As I mentioned in my Sunday post, Ortega Cigars is a new partner on the site. I purchased the sampler that’s featured in the ad that’s running currently, and it arrived promptly. It’s an amazing deal, I almost feel guilty recommending it, as it must be a big losing proposition. Anyway, Like I said before, I’ve known Eddie Ortega for many years. I believe I met Eddie at a local shop here when he had a 601 La Bomba Event, back when they were made by Pepin Garcia. It was about ten years ago because my then 21 year old son was with me and he had his first taste of Zacapa rum courtesy of Eddie. I’ve only made it through three of the seven cigars so far, but I’m 
pleased with the new offerings. The first cigar I tried out of the pack was the Serie D Habano. This was a powerful cigar with a lot of pepper. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I don’t remember the old version being this spicy, but this one was very good if that’s the kind of cigar you like. All the cigars in the sampler are the toro vitola, which, of course, is great for me. The burn and draw were perfect.
The second one I tried was the Serie D Black. I think I remember this cigar coming out at the tail end of Eddie’s first go around, and I wanted to try it but never got the chance. The Serie D Black sounds like it should be a maduro cigar, but it isn’t. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers. While this is very close in make-up to the Serie D Habano, it was very different in flavor, much smoother and mellower. This was a pretty nice cigar!
Tonight I smoked the Serie D Maduro, a sharply box pressed toro with a San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is probably the Ortega cigar with which I was the most familiar, obviously it’s been years since I’ve smoked one. I still have one left, although there’s no sense trying to compare a several year old cigar to a new one. Eddie’s using a different factory, TACASA S.A., which has made cigars in the past for Veritas, as well as having worked with Quality Importers, where Eddie worked at one time and who distributed Ortega cigars a few years ago. The new Serie D Maduro is a tasty Mexican Maduro, with some spice and rich earthiness.
I still have four cigars to go in the sampler, I’m interested in the Serie D Connecticut, not that I typically gravitate toward Connecticuts, but I don’t recall that wrapper in the original lineup and I’m curious to see how it smokes. The Cubao was a great cigar that I look forward to revisiting as well and the M3 and Jalapa look really interesting, both featuring Jalapa tobacco. I’m excited. Welcome back Ortega Cigars!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Just ordered the sampler. Thanks for the heads-up, Craig.