Alonso Menendez Connecticut Robusto (5 x 50)

Video review HERE.


As you may remember, I reviewed the natural version of this cigar a few weeks ago. That cigar had a ton of earth notes. I am hopeful that this Connecticut version has more creamy notes and less earth notes. We'll see.

As a reminder, here is what I said about the Alonso Menendez cigars in the previous post:

This cigar is from Dona Flor where it is well thought of in Europe. It is suppose to be fuller bodied than their other Brazilian cigars and with Americans gravitating to fuller bodied cigars they want to bring it to the U.S. in hopes it will catch on here. To give it a more robust flavor the cigar uses extra Mata Norte tobacco.

These cigars are made with Mata Fina and Mata Norte tobacco. They use extra Mata Norte to give it more full bodiness. I am unsure of the Connecticut wrapper. Is it Brazilian? Don't know.
The cigar is dense feeling in the hand. Here is the foot:

The test draw after cutting the cap was effortless. The initial flavors at light up were earth, raw almond, decent amount of pepper at a 5 rating, and hints of cedar. Much like the naturals this cigar is starting with large amounts of earth tones.

 

3/4 inch in the burn is fairly even. The earth notes are the primary flavor. Secondary the notes are light grapefruit citrus and raw almond. There is very little sweetness. The pepper went up to a 6. There are coffee notes underlying the earth. The finish is raw almond and cream and very little lingering pepper. The cigar is very mild at this point.






At the midpoint grapefruit citrus has really come forward to the point it's about even with the earth notes. There is a little coffee underlying the earth. The almonds are now roasted. The pepper is about the same as before. The finish is unchanged. There is very little sweetness in the citrus notes.

 

The cigar did not change on the front end from the midpoint to the end. The finish changed a bit. It finished with raw almonds, cream, earth, and hints of citrus. The cigar ended up mild to medium. To be honest, I don't get the "full body" description of these cigars. I tend to think the Europeans translate earthiness into full bodied. To me the are not full bodied. For those of you who love earthy cigars please try these. You will love them! They are not my thing but everyone is different. I appreciate the Dona Flor folks for sending these for me to try.


Score: 82