I’ve been trying out different sizes in the Panacea line, this time I went with the Panacea 760 Red Label in the Grande line. Obviously, this is 7″ x 60, a reasonably large cigar. The website description confuses me a little. It says: “This Red label is our Cuban seed Habano. A Brazilian Maduro wrapper with a Dominican grown Habano binder. The interior is Seco Cubano, Ligero Piloto Cubano, Ligero Olor Dominicano, and Ligero Nicaragua.” The wrapper looks like a Habano, not any Brazilian maduro wrapper I’ve ever seen. Maybe I haven’t seen all the Brazilian maduro wrappers? Doesn’t much matter, this is a tasty smoke. I do think I like it more in the smaller sizes, but if you have two or more hours to kill, this isn’t a bad option. It started out with an odd minty prelight draw. I don’t generally concern myself with a prelight draw, I generally just get down to business, what’s the point? These are made to be smoked. It was on the sweet side, with some nuts and wood. I’ll smoke these again.
A few years ago I was gifted a Curivari Reserva Limitada Cafe Noir. It’s a brand I’ve heard a lot of good things about, but hadn’t tried. This was a box pressed toro, 6″ x 56. Oddly this size isn’t listed, but it was right there on the barcode label! Closest size listed is 5½” x 56. Weird. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, and has a darker wrapper, hence the Noir in the name I guess. I liked this a lot, it had some interesting dark dried fruit kind of flavors, along with the espresso that I like. The burn and draw were perfect. I think it was the Buenaventura from this company that I’ve tried before and it was a really good, well priced cigar. This was so enjoyable that I originally wasn’t going to include it here but decided to anyway.
I stopped at a local show which has recently changed owners and there have been improvements. I finally have a local source for RoMaCraft cigars, and they had the new Raices Cubanas cigars available. I picked up some of each, and started out with the Raices Cubanas Liga De Reyes Toro. This is a fairly new brand out of a fairly old factory. Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras is probably best known for Alec Bradley and older Illusione cigars. Since AB has sold, and may or may not be manufactured there, the Raices Cubanas brand has emerged. The Liga de Reyes is a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos, in a 6″ x 54 format. I’ve smoked a great many cigars over the years and I don’t recall ever tasting some of the tastes I got in this cigar. It seemed to start with some baking spices. I likened it to spice cake, with some floral notes along the way. It was very unique and enjoyable, I’m interested in trying it again to see if I get the same flavors.
The other cigar I picked up was the Raices Cubanas C5 Black (Corte Cinco) in, of course, Toro. This toro is 6″ x 52, and has a Honduran wrapper, and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. C5 stands for Corto Cinco, and indicates they use the 5th priming, usually ligero, somewhere in the blend, but I can’t seem to find information on whether it’s the wrapper or what. This was a darker cigar, which appealed to my eye. This one was also very different. I likened the flavor to an exotic wood, like mesquite, but not mesquite, if that makes any sense. Like the Liga De Reyes, this wasn’t like any other cigar I’ve smoked. If you come across these, pick some up and give them a try. I think they had some other lines at the show as well, I’ll pick some up on another visit.
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
