[Note: As with all Preproduction cigar previews, this one will be a list of information about the upcoming cigar and general impressions from smoking it. There will be no final rating given, as I believe it is not equitable to rate a cigar that has not yet been finalized and released to the public. Having said that, initial general impressions are almost always accurate. ~brooks]
When I heard that Ashton was releasing a new version of the their San Cristobal line of cigars, I was understandably skeptical. After all, the SC cigars are already pretty great to begin with, and I found it hard to imagine that they could beat them (or even match them) by the simple addition of a Sun Grown wrapper.
The new version, dubbed San Cristobal Selección del Sol will feature a wrapper grown in open sunlight on Pepin Garcia's farm in Esteli, Nicaragua. The (NEW and IMPROVED!) wrapper, binder and filler will all come from Nicaragua, and the cigar will be released in 3 sizes: 5x52 (Parejos), 6x52 (Parejos) and 5.5x52 (Belicoso). They should be out in stores sometime in September and the MSRP will be between $8.00 and $8.50 a stick.
The first thing I noticed was the double band (with the second band on the foot)...Now, I don't know about you, but I cannot STAND the "foot band" on cigars, as I have found that about 90% of them are difficult to take off without damaging the wrapper...Unfortunately, this was was no exception, and the band tore the wrapper just a bit at the very end of the stick...(Yes, I KNOW I am about to light that part on fire, but it is still damn annoying.)
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The (slightly damaged) wrapper smelled VERY faintly of tobacco...I was surprised at how little it smelled like anything at all...Prelight draw also did not give me much to work with, just faint tobacco, it almost seemed to be muted somehow...There is very little oil present, and the wrapper is Extremely rough feeling, almost like parchment...
After lighting and taking the first few puffs, the flavor that came to me was burnt coffee beans, very acidic in nature, with a bit of pepper and spice added in for good measure...after that, I tasted something I had never tasted before in a cigar, and tried (and failed) to put a name to it...I let it go, thinking it would die down in the second third...
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Well, in the second third, the spice and pepper died down quite a bit, and the mystery taste only intensified...about halfway through the cigar, I finally realized what I was tasting...it was a not wholly unpleasant bitter flavor, and what I finally came up with was the flavor of a wine (Pinot Noir if it matters, but that is probably just because that is mostly what I drink)...As I said, it was not a horrible taste by any means, but it was odd, and far from morphing into a more standard cigar flavor, it continued for the whole stick...
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The last third held much the same flavor as the 2nd third, with the notable exception that the spice in the cigar picked up considerably...not enough to make it a "Full" cigar (not even close), but more of a medium...it also had a bit of cedar in it at the very end, but not enough to make that big of an impression (besides me writing it down, of course)....
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The draw was fairly nice, and the burn was ok, I had to touch the stick up about 3 times, but nothing major...one interesting note was that the smoke coming off the stick was almost a floral smell, but I did not taste any of that at any point during the cigar...
The Bottom Line: If the cigar had been just "Bitter", I would have passed it off as a bad stick, and you would not be reading this right now. But the flavor I tasted seemed to be put there on purpose, and while not totally unpleasant, it was a bit off putting. I have not read any other reviews of this cigar, so I am not sure if it is just me, but I look forward to what other people think of it (and I look forward to smoking a regular production version to compare it with this one)...Be that as it may, the San Cristobal Selección del Sol is DEFINITELY not as strong as the regular San Cristobal line, I would rate it more of a mild to medium stick...buy one to try, but I would not expect much...
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