The AFR-75 will be available in three sizes; the Sublime(5×56), the Edmundo(6×58), and the Inmenso(7×60). There will only be 500 boxes per size made available this year. The AFR-75 marks the second release in a series of signature lines from PDR. AFR-75 references the initials for Master Blender Abraham Flores Rosario and his year of birth, 1975. “I’m really excited about the new lines. We had a lot of success with the A. Flores Serie Privada line and we’re going to be doing more special release small batch projects. As a blender I have a lot of fun creating different blends that we can put out in smaller amounts for the hardcore cigar guys to enjoy”, says Abe Flores of PDR Cigars.

The Facts
Sample Provided by PDR Cigars
Price: $14.18 per single / $340.20 per box of 24 (atlanticcigar.com)
Vitola: Gordo
Size: 6 by 58
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder and Filler: Nicaraguan Criollo 98, Connecticut Broadleaf and Dominican
Smoke Time: 2 Hours and 10 Minutes

Construction

As I examined the AFR-75, I immediately noticed the consistency in its dark chocolate wrapper all the way to its pig-tailed cap. This is a beautiful cigar to look at. There was only one medium sized vein on the leaf and the cigar was fairly bumpy.  Going with a straight cut, I came across a draw that had a tad more resistance than preferred.

Performance

The draw was bit firm at the start of the cigar, however, a decent amount of smoke was still being produced. The cigar burned exceptionally well through the first third.  After the first ashed dropped at an inch and a half the draw opened up and began producing much more smoke. At the midway point, a quick touch-up was required to get the burn back in-line.  The ash became flaky after the touch-up but still held to an inch before falling my ashtray.

Flavors

The wrapper had a faint barnyard scent, while the foot showed off notes of sweet chocolate and natural, rich tobacco After taking my time lighting the 58 ring gauge stick, this limited edition cigar was off to the races. Dark earth notes, leather, and spice awakened my palate and instantly grabbed my attention. There was also some sweetness that landed on my tongue when the smoke first arrived in my mouth and a tartness to it that I have come to expect with cigars that utilize Mexican San Andres tobacco. The retrohale brought out  cedar notes that I did not notice beforehand and lots of black pepper.  As the cigar progressed, I began to pick up on faint cocoa notes in the profile.  In the final third, some buttery flavors arrived, as well as some toasted notes…. Just like buttered toast.  The flavors began on the medium side, but as the draw opened the flavors did as well.

Wrap-up

The AFR-75 was one heck of an enjoyable smoke. The earth, leather, cocoa, and spice suited my palate very well. The construction of the AFR-75 was just about perfect, which was reflected in its excellent performance. The single touch-up took nothing away from the experience. If you enjoy San Andres tobacco and bold cigars like davidoff cigars, the AFR-75 Edicion Limitada will be right up your alley. This cigar is worthy of a five pack purchase even with its hefty price tag.

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Well I still happened to have one of the blends he put together for that trip while at the Joya de Nicaragua factory and I’m putting on the chopping block for today’s review! Tony has another Drew Estate trip coming up tomorrow so I figured that would be an excellent segway. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for a full report once he gets back.

There’s not much else to report here, Tony’s posts above give a great explanation of the factory and the process they followed to put these blends together. The wrapper on this guy is the same as the Joya De Nicaragua Dark Corojo (Of course Tony would go for the most powerful wrapper in the house! lol). As for the rest of the leaves, I don’t have the details but we know the cigar is a 100% Nicaraguan Puro, Tony may add some more details about this later on.

So without further adieu, let’s dive in to see what this special and SUPER rare limited edition cigar has in store for me…

Cigar: Joya de Nicaragua Anthony Casas LE 2012
Drink: Coffee
Vitola: Corona Gordo (5.75 x 46)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nigaraguan
Price: Priceless!
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The top of the cigar is finish with a nice and clean double cap
• At the bottom, we have a well packed foot with just a small hole near the middle
• The wrapper is seriously toothy and has some decent medium sized veins
• Cut was easy and I made it very small but still ended up with a perfectly drawing cigar
• From cap to foot, the whole cigar was quite firm with just a bit of give when I squeezed it

Burn:
• Toasting was even, easy and pretty fast leaving me with a nicely glowing foot
• It seemed that right off the bat the wrapper stopped burning and the cigar started tunneling a bit, I decided to give it a quick touch-up to help it along for now
• After my little correction we look to be off to a good start as the cigar starts to burn razor sharp
• A few more touchups were needed near the halfway mark as the burn started to go a little slanted
• Touchups continue through the rest of the cigar, and they are really affecting the flavors
• For a corona vitola, this cigar is burning super slow

Smoke & Ash:
• A good amount of smoke is coming from each easy draw, it’s not super dense but I’d say just about right
• So far the ash is looking to be a nice light grey color with some darker accents
• The resting smoke is pretty prominent and steady, pumping out a nice campfire aroma
• First ash tapped off around 3/4 of an inch, it was starting to look wobbly but still seemed clean and even
• The next couple of ashes were about the same length but they seem to be getting a little more flaky, possibly because of the touch-ups I’ve needed to do
• The cigar continues to pump out a ton of smoke right down to the end

Tasting Notes:
• Wrapper aroma is giving off a sort of sweet cedar aroma to it
• From the foot , I’m getting more of that nice sweet cedar with a touch of cocoa
• Pre-light draw gave me an interesting burst of cinnamon flavors that was very tasty and unexpected
• Initial draws bring more of that sweet cedar and a touch of the cinnamon notes, very nice
• Before evening burning through the first inch I’m getting a bunch of spice starting to kick in, lots of pepper here now
• A bit of dryness on the back of my throat as I pass the first 3rd here
• The burn started to get a little wild around the half-way mark so the cigar has needed a few touchups here and there which has affected the flavor quite a bit
• Retrohale definitely has some bite to it and a dry finish
• Body has been mostly in the medium range but it’s definitely picking up a bit in the last half
• In the last half, i’m left with mostly a dry spice type of flavor and some burnt notes due to the touchups i’ve been doing
• Not much change up in flavors to the end but the burnt notes have continued due to the touch ups

Final Thoughts:
The pre-light aromas and the first half of this cigar were really quite tasty and exciting. Unfortunately they didn’t last the whole way through but overall it was quite a nice experience, especially with that cinnamon burst at the beginning. Tony is definitely well on his way to becoming a world class torecdor! Will be exciting to see what he comes up with on his next venture.

Pairings:
Just plain coffee today, I lit this one up a bit earlier in the day so the Scotch and Port bottles just were not appealing quite yet. I know it’s 5 o’clock somewhere but I’ll wait till my own timezone hits 5 today! The coffee did make for an excellent pairing though, especially with the cinnamon notes at the beginning. With the build up in spices and body, I would have really liked to have a sweeter pairing at that point. But coffee really is an awesome all-around pairing to have with a nice cigar.

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The Good Stuff: Black Market as one of the few releases Alan Rubin over at Alec Bradley kicked out last year. The Black market is composed of a Nicaraguan Wrapper, a Sumatran binder and Panamanian & Honduran fillers. This cigar was actually manufactured by Nestor Plasencia at the Tabacos de Oriente factory in Honduras. The black market comes in 5 sizes (The Gordo 6×60, The Churchill 7×50, the Robusto 5 1/4×52, the Toro 6×60 and the Torpedo 6 1/8 x 54) and are contained in these crazy “Black Market” looking, weapon boxes that hold 22 cigars each and run between $6.75 and $8.00. You can find these in stock over at GothamCigars.com.

Size: 5 1/4 x 52  –  Wrapper: Nicaraguan  –  Binder: Sumatran  –  Filler: Panamanian/Honduran  Body: Medium/Full

Prelight: First things first, let’s take this ginormous band off this Alec Bradley Black Market. Before I do, let me just take a minute to tell you how awesome I think this band is. I love it when companies do things a bit different. I know, this isn’t the first time that I have seen a ¾ length foot band, but I like it. It’s got this neat, recycled paper texture with black stencil ink with the Alec Bradley Name, the “AB” crest, along with the words “Black Market”. This definitely resembles the kind of artwork one would see at a Black Market. Anyways, not that the band is gone I am exposed to a nice added touch with a smaller band with an identically designed appearance. Under that is this just awesome looking, mean, meaty, toothy, webby wrapper. The wrapper itself is a very dark brown with patches of lighter brown along with a few oranges mixed in. There really isn’t any larger veins at all, only a ton of smaller ones making the cigar look as if it is wrapped in spider web. The wrapper feels really tough and durable, while the body of the cigar contains no soft spots all the way up to it’s round double cap.

The wrapper of this Black Market pumps out a very welcoming cedar, leather, and spice aroma while the foot is all spice and tobacco. The cap gave me a little trouble clipping using my double bladed Palio cutter, but once I pressed hard enough it came right off. The cold draw produces a really deep, dark chocolate, spice, and almost curry flavor each time I take a puff. It feels a bit tight, but I am hoping it opens up a bit once I actually fire the cigar up.

First Smoke: Alec Bradley’s Black Market starts out with some rich cedar, chocolate, leather, nutmeg, and just enough pepper to tease my tongue. The draw isn’t nearly as tight as it was before I lit it up, producing nice clouds of brown smoke with each puff. It does take a few to get to the desired limit, but it’s not plugged by any means. The burnline is pretty thick, but dead even. The ash left behind is very compacted (even with the winds I’m experiencing right now), and a bright white with lighter grey spots. The ash actually held on for well over an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: The pepper is now completely gone in this Black Market and in fact, most of the flavors seemed to have taken a nose dive. I am now left with a smooth chocolate, slight cedar, and a lot of just natural, earthy tobacco. The retrohale is still really potent though, priming with a very deep cedar. I am not feeling any nicotine and all at this point, in fact the only thing I am feeling is a little bit of dry mouth from the cigar. Luckily I have some juice to moisten that up.

Finish: Into the final third of this Alec Bradley Black Market and not much has changed. It’s still an all around smooth cigar, but the dampening of the flavors has really started to rain on this parade. The flavors have remained a slight cedar, slight spice, with lots of strong, natural tobacco flavors. There isn’t much body in this cigar either as even after an hour, which is how long it took me to take this cigar down to the nub, there isn’t any sign of a nicotine kick. The burn however, stayed dead even the entire time without any touch ups or relights. There was no harshness built up what so ever.

Overview: The Alec Bradley Black Market starts out with a ton of potential. Lots of upfront flavor, great construction and appearance, and a perfect burn. It was later in the experience that I realized just how one dimensional this cigar is. Nothing really changed from the start of the smoke through the end, except the smoothing out of the flavors. I would say this is a solid stick, but if you are looking for something that has more depth, this isn’t the cigar for you. There is nothing really wrong with this cigar, but at the same time nothing really stands out either. For the price the Black Market is perfect for the novice cigar smoker for the novice looking for a straight forward, enjoyable experience however, if you are looking for a cigar with some good switchups, and a lot of character, this isn’t for you.

Pairing: Well, as I stated last review I haven’t been feeling well. I have a kidney infection which I think, has pretty much passed at this point. I am still on meds so no alcohol until next weekend, so I paired with the next best thing. Some 100% Cranberry juice. I mention in my reviews a lot that I would pair certain cigars with juice, tea, or coffee outside of the normal libations but I think this is the first time I have actually done it in a posted review. The Cranberry juice added some nice fruity depth to the Black market while pairing in perfectly with some nice tart flavors. If you haven’t paired a cigar with apple, or cranberry juice then I highly suggest you do so.

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The Good Stuff: San Lotano is the latest brain child of master-blender AJ Fernandez. AJ is better known for his crazy successful blends such as the Man O’ War line, the Ave Maria, La Herencia, and even the AF1 and AF2 from Emilio cigars. Working backwards from mail-order production, AJ Fernandez has released the San Lotano which is a line exclusive only to Brick and Mortar shops. The San Lotano lines are blended in the Tabacalera Fernandez factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. The Oval in particular made it’s debut at this year’s IPCPR show in Las Vegas, sporting a top priming Ecuadorian Habano Ligero wrapper,  Nicaraguan binder, along with Nicaraguan, Honduran, and a top secret filler blend. The Oval comes in six different sizes: Petit Robusto – 4.5 x 54, Corona – 5 x 54, Robusto – 5.5 x 54, Toro – 6 x 54, Gordo – 6.5 x 60, and the Pyramid – 6.5 x 54 which will all range from $6 to about $9 a stick. These were kindly sent of to us by Spence over at AJ Fernandez Cigars.

Size:  6 x 54  –  Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Ligero  –  Binder: Nicaraguan  –  Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran, Secret concoction

Prelight: The obvious stand-out characteristic in this cigar is the shape. Despite being a little quirky, and different then what I am used to, the rounded “oval” format of the Oval makes it incredible easy to hold. This reminds be a lot of the rounded box-press cigars that Padron has been making. Outside of the strange shape the San Lotano Oval sports the suburb quality and construction we have all grown to expect from AJ Fernandez. The body of the cigar is very firm with only a few veins leading up to the very round double cap. The band is identical to the rest of the San Lotano line with the cold print and AJ Fernandez crest, with the only difference being the dark greet “San Lotano Oval” slogan in the center of the band. The other blends tend to use a difference color background.  The wrapper is very thick, and durable carrying a nice milky, dark chocolate brown that’s extremely consistent until you get towards to cap of the cigar where the color begins to darken quite a bit. I love to see color differences in cigars. It gives them a much more natural, less dyed look.

The wrapper of the cigar gives off just a nice, smooth natural tobacco scent while the foot explodes with spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and just about every other sweet seasoning you’d find in a bakery. The aroma is incredible. It almost smells like a cinnamon roll. The Oval cut clean and actually very easy with my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw wasn’t as warn and toasty with cinnamon producing fun as I expected. The spice is there for sure, with a nice floral flavor then an overall natural earthy and tobacco flavor. Time to light this guy up and see what the real flavors end up like.

First Smoke: WOAH. Prepare for some flavor. The San Lotano Oval starts out with the just massive burst of cinnamon, sweet tobacco, slight pepper, and spice. All the flavors I picked up in the prelight really shine though and even the first few draws are flavor packed and ready to demand your attention. I’m not used to getting this much flavor off the bat of a larger ring gauged cigar. The draw is very easy and smooth giving a pretty nice sized mouthful of smoke with each puff. The Oval really doesn’t give off a lot of stationary smoke, and even then, despite all the flavor this cigar puts out the stationary smoke is relatively mild with only hints of spice and cedar. The burnline is dead even and razor sharp leaving behind a nice trail of solid, medium grey ash which held on for well over an inch before giving way. That’s a long way considering just how windy is was outside while I was smoking this.

Halfway There: At this point the pepper has completely dropped out of the picture. The San Lotano Oval is now pumping out a nice smooth, cinnamon, floral, cedar flavor with some interesting chocolate notes of the after taste. I am still impressed with the amount of flavor this larger ring gauged cigar has been able to kick out. I usually stay away from larger ring gauges for both flavor, and comfort reasons but the Oval Gordo, with it’s unique format doesn’t carry either of those two problems. The retrohale is awesome on this cigar coating your nasal passage with a very nice spice. I found myself retrohaling the hell out of this cigar. The burn is still solid and even and I’m barely feeling just a little nicotine kick from this cigar after the second third.

Finish: The San Lotano had a unique way of really smoothing out without losing the flavor. Usually cigars tend to ramp up in body into the final third but the Oval did just the opposite and actually weakened in body which really made up for the final flavors. The main flavors were still cinnamon, nutmeg, earth tobacco with nice chocolate notes, only a bit smoother and not as bold as the first two thirds making for a really creamy, smooth finish. No harshness, no heat buildup, just an all around smooth and enjoyable finish.

Overview: AJ Fernandez has been on a roll the last few years creating some of the best mail order blends money can buy. AJ and his Brick and Mortar exclusive San Lotano line just added a few notches in his belt. Not to mention, after smoking multiple vitolas of all the cigars in the line, the Oval has to be the stand out and one of the best cigars I have had this year. Top ten worthy? We’ll have to see. But what I can say is that this is a perfect cigar for any level of cigar smoker. Tons of flavor without overbearing body makes it enjoyable for both the Pro Cigar Smoker, and the Novice. The price is spot on, and this is boxworthy by far and will be in my regular rotation for some time to come.

Pairing: I decided to pair the San Lotano Oval with a bottle of New Belgium’s Lips of Faith Series “Kick”. I really want to stress that THIS IS NOT A BEER I WOULD RECOMMEND PAIRING WITH CIGARS. Kick is an ale brewed with 75% Pumpkin and Cranberry Juice and 25% Oak wooden barrel aged ale. That being said you would expect a sweet, low alcohol, smooth beer. No way. This is a very strong, VERY sour beer coming in at 8.5% ABV. This isn’t your beginners beer and if you aren’t a fan of sour ales, or have never tried them, you may want to stay away from this beer all together. Having smoked through the entire line of the San Lotano Oval I knew what this cigar was capable of. And to be honest, I knew that it would be one of the only cigars in my humidor that packed enough flavor to stand up to this beer. Did I make a wise decision? Shit yeah I did! The pumpkin and cranberry tart paired perfectly and even became an equalizer at some points with the Oval. If you can get your hands on this beer and enjoy sours, do it. It was a neat experiment that actually turned out the way that I had hoped.

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