Smoked: Warped La Hacienda

Smoked at: West Chester, Ohio

Warped La Hacienda Gran Robusto is a Nicaraguan covered in an interesting Old World-style banded silky smooth Corojo wrapper.

Pepper, then spice hit you right way followed by cedar, earth, mineral, vegetal and bread notes, a creamy sweetness with hints of mixed nuts, chocolate and coffee and I’m sensing some orchard fruit, floral and anise/licorice on a few puffs. Flavors are more subtle than bold, but there’s a nice balance. There’s a lot more going on during the second third than I experienced on the first. Not so much new flavors. Just more interplay between the existing notes. This is an interesting cigar. Not a lot of complexity nor transitions, but it had my attention with every puff – when that was possible.

Now the bad news: Construction - very tight draw and thin smoke production. A few toothpick pushes opened it up for a while. The burn line was erratic. Cigar went out on me once during the second third, almost no combustion at another point. The light grey & black ash did not hold well, falling off several times. It’s a medium body and medium strength cigar, although the strength increases on the last third.

I liked the flavors of the La Hacienda…when I could taste them. The construction issues put a damper on the experience.