Iron Horse cigars are designed to be an affordable medium bodied cigar. They are produced for Famous Smoke Shop by a small Dominican tabacalera. They feature a Dominican Maduro wrapper over Cuban-seed Criollo '98 longfillers and Olor Dominican binder.
Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper color: maduro
Wrapper origin: Ecuadorian
Wrapper leaf type: Sumatra
These cigars also come in toro (6x50) and robusto (5x50) sizes.
I was sent samples of this cigar to review and based on the tobacco used they should be a good cigar. About a week after I received them I sampled one. The draw was very tight and the flavors were decent but I could tell they needed to rest in the humidor awhile. So, after more than a month in the humidor I decided today was the time to try them again.
The cigar is quite dense feeling and the wrapper is oily.
After cutting the cap the test draw was quite firm. The cigar smelled of that "barnyard smell", one of wet hay. After toasting the foot the first draws were sweet cinnamon and moderate pepper.
After a few minutes the flavors settled down into one of primarily sweet cinnamon with lesser notes of orange citrus and vanilla. There were also subtle notes of coffee. The pepper was moderate but nice. The finish was one of vanilla with little lingering pepper.
After an inch or so the cigar developed some richness in the orange and cinnamon spice. That was a nice change.
Just a bit further the citrus notes seemed to change to more of a grapefruit flavor. The richness remained; just the citrus flavor changed. These grapefruit notes also became the lead flavor with the cinnamon notes taking secondary status. There was a slight bitterness but that just made the grapefruit citrus seem more realistic. The subtle coffee notes remained. There were also some very subtle roasted almond notes. These changes happened just before the midpoint. The citrus notes also carried over to the finish mixing with the vanilla notes. I would prefer the pepper to linger a bit more.
About 2/3 the way through the cigar the primary flavor was again cinnamon. The grapefruit notes became secondary but still quite sweet. The richness has greatly decreased. The slight bitterness remained. The roasted almond notes are more noticeable too. The only flavor that didn't seem to change at any point was the coffee notes. They pretty much anchored the cigar. The draw improved a little and was the best it's been so far at this point.
The cigar is medium to full bodied. It also did not change significantly from the 2/3 oint to the end. For a budget cigar (about $2.50 each) these were pretty enjoyable. They even had some decent changes making them somewhat complex. These are also available in 5 packs so you might want to try them for yourself. I believe they will be even better with a little more time in the humidor.
Score: 86
4 comments:
Iron Horse: If you're on the lookout or a really good--and not too expesnive-everyday cigar, it may very well be this'n. Your review was right on. I ordered the robusto and thanks to a Famous Smoke shop deal--$44 + and no shipping charge, I said, what can you lose? Good, rich tobaco taste from beginning to end. Came in a handsome but useless pretty box: wonder what the price would be if Famous bundled it.
You can't smoke the box! That's what I always say! Yes, a pretty box is nice but that's about it. I'm sure the price would be a little better if they were bundled but the price is already very low so I'm not sure how much lower it would be.
Thanks for the review. Seem worthwhile trying: Famous had them today for $42 for a box of robusto, plus 5 free toro’s w/free shipping. Don’t think you can beat at $1.68 per stick!!
Nope, can't argue with that price! I would suggest that you let them sit for about a week, minimum, before you smoke the first one. I noticed that the longer they sit in my humidor the better they tasted. Maximum flavor seemed to be achieved with about 3 weeks humidor time. See what you think.
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