Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – White

Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – White

 

Arandoza Cigars is a family owned and operated company that apparently started early in 2011 with the stated intention of combining their knowledge of tobacco, passions for cigars and hard work to develop and market a unique line of cigars.  A large part of the uniqueness comes from Arndoza’s approach to the blending of tobaccos. All of the cigars are handmade at the “La Zona Factory” in Esteli, Nicaragua.  Esteli is a town in northern Nicaragua of 100,000 people and is the informal cigar manufacturing capital of Nicaragua. Arandoza has two lines within its brand – White Label (with white cigars bands) and Blue Label (with blue cigar bands)  – hence Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands.

The White Label was introduced at the 2013 IPCPR and I was given a robusto to sample. White Label comes in 3 sizes – 5 X 52 robusto, 6 X 52 toro and a 7.25 X 49 double corona.  The wrapper is Nicaraguan Habano with a Nicaraguan binder and filler. The stick is marketed as a well-balanced, full-body smoke.

The White’s appearance was very good due to the attractive dark wrapper. The construction was less so since the cigar was not firm – it was hard! The bands themselves were attractive and slid easily off the cigar. No messy scratching to find the beginning of the label. Pre-smoke aroma was primarily woodsy.

The stick light easily and the smoke was delightfully heavy and creamy.  The predominant flavor was spice along with pepper and a hint of vanilla. The spice flavor strengthened a bit at the halfway point but not as much as one would expect for a full-bodied stick.  The White for me was more full bodied than medium bodied but the flavor was not as strong as I expected. Even though the construction was hard, the draw was very good. The cigar lasted 50 minutes and at SRP of $6.50 or so, represents a good value in my book. Overall, I give this cigar a 4 out 5.