PDR Cigars 1878 Capa Oscura and 1878 Roast Cafe Natural Roast

I’m trying to get back to posting actual content mid-week. My work schedule hasn’t really been conducive to keeping up, as I generally work late Wednesdays, so I thought I’d make good use of the Wednesday morning off.  Last week I received some samples from Rich at PDR Cigars, and last night I busted out the PDR 1878 Capa Oscura toro.You know me, I always start with the darkest and work my way to the lightest. The maduro might be darker, but I went with the Oscura anyway. I’m pretty sure I’ve smoked these before, probably at the Don Leonsis shop in New Orleans, which is partly owned by the Flores family, I believe.  The wrapper on this is Ecuadorian Sun Grown Oscuro, with a Dominican Habano binder and  Dominican Criollo 98 & Dominican Corojo fillers. Richie must know what I like, because he sent me a bunch of toro samples, which are 6″ x 52, my favorite size. I instantly like him. I found this to be a really well made, medium to full bodied cigar, which built up to pretty strong by the end. It was more Earthy than sweet to my palate, but there was a hint of sweetness, and it wasn’t a cigar that I disliked. I had taken a break on Monday night, so I was quite looking forward my my evening walk and cigar on Tuesday. It did hit the spot. I was impressed, as I always am, by the burn, which left a flat ember, indicating all of the tobaccos burning at the same rate. I do look forward to working through the rest of the line.

I am doing something I don’t often do, but it seemed appropriate.  As I write this, I’m having a cigar with my morning coffee. I know many people do this, and it’s a very enjoyable thing to do, I must work it in on my late days more often. It make sense since the cigar is a PDR 1874 Roast Cafe coffee infused cigar, the Natural Roast Cafe. This one is the Ecuador Connecticut wrapped version, hence the “natural” in the name. This has a Dominican Criollo 98 binder and Dominican Criollo 98 & Nicaraguan Criollo 98 fillers. It has a bit of a sweet cap, which quickly dissipates, and has a smooth flavor. Considering the pungency of the coffee aroma in the bag of cigars, I was concerned that this was going to have an overwhelming coffee infusion, but it’s very subtle. After the first few inches, it was hard to tell it was a coffee infused cigar at all. I’m not biased against coffee infused cigars at all, I rather enjoy them from time to time, and this one is really nice. The Connecticut, or Natural Roast, was a good choice for me today, I think. The flavor is very good, creamy with some (this is going to be weird, because I drink black coffee and despise any sort of flavoring in coffee) maybe hazelnut, and was enjoyable to the end, which is right about now as I’m typing. In this instance, perhaps a toro is a little much, but I still like the size. My only complaint would be that the ash is a bit flaky, I’m going to have to shake out my bathrobe (TMI?).

That’s al for today, watch for some more PDR cigars sneaking into my routine over the next few weeks. Thanks to PDR for sharing them with me! Until the next time,

CigarCraig