Cigar Reviewed: Partagás Valle Verde

Smoked at: West Chester, OH

The San Andres wrapper on the Partagas Valle Verde is a nice chocolate brown, slightly grainy with a few small veins.

I expected some chocolate in the flavor profile so I kick started it eating a small piece of milk chocolate before lighting it. Never really tasted chocolate but there are notes of cocoa powder and toasted almonds. But the dominant flavor is the pepper. Not the pepper you might expect from a LGC, LFD or Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte but pepper dominates the flavor.

The retrohale was quite peppery with some leather and the toasted almonds.

The draw started out a little tight but loosened nicely after a few minutes.

The volume of smoke was a tad light but I like cigars with plumes of smoke.

The ash on this cigar is top notch. It never dropped. Had to roll it off at an inch and a half throughout the smoke. It's like they tightened down the lugnuts on it. As I'm writing this, I hear Jim Carrey during the mechanics shop scene in The Mask. The ash kept the draw cool to the end.

The cigar had an almost perfectly even burn throughout. No relights. No touch ups. Put the torch away after toasting the foot.

The Partagas Valle Verde is a nice stick if you like spicey, pappery cigars. Although that's not my thing, I gave it a rating of 4 based on all the other factors.