Esteban Carreras Habano Maduro Rothman

Upon returning from my travels, I dropped into my local shops to see if there was anything new. Sure enough, there were some new sticks in the humidor. 'Esteban Carreras' is a brand I'm unfamiliar with, but remember a cheap brand called 'Esteban Carrera' (no 'S' at the end) that I bought at an unnamed internet cigar auction site. Esteban Carreras Habano and Dias Ano lines are rolled at the facilities of Abdel Fernandez in Esteli, Nicaragua.

The Habano line are Nicaraguan puros, in either natural or maduro wrappers, and me being a devotee of the Dark Side, I'm smoking the maduro. I bought the 'Rothman' size, a 4 x 54, almost Nubbish looking thing. The shelf price for singles was $6, so I plunked down for a pair.

The wrapper on this cigar was a rich brown color, mildly veined, with a sheen of oil obvious to both eyes and fingers. A cold draw left me with tingly lips, reminding me of some spicy Thai dishes I've enjoyed in the past. The draw was also moderately resistant, indicating a well-packed cigar.

Then, I lit it.

Pepper.
Black pepper.
More pepper.
Black pepper-crusted peppercorns in pepper sauce.

For the first inch, the utterly dominant flavor is pepper. As the first inch wanes, leather and coffee flavors elbow their way into the picture, and by the second inch, the pepper has politely stepped back to allow other flavors to share the stage. All the while, this was a solidly medium to full-bodied cigar.

After the second inch, I did a nub stand on the 2 inches of solid ash, and after picking up the cigar again, the ash dropped off in one piece. Pulling into the nub, and after a couple touch-ups with the torch, the spicy pepper still remained present behind the leather and coffee flavors.

The Esteban Carreras Habano maduro is a powerful smoke, and is the perfect stick for the spice/pepper junkies out there.