West Tampa Tobacco Company Red

West Tampa Tobacco Company Red features Nicaraguan Filler and binder and cloaked in a rustic light sandpapery brown Mexican San Andres wrapper with some obvious veins.

Heavy espresso taste (somewhat harsh leaps out immediately along with burnt oak, followed by pepper with a dash of spice. There are also notes of a chocolate, creaminess in the honey-nutmeg range, mixed nuts, bread, hay, earth, leather and a Saltine cracker taste. This is already a more interesting cigar than the West Tampa White. By the final third, the oak, pepper and espresso/dark roast coffee are dominating, but there is complexity with the other flavor notes making appearances, then exiting stage left until later in the performance. One newcomer is a hint of licorice. Faint and fleeting, but there for a puff or two. The retrohale is relatively mild given the body and strength of the cigar. The peppery aroma is mild and there are notes of earth and floral in the retro as well. I would call this cigar medium-full bodied. It starts out medium strength, but really builds to full strength by the finish.

Better than average construction – burn line somewhat wavy at times, but generally fairly even, no touchups needed, decent smoke output, draw just a little tight, but a toothpick poke opened it up. The white & grey ash held for a little over a half inch then fell off.

I reviewed the West Tampa White last year and found it one-dimensional. The West Tampa Tobacco Company Red is the better smoke.

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