Joya de Nicaragua Fuerte Serie B Toro

[INT]

I took a shot on this budget cigar as part of my initial stocking in my new humidor. This cigar is a spin off of Joya's wildly popular Antano (which I haven't tried). The wrapper is the same as the Antano, a Nicaraguan colorado, while the mixture differs a bit and for this piece contains cuban seed criollo long fillers from the Estelli, Condega and Jalapa valleys.

Pre-light aroma was very cedary. Upon lighting the flavors where heavy cedar and light spice. Down the first third the spice fades leaving cedar and leather. After the half way point the leather comes to the front with some earthy tones and the cedar is starting to fade. By the last portion it's almost all leather and meduim tobacco flavors and the nicotine is starting to kick in. Also, the wrapper on this sucker is a hearty one. Pretty thick, as is the binder. Well constructed.

For being a $2.50 cigar, this thing is very good and quite comples. You normally don't get this type of flavor variance from a bugdet stick. I'd call this a medium-full cigar. Very well done Joya.