Cubano Limitado – Fonseca
Posted By Elvis on March 3, 2008
Wow, what a 4-day weekend it’s been in my cigar world. Ironmeden and I visited no fewer than 6 shops between us and smoked alot of good cigars. Personally, I lit up a 601 Blue Label, An Edge Maduro, and Adam and Eve Connecticut, an Arganese Chairman Maduro, a Partagas Spanish Rosado and tonight I’m ending it with a cigar I’ve never tried called the Cubano Limitado by Fonseca.
Iron and I make it a point to try and visit all the cigar shops in our area…some which require a 45 minute drive or more. And when we make the rounds, we also make it a point to talk to the resident smokers to see what they like and where they work and what they are currently smoking. Overall, the trend seems to be the craving for the strong kick you in the butt stuff..the stronger the better. This is not a surprise seeing that all the newer cigars out there are using the ampled up Nicaraguan tobaccos. I myself lean that way right now as well. But part of me wonders what the next trend will be. Certainly we’ve seen other fads come and go…the Cameroon wrapper was hot for awhile a few years ago. Then the Corojos took foot. And anything dark and maduro has been popular since I started smoking cigars. Around the blogs and among some cigar shop owners I’m hearing that the next wave might not be a flavor, but rather a size. Could it be that smaller lanceros and corona shaped cigars will be the next “in” thing. It makes sense since you get more of a cigar’s wrapper flavor coming through when there’s less filler to bog it down. Personally, I think I will always choose the thicker cigars around the 6×52 or so size because I smoke generally one cigar at night and want it to last for 1.5 hours or more. But I wonder what will be around the corner and what new wrapper or mix some mad genius cigar scientist is working on somewhere. Another thing I thought about when we met a shop owner who only smokes milder cigars is will our palates be dumbed down by this wave of stronger cigars? We actually gave this man an Arganese CT Ambassador to smoke and he raved about the abunance of flavors coming through. Both Iron and myself liked this cigar, but thought it was a bit to bland for our tastebuds. Maybe we love the cigars that make your head spin or zing your tongue so much these days that we can no longer appreciate the subtle nuances that a good CT wrapper brings?
In any case, tonight’s cigar I bought because it was flagged in the shop I found it in as winning some blue ribbon award and it was also one I had never seen. I love new cigars! Gotta try em because you never know when then next favorite is going to hit.
As is my custom I went for the longest and thickest gauge they offered which I think is the Belicoso. The Cubano Limitada is from Fonseca…this is a brand I remember from my early catalogue shopping days in Thompson and JR I think. I know they’ve been around forever as a brand and I don’t think I’ve ever tried one. They never looked sexy enough for me to try.
The Cubano hits on all current hot cylinders….it has Dominican and Nicaraguan Ligero fillers with a nice shade of brown wrapper from Honduras. Those three countries pretty much sum up every new cigar out there. Good choices Fonseca! Holding it my mouth unlit for 10 minutes or so, I started getting a spicy tingle at the back of my throat that is so familiar to many new cigars I’ve tried lately. I lit it up after a punch cut and right away noticed some of the black pepper notes that my throat was already preparing me for. The spicy black pepper never got too crazy throughout the smoke and after the first inch or so I could tell this was going to be a really nice balance of that spice and of a really pleasant aroma wafting through the room and my sinuses. One of the best smelling cigars I’ve had in some time. I would describe this cigar best with the word rich. It really has a lot of depth and I detected all those buzzwords mingling together throughout the long smoking experience….earthy, leather, nutty. It’s definately in that quadrant of the tasting wheel.
Here in Minnesota, this cigar was a bit spendy…I think around the $12 mark, but if you want a solid, balanced experience with enough varying flavors to keep you interested the whole way through, this is a very good cigar for the money.
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[...] Closing out a whirlwind tour of Minnesota’s B&Ms, Elvis at The Velvet Cigar tells us if he got his $12.00 worth out of the Fonseca Cubano Limitado. [...]