Spanish Joys

[Don Fernando]

Now this cigar is something special, due to the age of the stick. I got a cardboard box of 3 last year on the east coast roadtrip when we met Tanith in North Carolina. She had a bunch of old stuff and she gave me these cigars in exchange for some new cigars she never smoked. Spanish Joys, 3 for 10¢ and made my Orrison Cigar Co from Bethesda, Ohio. Google didn't bring up a lot, but fortunately I remembered Tanith telling the story behind these cigars. There was a whole stash of these found behind a wall in a basement of a mansion somewhere in Massachuttes and documentation showed that the wall was build in 1930, so the cigars had been stored there for 80 years. Experts think that the cigars are slightly older and they base that on the price of the smokes and the manufacturer. They claim that the cigars are most probably made somewhere between 1890 to 1910, so the cigar that I smoked is somewhere between 100 and 120 years old, quite special huh? I lit one during the roadtrip, one for this review and the other one I promised to a close friend & botl who I herf with quite regularly.



The cigar itself is a figurado of 4¾ x 38 and slightly box pressed. The wrapper has a nice color and is quite oily. I only see a few minor veins. The construction feels good, but the years must have wiped away the aroma, I can't smell anything. The predraw is fine and I can taste a mild straw flavor.



I am surprised by the power of the combination of earth and leather flavors I taste. The flavors taste like Cuban, so I am guessing this cigar was made from Cuban tobacco. I also taste a hint of toast and chocolate.



After ¾ of an inch I taste a sharp red pepper flavor on the tip of my tongue and after a third of the cigar I also get some sweetness. The cigar slowly gets more spicier till I reach the turning point.



I enjoyed this little stick for about 40 minutes. I got a lot of thick smoke from this old lady and the draw was fine. The light colored ash was quite firm and I noticed tiny white balls on the ash, like white sand grains. The burn is great. This cigar was surprisingly full flavored, I expected that the flavor would be less full due to the age, and medium bodied.



Would I buy this cigar again? Don't think I will ever be able to find them and if I would, they would probably too rich for my blood anyway.

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