Today I reached into my Cuban humidor to pick out a stick from a box I recently ordered. I hadn’t tried a Hoyo de Monterrey Spicure Especial prior to this little box purchase so I started off with a 10 count box to see how I would like them before I bought a larger box. The cigars have the standard Hoyo De Monterrey bands with an additional white band below that with the “Epicure Especial” name on it,

Hoyo De Monterrey is one of the many cigar manufacturers from Cuba and they offer a fair variety of cigars. I’ve dabbled in some of their other vitolas and heard good things about this one, especially considering their fair price tag. So I bit the bullet and grabbed a box. The cigars come in a cedar box of 10 with a sliding lid. This damn lid practically required a vice grip to get off! Needless to say, the lid never went back on the box after that… So after prying the lid off I got to see my cigars.

The Hoyo De Monterrey Epicure Especial come bound together with a nice golden yellow ribbon adorned with the cigar name. The name of the cigar is very misleading considering it’s actual vitola. A typical epicure is much smaller but this cigar is almost a full toro size! As I smoke this I’m sitting outside enjoying some awesome sunny weather. Let’s see how this cigar stacks up!

Cigar: Hoyo De Monterrey Epicure Especial
Drink: Unibroue Brewery Maudite
Vitola: Epicure Especial (5.8 x 50)
Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Price: About $8
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The wrapper on this cigar is fairly rough looking with quite a few bumps and some medium sized veins running along it
• The color of the wrapper is a nice deep brown, almost chocolate and shines with it’s oiliness
• The top of the Epicure Especial is finished with a triple cap, not messy but not perfectly clean either
• The foot of the cigar looks fairly well packed with no gaps to be seen
• A slight squeeze reveals a fairly firm cigar with just a little springiness to it
• The cut on this cigar was super easy and fell off in one clean piece

Burn:
• Toasting was very simple, the tobacco started glowing quickly
• Turns out the toasting wasn’t too even so I needed a little touch up shortly after lighting
• After that minor correction we’ve be running in auto-pilot! No problem for the first couple of inches at all
• Discovered a little tunnel after the first ash and it’s making the burn a little lopsided now, will need a touch up
• Cigar actually went out a bit early

Smoke & Ash:
• Right off the bat I’m getting a ton of smoke from each draw
• The resting smoke is fairly minimal and gives off an almost campfire type of aroma, like burning wood
• Ash is a little rough looking but it’s staying compact and clean
• The color on the ash is a fairly light grey with some spots being nearly white
• I started to get a bit of flaking on the ash as it grew to almost 2 inches in length
• First ash fell calmly into the ashtray just short of 2 inches

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper of the Epicure Especial gives off a nice cedar aroma with a slight nuttiness to it
• Pre-light draw is very woodsy and has some nice spice added into the mix, a bit of white pepper and some raw nutmeg
• Initial draws bring more of the woodsy notes and a very creamy undertone, I’m very surprised to see the pre-light spice is almost completely gone
• So far the body is fairly mild but smooth and creamy, retrohale has almost no bite to it with a cedar finish
• I’m getting a little bit of the saltiness that Tony always mentions in his Cuban reviews
• There are some slight hints of leather here and there along with some bits of roasted coffee
• There’s a lot going on the the flavor department, very complex but it’s very smooth, balanced and tasty so I’m enjoying it quite a bit
• As the cigar hits the half-way mark, some of the initial spice is making a comeback with a bit of nutmeg and clove
• All the flavors seemed to slowly intensify as I passed the halfway mark with the coffee and woody notes still being the most prominent
• As I approach the nub I’m getting some interesting earthy and vegetal flavors I wasn’t expecting
• The body had a nice buildup to the finish and started to turn a tad bitter with under an inch to go

Final Thoughts:
Well there’s not much I can say about this stick other than I really liked it! What a great and relaxing experience! The cigar had a nice variety of flavors that were always well balanced and enjoyable. The smooth and creamy aspects made it a pleasure to smoke along with a great burnline. The price of these is also very fair coming in at around $8. It’s not an “in-your-face” cigar and if you prefer a lot of strength you won’t find it here. The little bit of build-up near the end was a nice turn as I was expecting it to be mild the whole way through. Considering the age of this cigar being only from 2009 I think another year would make the last bit just as smooth but it’s still a tasty cigar.

Pairings:
Another Canadian craft brew for me today. The Maudite from Unibroue Brewery! I’ve had this one with quite a few other reviews including the Alec Bradley Family Blend, La Aurora 1495 and My Father Le Bijou 1922. It’s a very tasty and smooth strong beer with an 8% alc/vol. I’ve sai it before and I’ll say it again, this does not taste like a strong beer AT ALL! It’s so smooth and light tasting. you get some fruity/tart undertones with a slight malty bitterness and a clean finish. Very enjoyable and seems to pair well with a lot of cigars. It did pair fairly well here although I think a nice porter or stout would have gone better from the brew category. Port of course would have been perfect and a strong coffee would have been excellent as well.

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Again, if you are just tuning in, Brooks from Smokingstogie.com was kind enough to send me a 5-stick set of (so far) rare, blind cigars to review. If you haven’t checked out Smokingstogie.com before I strongly suggest you head that way and give Brooks a hello. The blog is jam-packed with honest reviews, and amazing photography of some of the rarest, most expensive cigars every made.

Prelight: Cigar #3 is a standard, bulky little robusto sized cigar. The wrapper is a very light brown with shades of yellow and orange mixed in all accented by an extremely shiny, silky overcoat. The wrapper is beautiful and carries a very textured character as each and every little bump and vein in the leaf are highly visible with a darker shade of brown. The meaty body leads to the famous, and well loved round triple cap. The construction of this cigar is mnear flawless outside of a few softer spots towards the foot of the cigar. Overall the cigar is tightly packed with a ton of tobacco visible at the foot, but overall very soft and squishy in contrast to most other cigars.

I can pull very little aroma off the wrapper of the cigar. Just a slight spice and soft woodsy smell. The story is similar for the foot, but I am able to pull more of the spice, less of the wood. The cap clipped very cleanly with extreme ease using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw produces a very earthy, malty flavor with only a little of the spice present on the aftertaste.

First Smoke: This cigar was a pain in the ass to get lit. But once I did, it was off and running. The cigar started out with just a subtle greeting of white pepper which transitioned into a very pleasant spicy, wood mixture much like what I picked up from the cold draw. The main flavors are accented by a splash of citrus, and the saltiness picked up on the wrapper. If you read a few of the reviews on this site, I have made mention to that salt flavor taken from the wrapper, and how it is only present on certain cigars. Is it too early to call the country of origin? If the thick, crazy burnline, flaky, zebra striped ash, and light body have anything to say about it, I would have to dub this one a Cuban early in. But we all know I screwed this up on the first cigar that Brooks sent my way. Anywho, cigar #2 is kicking out a massive draw that leaves behind a thick, cedar scented lasting cloud of smoke. The ash held steady for about an inch and a half before falling to its doom in my ashtray.

Halfway there: The pepper is completely gone, and what is left behind is a hell of a smooth and creamy smoke. The cedar and other woodsy/earthy flavors are rocking hard while a more milky, almost heavy-creamed coffee flavor has snuck in. The malty flavors I spoke about early in are starting to jab through as well.  I’m not sure if it’s the cigar or the we-haven’t-gottona-a-drop-of-rain-in-3months El Paso weather, but I am developing a case of dry mouth. Again, I am pairing all of these blind cigars with water as to not hinder the experience. I only get one shot at these and pairing incorrectly usually turns out to be a horrible idea. The burnline has shockingly enough completely corrected itself and the cigar is burning dead even at this point. The retrohale on this cigar is wonderful, coating my nasal passage with a very rich and creamy cedar flavor/aroma. I’m not feeling too much of anything nicotine from this cigar at all.

Finish: The body began showing face a little more into the final third. It didn’t get crazy strong or harsh, but there was a noticeable increase in strength. The pepper also came out of hiding and held on to a flavor accent to the very potent cedar and creamy malt that commanded my attention. The burnline still remained completely even cause no touch-ups or relights of any kind. I’m still not really feeling much in the nicotine department, which is a good thing. This cigar is perfect at the mild/medium that it is. I am forcing myself to really take my time and enjoy this one as it’s been burning pretty quickly. It took only about and hour and fifteen minutes to take the whole stick down. There was only a very slight harshness that I encountered into the very final inch of this cigar. Nothing off-putting, and the fact that the cigar never burned hot, even down to the nub made it all worth it.

Overview: This cigar was a very awesome stick, perfect for those lazy Sundays. Mild, smooth, full of flavor, and just quick enough to not have to spend a lifetime in the backyard. Depending on the price tag this cigar is something totally worth keeping on hand as it fills the void in those early to mid afternoon smoking sessions.

Final Guess: I’m going to coin this cigar Cuban for sure, but the difficulty is choosing exactly which Cuban I think it is. I’m going to go with either the Partagas Serie D, or some sort of Romeo y Juileta. I’m not as versed in the ways of the ISOM’s so I may be way off with those two guesses. But we shall soon find out.

The Reveal: From Brooks:

It was a Cuban (great call :), actually a Cohiba Robusto from 1995….

Did I read that right? At first I glared right over it. But 1995?!! This Cuban Cohiba is 15 YEARS OLD?!!?! Wow! I almost felt bad for smoking it. Almost…So much for wanting to keep a few of these on hand. I’ve never had a Cuban with that much age on it. Or anything close for that matter. I actually reviewed a newer Cuban Cohiba Robusto recently, and I have to say, there was dramatic change in the experience. The age really mellows out the cigar and helps build up the main, targeted flavors. Big thanks goes out to Brooks for not holding back on the sticks he sent my way!

The post Blind Cigar Review #3 (from Brooks at Smoking Stogie) appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.