Smoked: Crowned Heads La Careme Hermoso No. 1

Smoked at: Fairfield, Ohio

Crowned Heads La Careme Hermoso No. 1 is a toro with Nicaraguan filler, an Ecuador Sumata binder and covered in a dark oily toothy Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. It’s slightly box-pressed with several veins running through it.

Starts out medium bodied and medium strength and builds into a full-bodied, full-strength cigar by the finish. The first puffs are heavy on mossy earth, vegetal, oak & cedar, almonds, pepper, leather, caramel and dark chocolate chips. The nutty, chocolaty notes remind of the old La Gloria Cubana Serie N, if memory serves. Now at my age and the fact that I haven’t even seen a Serie N for the better part of a decade memory may not be reliable here.

The flavors in the La Careme are generally enjoyable, but for lack of a better expression, this cigar could use more oomph. Give me a bit more body and a better balance of the aforementioned flavors and this gets a higher grade. Kick it up a notch. Sadly, what does kick up during the final third is some bitterness. There’s also an unidentifiable flavor in the profile that just doesn’t belong, disrupts the balance – a party crasher. The flavors that started out so promising disappointed by the finish.

Nice open draw, somewhat even burn line that did require a couple of minor touchups, and solid tight white grey ash. This thing pumped out a generous amount of smoke. We may be violating some EPA regulations. There was one soft spot to smoke around close to the nub, but it didn’t really affect the smoke, especially by that point.

Crowned Heads La Careme Hermoso No. 1 is a better than average cigar – just not special – certainly no Oh Wow moments. The first and second thirds are worth a try. After that the stick was like a big-league pitcher on a pitch count. Call in a relief cigar from the bullpen after you get near the final third. If the entire smoke was like the first two thirds, I’d be more likely to grade it a 4.