El Rey de los Habanos robusto

[Don Fernando]

A couple of friends stuck their heads together and plotted to group bomb me, and boy, their plan worked. I got a box with a very nice selection of cigars, some I smoked in the past, some I read about and some I never even heard of and this was one of them. Now you must know that I am a big Don Pepin Garcia fan, so I couldn't wait to light this cigar which was unknown to me. Visiting the El Red de los Habanos website thought me that this is a milder cigar with a Corojo rosado claro wrapper with a Nicaraguan binder and filler.



The wrapper is chocolate brown with a light reddish glow, it is shiny and oily with a few veins. The cigar has a classic barnyard aroma and the construction feels good. The predraw is fine and I taste pepper and raisin.



I taste coffee and pepper with a very mild sweetness. The flavors tone down quickly into a medium strength. I taste leather with some sweetness, the coffee and pepper left the cigar after only half an inch. Soon after I taste nuts with the same mild sweetness as the other flavors I have tasted so far.



After an inch and a half I taste a sweet earthy flavor and halfway that flavor changes into herbs and pepper. After two thirds I taste nuts and pepper and the sweetness has disappeared. Near the end the earthy flavor makes a comeback, combined with the nuts and the pepper.



This 5x50 robusto lasted me for an hour and five minutes. The draw is a bit hard, although that is getting better along the way, just like the smoke, which started out poor and thin but that also got better. The medium gray ash is firm. This cigar is medium bodied and medium flavored.



Would I buy this cigar again? It was a nice cigar, but when smoking a Don Pepin stick I expect more power and that signature Pepin 'twang'.

Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Aroma first part: 7 / 10
Aroma second part: 7 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10