Sapa Inca is another blend by boutique cigar maker, Dulce Vida. Peruvian tobaccos are featured in many of Dulce Vida's offerings, and the Sapa Inca is no different. Well, okay, it's a lot different. This line has a much simpler flavor profile, and it's not as heavy and earthy as some of the La Bonita line.
Sapa Inca is another tasty cigar from Dulce Vida, and helps diversify their lineup. Keep at 'em Paula Pia!
Showing posts with label Peruvian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peruvian. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Dulce Vida 'La Bonita' robusto
I love finding, and smoking, cigars that come from off the beaten path of most cigar shop shelves. All it takes is an ear to the ground, and a willingness to try something new.I first heard of Dulce Vida Cigars on Social Cigar, and contacted proprietress Paula Pia Ventunelli for a sampler. a couple weeks later, the sampler arrived in a unique box with cameo, and the cigars with ribbon bands. I would have smoked it sooner, but seasonal allergies had me plugged up for quite a while.
Being a maniac for maduro, the 'Orange Band' La Bonita is what I dove for first, and I'm glad I did. Here's the description from Dulce Vida's website:
A blend of Peruvian ligero, Dominican Sumatra, Dominican Peloto with a San Andres Morron Limpio binder. The wrapper is a Dominican Sumatra sweated maduro.
The dark brown wrapper was soft like velvet, unlike any cigar I've touched before. It was resting in the humi a month, but still felt like it was either super oily or just wet. Just in case, I threw it into the dry box for a couple days. After the dry box, the wrapper felt like soft, Egyptian cotton terrycloth.
The cigar felt hefty in the hand and well packed, and I got flavors of earth and spice on cold draw.
Once toasted and lit, I had first impressions of earthy leather, Black coffee with nice spice lingering. Definitely in the medium to full-bodied category. Rich, earthy flavor. Lots of smoke. After first inch, flavor shifted a little to an earthy cedar with the spice still singing back-up.I got the same feeling as when I smoked my first Illusione, like I had discovered a wonderfully complex, yet well-balanced blend. If you like Illusione, I have a strong hunch that you'll like this cigar as well.
Two inches in, and the cigar still was packing a solid medium-bodied punch, and spice still lingered on the palate. This cigar is fairly slow-smoking too, with 2 inches taking at least 30 minutes, so we're looking at an hour-long robusto.
The Dulce Vida 'Orange Band' may have a feminine touch to the exterior, but the blend is no shrinking violet.
Thanks to roller/entrepeneur Paula Pia Ventunelli for the samples. It isn't easy for a small biz to get noticed, and the people with the dream are wagering their backsides to succeed. Boutique cigar fans, best jump on these before they get discovered!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
New Arrivals: Dulce Vida
I came home tonight to a pleasant surprise; a box with a double fistful of robustos from Dulce Vida. Some of my favorite cigar blends have a helping of Peruvian tobacco, and Dulce Vida is flashing the Peruvian flag at me. I'm going to let these rest a couple weeks from their travels, then I'll smoke'm up and hollah about it.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
San Martin Liberator
Made by Tabacalera Del Oriente, the San Martin Liberator is billed as a Peruvian puro. One of my favorite Gurkha's, the Grand Age, and the RyJ Reserve Maduro both had some Peruvian tobacco in the fillers, so how bad could it be? My great friend and SC brother Ray copped this at IPCPR, and passed it onto me.
The wrapper on the Liberator is fugly. It's a mottled brown, brindle color that would look great on a pit bull, and has veins that a heroin addict would die for. The draw is nice and easy.
The flavor starts out earthy, with a mild nut mixed in. A nice leathery finish creeps in as the first inch burns away. So far, it's turning out to be an alright smoke.
The burn is a little wobbly, but my torch has stayed in my pocket so far. The ash is also decently solid.
There's a hay-like flavor that's been building, and it's starting to get "mouthful of grass" tasting. Thank goodness for the coffee I'm drinking along with the cigar. I'm an inch and a half into the cigar, and tempted to just let it go out.
Halfway through the cigar, the flavor has turned to mostly hay with a little leather. The original earthiness is still in the background, but I've never been crazy about hay-flavored cigars. It reminds me of the Sherpa I smoked earlier this year.
I'm getting to the point where I'm seriously thinking of grocery shopping, which usually doesn't speak well of the cigar I'm smoking. When my coffee is finished, so am I.
I guess that there's a good reason why we don't see many Peruvian puros: The world already has enough yard 'gars.
The wrapper on the Liberator is fugly. It's a mottled brown, brindle color that would look great on a pit bull, and has veins that a heroin addict would die for. The draw is nice and easy.
The flavor starts out earthy, with a mild nut mixed in. A nice leathery finish creeps in as the first inch burns away. So far, it's turning out to be an alright smoke.
The burn is a little wobbly, but my torch has stayed in my pocket so far. The ash is also decently solid.
There's a hay-like flavor that's been building, and it's starting to get "mouthful of grass" tasting. Thank goodness for the coffee I'm drinking along with the cigar. I'm an inch and a half into the cigar, and tempted to just let it go out.
Halfway through the cigar, the flavor has turned to mostly hay with a little leather. The original earthiness is still in the background, but I've never been crazy about hay-flavored cigars. It reminds me of the Sherpa I smoked earlier this year.
I'm getting to the point where I'm seriously thinking of grocery shopping, which usually doesn't speak well of the cigar I'm smoking. When my coffee is finished, so am I.
I guess that there's a good reason why we don't see many Peruvian puros: The world already has enough yard 'gars.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Gurkha Grand Age
Gurkha Grand Age perfecto
$3 (CBid), Size: 6", Ring: 60
Cameroon wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Nicaraguan and Peruvian fillers
The Grand Age is proclaimed as Gurkha's first cigar with a Cameroon wrapper, and this wrapper's a beauty: Dark, glossy, and some veins, with an aroma of wood and coffee. While smoking, the burn needed fixing a couple times, but the ash was solid and silvery, dropping after 2 inches. The smoke was thick and lush.
The cigar sprang to life immediately, with warm and spicy wood flavors at the start, similar to a Cusano CC. After the first inch, a leathery undertone arrived and stayed for the rest of the smoke. Hints of roast red peppers came in mid-cigar, then mellowed again to the basic wood-leather flavor (similar to an Indian Tabac Cameroon Legend). The last third brought a spicy ligero flavor to the fore. This was a tasty cigar.
Alas, there were some problems from the outset, mainly dealing with the aforementioned Cameroon wrapper. My cigar was split near the cap before cutting, and the problems got worse. After cutting, a section of wrapper, near the cap, split off, leaving the binder showing. I was able to position my lips enough while drawing on the cigar to alleviate some of the problems.
Then, one-third into the cigar, the wrapper started splitting and flaking in other areas. I tried to moisten the wrapper more around those areas to keep the wrapper from completely flaking off. As the smoke went on, the cigar's wrapper gradually deteriorated, splitting and cracking, until, in the final third, I had sizable fissures in the cigar, enough to kill the draw and end the smoke. I had to give it up almost an inch earlier than I would have liked.
Sometimes, bad things happen to good cigars. It's doubly hard when it happens to an expensive cigar, even if you get it cheap. It may have been comical to watch me struggle to keep this cigar together long enough to smoke it, but the flavors were well worth the effort. I'd love to try this one again, if it will have me.
Update, 1/13/08 : The next Grand Age I smoked was fine, construction-wise. I believe the difference was dry-boxing it for a couple days prior to smoking. And it was still delicious!
Velvet Cigar smoked a Grand Age in May 2007.
$3 (CBid), Size: 6", Ring: 60
Cameroon wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, Nicaraguan and Peruvian fillers
The Grand Age is proclaimed as Gurkha's first cigar with a Cameroon wrapper, and this wrapper's a beauty: Dark, glossy, and some veins, with an aroma of wood and coffee. While smoking, the burn needed fixing a couple times, but the ash was solid and silvery, dropping after 2 inches. The smoke was thick and lush.
The cigar sprang to life immediately, with warm and spicy wood flavors at the start, similar to a Cusano CC. After the first inch, a leathery undertone arrived and stayed for the rest of the smoke. Hints of roast red peppers came in mid-cigar, then mellowed again to the basic wood-leather flavor (similar to an Indian Tabac Cameroon Legend). The last third brought a spicy ligero flavor to the fore. This was a tasty cigar.
Alas, there were some problems from the outset, mainly dealing with the aforementioned Cameroon wrapper. My cigar was split near the cap before cutting, and the problems got worse. After cutting, a section of wrapper, near the cap, split off, leaving the binder showing. I was able to position my lips enough while drawing on the cigar to alleviate some of the problems.
Then, one-third into the cigar, the wrapper started splitting and flaking in other areas. I tried to moisten the wrapper more around those areas to keep the wrapper from completely flaking off. As the smoke went on, the cigar's wrapper gradually deteriorated, splitting and cracking, until, in the final third, I had sizable fissures in the cigar, enough to kill the draw and end the smoke. I had to give it up almost an inch earlier than I would have liked.
Sometimes, bad things happen to good cigars. It's doubly hard when it happens to an expensive cigar, even if you get it cheap. It may have been comical to watch me struggle to keep this cigar together long enough to smoke it, but the flavors were well worth the effort. I'd love to try this one again, if it will have me.
Update, 1/13/08 : The next Grand Age I smoked was fine, construction-wise. I believe the difference was dry-boxing it for a couple days prior to smoking. And it was still delicious!
Velvet Cigar smoked a Grand Age in May 2007.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Primos Maduro
Primos maduro toro
$2.40, Size: 6", Ring: 52
Made in Nicaragua with Nicaraguan Habano Criollo Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan binders, and Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Peruvian fillers.
Primos is made by Los Blancos in Nicaragua using a 3-year aged Habano Criollo wrapper. The wrapper was mottled with varying shades of chocolate, and had pronounced veins. Still, the wrapper felt sturdy and not at all dry. The cap was a little ragged, but my punch made a neat hole which stayed intact through the smoke. The draw was easy, but not too loose.
This cigar burns crooked like Clinton campaign fundraising. I had to do touch up torching four or five times.
Right out of the cellophane, the Primos smelled somewhere between woody and leathery. The first inch was smooth, but tasted a bit green. The taste oscillated between woody and grassy for the rest of the cigar, with a mildly spicy finish starting mid-cigar. At times the taste was reminiscent of the Indian Tabac maduro I smoked recently, but too frequently, the flavor was like the Sherpa I had yesterday. I don't know if I'm going to buy this one again.
The Velvet Cigar reviewed the Primos rosado cigar.
$2.40, Size: 6", Ring: 52
Made in Nicaragua with Nicaraguan Habano Criollo Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan binders, and Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Peruvian fillers.
Primos is made by Los Blancos in Nicaragua using a 3-year aged Habano Criollo wrapper. The wrapper was mottled with varying shades of chocolate, and had pronounced veins. Still, the wrapper felt sturdy and not at all dry. The cap was a little ragged, but my punch made a neat hole which stayed intact through the smoke. The draw was easy, but not too loose.
This cigar burns crooked like Clinton campaign fundraising. I had to do touch up torching four or five times.
Right out of the cellophane, the Primos smelled somewhere between woody and leathery. The first inch was smooth, but tasted a bit green. The taste oscillated between woody and grassy for the rest of the cigar, with a mildly spicy finish starting mid-cigar. At times the taste was reminiscent of the Indian Tabac maduro I smoked recently, but too frequently, the flavor was like the Sherpa I had yesterday. I don't know if I'm going to buy this one again.
The Velvet Cigar reviewed the Primos rosado cigar.
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