Randy and I have been looking forward to smoking this cigar ever since his son Ben told us how much he liked it. This cigar is an Ashton product. This following information is from their website. San Cristobal is a boutique cigar handcrafted in Nicaragua by Jose “Pepin” Garcia. Blended entirely from rich, well-aged Nicaraguan tobaccos, these cigars feature dark, oily Nicaraguan wrappers. The flavors are rich and full-bodied, exhibiting a perfect balance between strength and complexity. Hearty notes of earth, cedar and spices are accompanied by lighter notes of walnuts, espresso, black cherries and dark chocolate. Each cigar is constructed impeccably and finished with a traditional Cuban Triple-Cap.
This is a dark brown cigar with a large, colorful and ornate label. It's construction is seen as generally good, however, Randy did find a couple of soft spots and it is not firmly packed, thus giving it a sort of spongy feel. After clipping and lighting the cigar we sat back to enjoy this smoke.
Both of us found the draw of this cigar to be loose and easier than we preferred. Randy joked that we might be able to smoke these in a half-hour as loose as the draw was. As these are blended with Nicaraguan tobaccos and made by Jose "Pepin" Garcia we expected to experience the strong spiciness that usually accompanies this type of cigar. Whereas it had some spiciness it was more subtle and underplayed than most Garcia cigars especially those made by Jose's Father. We both liked the flavor and the bite - Randy compared it to Rye bread - like a pumpernickel.
Tonight we are pairing this cigar witha bottle of Brother David's Double Abbey Style Ale from Anderson Brewing Company. I saw this in a liquor store in Lawrence and how could I pass it up. It seemed made for me.
The burn of this cigarr was actually pretty good. We were a little surprised because of how loose the draw was. It held a pretty tight ash that came off in one piece and held its shape. The burn line was somewhat wavy and a little inconsistent, but again given the draw it was not to bad.
At the midway point Randy felt like it was a good mild and yet flavorful cigar. I found it to be more in the meduim range and enjoyed the light and yet consistent spiciness that it had.
Generally a cigar of this size (Robusto) takes us in excess of two hours to to smoke. We were both somewhat amazed that we were done in around an hour. The draw was so light that we smoked through the cigar in about half the usual time. The good news was that it held a consistent flavor, a pretty good burn line, and never went out. We really enjoyed the cigar and although it burned quickly it did not seem to get overly hot or acrid which can occur when the draw is to loose.
We both gave this cigar a 4. It was not a strong 4 and the loose draw hurt it, but overall it was a very enjoyable cigar that we would recommend and gladly smoke again. We liked the cigar much more than the beer. Even though its name seemed to have all of the signs of a great beer we found it to be to light and to sweet.
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