Por Larranaga Picadores
5x48
Box code: SUM NOV 16
This particular cigar for review has a chocolate brown wrapper with a nice silky feel to it with a decent amount of oil. It has a fair amount of veins in it, but not too bad especially compared to others I’ve seen from 2016. There does appear to be a very pronounced vein, probably in the binder, that runs the whole length of the cigar. It seems packed well, with a spongy but firm feel. I cut the cap and the draw feels good. Let’s light it and get into the review.
1st third: The first puffs are harsh with ammonia. This doesn’t really surprise me. I got 10 of these in a split, and I’ve smoked several so far. They have all started this way. I would like to see a cigar that is almost two years old not still have these signs of a too young cigar, but Por Larranagas are known for taking long to age. After the ammonia fades I’m hit with something completely unexpected a taste of heavily smoked bacon. It only last for a couple puffs, but it’s nothing I’ve tasted in a PL before. The flavor then fades to mostly just tobacco with a just an echo of honey underneath. This is a robusto, technically a Hermoso #4, and it’s really one of my least favorite vitolas. I can’t really even tell you why. Odd, I know.
2nd third: Into this third I get a couple puffs of that olive oil flavor I talked about in my Montecarlo review just to remind me that this is indeed a Por Larranaga. The burn has become a little wonky, burning a little faster around that vein in the binder I talked about. The flavor fades again to tobacco. For a few puffs I get some subtlety perfumed wood flavors. When these first came out a few years ago, I really liked the new band. Now that the newness has faded a bit, I find that I prefer the old gold PL band with the white lettering more. It’s just classic.
Final third: More mostly tobacco, but I do get brief instances of other flavors. Once maple & brown sugar oatmeal, then a flavor of dates, but they again return to unremarkable tobacco that picks up some pepper towards the nub.
Smoke time: 1h 31m
Final thoughts: This wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t excellent either. Right now just kinda meh. The flavors just occasionally bubbled up out of the fog of tobacco and lasted all too briefly. That bacon one could have just been a cache of beetle eggs for all I know. Tobacco flavor isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its just not what I’m looking for in a cigar. This isn’t what I’m used to from a Por Larranaga. Is it that the blend doesn’t work that well in this vitola, or is it a case of needing more age to develop? My limited experience can’t answer that yet.
Score: 83
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