A few weeks ago I received a message through Instagram about Mi Maria cigars. Since our beloved FDA has made everyone afraid to share samples, they offered me a discount on their cigars. I never expect anything anyway, and I’m perfectly happy buying cigars. It was generous of them to offer, so I took them up on it and spent some cash on some new-to-me cigars. I bought some of the Maduro Boutique Blend in a Toro, the Habano Boutique Blend in Lancero, and got a couple of the as yet unreleased Connecticut in a pigtailed Lonsdale or Fuma size. I smoked some of each this week and thought I’d write a little post about them. I’d like to applaud the folks at Mi Maria cigars on the ordering process and follow through. I received both e-mail and Facebook message updates up to the package landing on my doorstep. They really went above and beyond with the communication, something I appreciated and really deserves mention. I’m not really sure I provided my Facebook contact info or they took the initiative to track it down, not that I’m difficult to find.
Sunday afternoon I dove in, and started with the obvious choice. The Maduro Boutique Blend toro is a 6″ x 52 parejo with a Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, binder from Jalapa and fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and Peru. I typically like blends that include Peruvian tobacco, and I’m a sucker for a good maduro, so expectations were reasonably high. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was well made, had the nice, sweet chocolate flavor I like with that spice that the Peruvian tobacco tends to bring. The burn was perfect, as was the draw, and the over-all smoking experience was very positive. Maybe I should have tried this one in the Lancero?
Tuesday I went with the Ecuador Connecticut 6″ x 43 with Nicaraguan filler and binder. I’ll circle back to Monday in a bit, bear with me. Apparently this differs from their regular Connecticut line which has a Nicaraguan Connecticut wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. The Lancero seems to share the blend of this cigar, and they offer what they call a “Mini Corona”, which at 6″ x 38 is more of a Laguito no 2 (where as a Laguito no 1 is the 7″ x 38 lancero) having a Honduran Habano binder. They all sound interesting, and I may have to get some of them in my next order. I quite enjoyed this cigar too, it was creamy and nutty, but not overly mild. It was a Connecticut with a ton of flavor. If I had one complaint it was that the cigar was a little spongy, but this really didn’t have any effect on the experience.
Maybe I took a risk getting the Habano blend in the Lancero size, but it’s hard to resist a Lancero. Maybe I would have been better off sticking with the toro, or even the robusto size. They also offer torpedos, Churchills and a 6″ x 60 “Chubby”. So Monday I picked one of the Lanceros, and for some reason it was flat, flavorless and drew poorly. Maybe a sign of inconsistency, maybe I had high expectations, or (more plausible), something I ate didn’t agree with me too much. So tonight I went back to the Habano Lancero. Tonight’s was wonderful, so different from the previous experience. Burn and draw were good and it had a wonderful light, sweet flavor. I may have been better off with any of the other sizes, and, once again, I may have to order more. The other shapes in the Habano line have Pennsylvania tobacco in the filler blend, the one leaf missing in the lancero. The PA tobacco may add the strength that I was looking for that lead my to the initial issues the first time around. I was quite pleased with tonight’s cigar though, it was really very good.
So, what did I learn from this? The folks at Mi Maria make some tasty cigars and I probably should have diversified my purchase a little more and gotten a broader selection, although in my defense, three cigars fits into my posting style a little better. I do want to go back and try the Connecticut and Habano in some other sizes.
I was going to announce the winner of the Holt’s gift card, but I figured I’d give it a few more days so everyone has a chance to enter. Look for a winner announcement Friday (and who knows what else could happen?). That’s all for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
