I finally decided to start reviews on a constructive criticism type basis. If the manufacturers are displeased with what I have to say, that's fine. It won't sour any existing relationship with my shop.
That being said, I recently had a rep in here with probably around 14-15 cigar lines he was trading in. This is way too many in my opinion, but whatever. He showcased several different cigars, and gave me two of each. One for my boss, the owner of my shop, and one for me to smoke.
Today, I'm smoking the Rodrigo Boutique Blend he gave me. It measures out at around 6x54, which is odd, because the only 6" cigar in the line is a 60 ring gauge, which this is clearly not. Right off the bat, I'm scratching my head at the consistency of their line. I know my cigar didn't shrink, or have a portion of the foot cut off for any reason. I guess it's possible their website hasn't been updated to reflect a new size or something.
The Wrapper on this Boutique Blend by Rodrigo is a darker Ecuadorian Habano seed. Normally, I find Habano Sun Grown stuff to be a little more sweet, but this blend edges more on the spicy side. It's possible it was a later priming on the plant - taken from a little higher - and received a little more sun contributing to it's spicy richness. Either way, not a bad flavor, and not too overpowering. It does have a tendency to kind of coat my tongue early on in the cigar, but I'll report back in as it changes.
Early body, for the first half of the stick, is actually fairly mild. For some, it might top out at just barely a medium, but it's a flavor stick for now, and that's good, because I haven't eaten a real breakfast today. The Rodrigo Boutique Blend isn't likely to make anyone sick.
Draw is a little tight. And I find that the cigars I smoke with a tighter draw tend to produce less smoke, and feel milder as a result. In this case, it's not terrible, and doesn't merit opening up with a paper clip or cigar auger. I'm just going to power through it. It might be more serviceable humidified to 68-69%RH instead of the regular 70% I keep my cigars at.
The filler and binder for this blend are both sourced from the Dominican Republic, which may contribute to it's milder body profile. Dominican tobacco tends to err on the milder side, with the fuller bodied stuff coming out of Nicaragua these days. However, the Dominican Republic has the best torcedors (rollers) right now. As this cigar is Dominican in origin, I'm surprised it has draw issues.
Spice on the lips is very mild, and very Dominican in flavor. It has that kind of "soft" quality for me that I can only explain by likening it to cheese flavor. In this simile, Sharp Cheddar would be Nicaraguan, Milder Cheddar would be Dominican/Honduran. That's not to say anything about this cigar is "cheesy" it's just difficult to hammer down that kind of tactile quality in the flavor.
As far as the general flavor, well, it's definitely tobacco, there's no mistaking that. Sadly, other than the aforementioned soft Dominican spice flavor, there's not much else going on.
Towards the half way mark, I picked up a little tang of earthiness in the tip of the tongue - somewhat metallic in nature. The herbs are coming in now, leafy stuff like oregano or cilantro comes to mind. I recommend smoking this guy a little slower - this has been a problem for me lately on full-size ring gauges. Smoking it too quickly makes it taste somewhat like cigarettes.
As for the price. I can't really pin it down that well since I have no idea what size the rep gave me. Middle of the road suggests the MSRP is about seven or eight bucks. For a real boutique blend, that's a bargain, but I feel like the Rodrigo Boutique Blend comes a little shy of "Boutique Status" especially since they can be found online from tobacco merchants on Yahoo's platform. I tend to think of boutique cigars as being sold in B&M locations only. For the price, this is a pretty middle-of-the-road stick, and I wouldn't spend more than five or six dollars on it. It's not that outstanding, especially when Fuente has a six dollar Brickhouse with my name on it somewhere right now.
All in all, I consider this cigar to be "alright", let it age a little bit and it might even be "pretty good", but when the competition has better blends, at better prices, that are good right now, I can't see this guy being a huge winner.
3/5, middle of the road.
-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
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