Though the company Casa Cuevas Cigars has only been around since 2016, the Cuevas family has a storied history in cigars and tobacco. Casa Cuevas Cigars is also not the first go for the family at a cigar company. In the early 2000s Luis Cuevas Sr. was selling cigars under the name Cuevas Habanos. In 2019 the blends sold back then joined the Casa Cuevas Cigars portfolio under the Reserva name. Today I am going to be smoking the Reserva Maduro Toro while I take care of the chicken coop and mow for the first time in a little over a month (and hopefully the last time this year).
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Tabacalera Las Lavas
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Dominican Olor
Filler: Nicaragua, Dominican, Pennsylvania
Vitola: 6 x 50 Toro
Price: $11.34 MSRP
Release Date: August 2019
Company Website: www.casacuevascigars.com
I am not a huge fan of the band on this cigar. I don’t really like the color and the layout is a bit plain. The wrapper is dark, textured, and a little splotchy. It’s pretty firm and heavy. The cigar is quite fragrant with some creamy fruit, leather, and cedar. The cold draw is some raisin, baking spices, and earth. First light boasts full bodied smoke with medium flavors of dark roasted coffee, nuts, a bit of semi-sweet chocolate, and some raisiny earth. The retrohale has some slight pepper, milk chocolate, and citrus rind. Midway into the first third the profile has shifted towards an almost red grape sweetness, but there’s also some savory, almost meatiness as well. There’s still a touch of coffee and spices. Coming to the end of the first third the draw has turned quite chocolatey. The performance has been perfect. The flavors are becoming more full in the second third. The profile still has some grape or raisin sweetness and chocolate. There’s less of that meatiness, but now there’s some wood and a bit more baking spice. Passing halfway the performance remains perfect. There’s still a lot of chocolate, but wood, coffee, and baking spices are adding such a nice balance with a touch of bitterness in the finish. The retrohale is still pepper, chocolate, and citrus. Hitting the primary band there’s now more citrus than chocolate. There's still some spices and coffee, and the finish is showing some black pepper flavor. The retrohale has dialed back the citrus and chocolate and there is some potpourri like floral notes and spice. Coming to an end at an hour and 15 minutes the flavors remained relatively unchanged, maybe just adding a little oily wood. The performance was great to the end.
Overall Experience
Overall this cigar was very well done. It was a bit one dimensional, as there weren’t many transitions, and the ones that were present weren’t substantial. I will say the one dimension was quite nice, however, as it was decadent with some grape, raisin, or citrus sweetness throughout with chocolate in spades. There was also always a nice balance by the inclusion of coffee, wood, baking spices, earth, and/or some black pepper. I think this is very approachable to any smoker and I’d recommend checking it out. If you like chocolatey cigars, or want to experience chocolate in a cigar, then I really recommend this one!
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