El Centurion Robusto (5 1/2 x 50)

Video review HERE.



El Centurion originally came out in 2007. It was the first limited-edition smoke from José “Pepin” Garcia and was limited to only 2,550 boxes.

The new El Centurion will be a regular production cigar. It will be an all Nicaraguan cigar using Criollo, Corojo Habano, Sancti Spiritus, and Criollo 98 for the wrapper.

These will be available in four sizes: Robusto, Belicoso, Toro, and Toro Grande.

They will be packed in boxes of 20, and will retail for $7.50 to $9.00 per cigar, which is considerably less expensive than the original El Centurion, which was priced at $12 to $14.


The cigar has a very dark Criollo '98 wrapper. It is well made and triple capped.

Even looking at the foot the tobacco is very dark.

The test draw after cutting the cap was effortless. The initial flavors were a sweet grapefruit citrus, espresso, dry oak, and earth. The pepper is a white pepper and rated at a 7. There are a lot of deep, espresso notes. The finish is a sweet cream but there seems to be another flavor there that I can't make out yet. There is some nice lingering pepper. The cigar is medium to full bodied which may be due to the heavy espresso and earth tones.



A couple inches in I noticed some flavors that I originally missed; cocoa and caramel. There is definitely cocoa and caramel on the front end attached to the citrus. As you can see there are a lot of flavors in this cigar. I still think the cigar is medium to full bodied.

 

 

 

 

At the midpoint I decided to give the order of flavors as you get them on the draw. First you get a sweet cedar, which originally was a sweet grapefruit citrus. The cigar changed in that regard. There are cocoa and caramel notes attached to the cedar. The espresso notes have decreased somewhat, as well as the earth notes. The oak notes are noticed at the end of the draw and they are elevated. The pepper is constant and the finish is about the same. The cigar continues to be medium to full bodied. There are some minor changes here and there. For those of you who remember the original El Centurion this cigar is very much different.

Despite this being a 5 1/2 inch robusto you will get only about one hour out of it. The cedar is now very sweet with some added sweetness from the caramel. The cocoa notes decreased. The espresso notes are now just coffee notes and they are decreased. The earth notes are gone. The oak notes are still around. The pepper remained about the same throughout, as well as the finish with the exception there are some caramel notes on the sweet cream. There was some lingering pepper that continued on the finish. The cigar ended up medium to full bodied and burned very evenly. This cigar started one way and ended very differently. I enjoyed this cigar very much.

Score: 92