My First Review: The Los Blancos Nine...

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This is my first shot at a review so here it goes:

Sunday I was at my favorite local B&M hanging out with a buddy of mine around the coffee table humidor (a couch and 2 leather chair set). As the place began to fill up for the games we knew we wouldn't be the only people in that section. Sure enough a few people sat down with us and we began to introduce ourselves.

The guy that sat next to us said he was a cigar manufacturer and asked if we had heard of his cigars. Unfortunately I had to admit that I hadn't. You see, I've been smoking cigars for years but I didn't really take it on as a hobby until about a year ago.

The man that sat next to my buddy and me was David Blanco of Los Blancos Cigars. After talking about what we like in a cigar he offered me one of his cigars to try, the Los Blancos Nine Robusto.

After smoking it, I wish I would've known about the Los Blancos brand earlier.



Here's some background I found on this cigar from the Stogie Review's Brian Hewitt when he reviewed this cigar:

"The name, Nine, has a pretty straightforward meaning. It was simply their ninth attempt at finding the right full-bodied blend. Combine that with the happy coincidence that the cigar was created during Los Blancos’ ninth year of operations, and it was a no-brainer.

To achieve their goal of producing a fuller bodied cigar that is still accessible to most smokers (not just those of us who munch on peppercorns for breakfast), Los Blancos blended the early primings of three different Nicaraguan ligeros leaves. Harvested early, these leaves don’t have the opportunity to develop quite as much power or peppery body as they would ordinarily."

(you can find his review here: http://www.stogiereview.com/2009/10/...-nine-robusto/)



According to Los Blancos’ website, the Nine comes in 5 sizes:

Double Corona, Length: 7" Gauge: 52
Torpedo, Length: 6.5" Gauge: 52
Toro, Length: 6" Gauge: 52
Lancero, Length: 7" Gauge: 38
Robusto, Length: 5" Gauge: 52

www.losblancos.com

David said the price on the robusto should run somewhere between 6 and 8 dollars a stick.


Now on to the review:

The Nine features an Oscuro Corojo wrapper. This stick looked beautiful (wish I would've taken a picture before I smoked it), a dark oily wrapper with double silver and black banding. The cigar was very firm to the touch and had a nice, faint compost smell. The pre-smoke draw was sweet and rich although tight. I was worried the pull was going to be an issue.

The Nine had a great burn. The burn line was wavy at times but required no touch ups. The ash was light to dark grey and held up about an inch before falling off with a gentle tap. The pull was a bit tighter than I would've liked but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't enjoy the smoke.


The flavors were quite impressive.


It started off with a nice peppery light that was far from over-bearing. As I got through the first third the pepper flavor subsided a bit and I began to pick up notes of sweet coffee and a slight dark chocolate flavor.

Once I got to the second third the peppery flavor was gone which is surprising since this is a triple ligero and was replaced with an earthy rich tobacco flavor. The sweet notes of coffee and chocolate remained with an ever so slight hint of leather making an appearance.

The final third was much of the same, notes of coffee and chocolate with a rich tobacco flavor; maybe a hint of pepper but just a hint.


In conclusion, for a triple ligero, the Nine is very smooth. It won’t kick you in the mouth but you will definitely know that you smoked it. It’s a full-bodied cigar that I could recommend to a medium-bodied smoker after a good meal or with a stiff drink. Although not very complex, it was far from boring. I really enjoyed this cigar. I would definitely recommend it and hope to find a few more sticks to purchase as soon as possible or maybe even a box.