La Vieja Habana - The Early Years - Silencio

[BlackDog]

Sometime last year I asked a very knowldegeable cigar smoker to put together a large sampler for me, of all types of cigars; various makes, nationalities, tobaccos; the good, bad, and ugly. I wanted to develop a broader perspective on different types of cigars. One of the cigars he included was a LVH The Early Years Silencio. Because of it's small size, and because I did the newbie thing of filling a cooler or two rather quickly, this cigar languished in my humi. Last night I had thought to smoke it, but grabbed a Hemingway instead. So tonight I smoked the Silencio.

First of all, this cigar smells great, and has a nice earthy pre-light draw. It's a small cigar, 4" x 46rg, and has a dark maduro, almost oscuro wrapper. Also, I think the band is pretty cool looking.

When I light the cigar I get pretty strong peppery spice, with an underlying sweetness. Very smooth too. Even though it's so peppery, I can snork it without blowing my eyeballs out.

The first inch remains pretty spicy, but then the cigar becomes very chocolatey. Like really good hot chocolate, Ghiradelli or something similar. This little cigar is really suprising me.

The third inch became rich and earthy, reminding me of the smell of good loam. The spice is returning too, but not all "up front" like the first inch. It's more of a strong background flavor.

The final inch was more spicy, but the cigar also became hot. I smoked it down to about 3/4 inch and then tossed it.

This cigar rocked. If it had a DPG label on it they'd sell like crazy for $5.00. But with the LVH label, they only sell for about $1.70 per stick, which is a crazy good value for a stick this good. This stick gets the BlackDog seal of approval.

[NCRadioMan]

Good review. I used to smoke alot of these and still have a handful of the original blend. May have to go digging.

[icehog3]

This was my go-to short cigar when I first started smoking hand rolled cigars..definitely a nice value.

Just discovered this line about 4 months ago while winning some auctions on CBID. I have been looking for good inexpensive cigars to smoke so I wasn't going thru all of my premiums so quickly,,,,this cigar is a really good one and if they did have a Pepin Label on it as the one brother commented about they would be going for 3 x more than what they do. It pays to broaden your horizons and try new cigars,,,you never know what you will find.

[dannysguitar]

I agree. Used to be a go to short smoke for me too. I might have to revisit it one day. Thanks for the review!

I'll have to track some down, thank you for the heads up!

[Ratters]

The Early Years are a great smoke, very underrated.

[RGD.]

I really liked the original release - not so much the current production.



Ron