Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado in Cedros

While these cigars have been around for a few years, its nice to revisit them after a while.  The Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros is a nice reasonably priced cigar.  It is made using a new proprietary ‘Immersion’ process that keeps the finished cigars in cedar for at least six months.  This is said to improve the flavor and impart a nice taste.  It certainly gives the stick the cedar aroma.

The shape that I smoked was a figurado, almost like a miniature Salamone, coming to a nipple tip at the foot and a smaller rounded tip at the head.  It also had a cedar wrap covering the bottom two thirds of the stick and attached with a band top and bottom.  When you remove the cigar, the smell of the cedar is predominant.   The cigar clipped easily, although with its small head, I cut rather than punched it.  Lighting was easy and fast.  The cigar felt firm and dry to the touch.

The cigar is well rolled and constructed.  It draws well and held a nice crisp edge.   Sometimes this shape is hard to keep lit but the cigar burned nicely for its entire length.  The white ash held remarkably well, growing to almost two inches.

I found the flavor of the cigar to be mostly one note at the start.  It was very much cedary on the palate and nose.  That came off as spicy and earthy, not unpleasant, but definitely strong.  As the cigar smoked down, the cedar began to recede with some woodsy floral notes beginning to emerge.  These was a consistent undertone of spice through the entire smoke.  The cigar finished with a, you guessed it, cedary taste.   Altogether too much cedar for me but certainly not a bad cigar.  I will sya that the aftertaste was short lived as fifteen minutes later I had no sense of having smoked at all.

At around $5 – 6, this is a reasonably priced cigar.  It is medium bodied only because of the spiciness of the cedar and will make a nice addition to your humidor if you like that flavor.