Estilo Cubano – A Nice Smoke

One of the nice perks of writing cigar reviews is that you never know what you are going to smoke next.  Just yesterday I had a long drive in front of me and chose a rich dark cigar that I knew nothing about for the afternoon part of the journey.  This stick turned out to be a nice one from Ventura Cigar Company called Estilo Cubana.

Upon first inspection you notice a few nice things.  The cigar has a dark oily maduro wrapper and is finished with a Rabo de Cochino pigtail head.  I clipped the pigtail and then punched the top of the cigar.  This proved to work out fine as the cigar drew well after an easy light.

I expected this cigar to be very strong yet I would rate the flavors as medium bodied or a ‘lunch’ cigar.  After giving the stick a moment for the tobaccos to merge, I got a chocolatey sweetness tinged with spice.  It reminded me of the Mexican chocolate that has cinnamon in it.  After about a third of the way, the smoke started to get a bit more aggressive with a peppery taste adding to the flavor.   At the end, the sweetness had receded but the cigar was not to harsh, just a little bit boring.

While I enjoyed the cigar, since I couldn’t find a price I can’t really estimate it’s value.  So, if this is a $5.00 cigar or less then I think it would have a good value.  I certainly found it to be a nice smoke for an hour as I was driving.