filler: Piloto Cubano
Price: $5.68
Burn Time: 1.5 Hours

Construction:
• Soft feel throughout with minor springiness
• Wrapper is a nice light brown in color
• Cleanly applied single cap
• Foot seems lightly packed, still some room left
• Open to Moderate draw on my samples, one was very open

Burn:
• Burn is going very fast at the start
• Slight waviness at the start required a minor touchup
• No problems after initial touch up
• Stayed lit surprisingly well considering how soft it felt
• Burn slowed down a bit as the draw improved about halfway through

Smoke:
• Moderate amount of smoke
• There’s a fair bit of resting smoke
• Not much aroma coming off the resting smoke
• The smoke coming off the foot had a blue tinge to it but the smoke coming from the cap was a normal blue color

Ash:
• Light gray
• Tiny bit of flaking, nothing major
• Strong ash, held on past 1.5 inches

Tasting Notes:
• Dry aroma is light and earthy
• Light spiciness on the lips
• Initial draws are earthy and nutty
• Mild bodied
• Retrohale is mild with a touch of spice and a nice cedar finish
• Slight cedar flavor developed near the last 2 inches
• Slight bitterness in last inch, fixed mostly after a little purge
• Consistent flavor through most of the cigar

Final Thoughts:
• Good as an early morning or lunch smoke
• Great to give to a friend interested in trying cigars for the first time
• Flavor was enjoyable but never changed, I wouldn’t opt for the larger vitolas but this can make a good go-to smoke in the smaller sizes
• Would pair great with almost anything, coffee, soda, water or a light beer
• The price is a little high when compared to similar mild Connecticut cigars but still a good smoke

The post Garo Habano Blue appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.