Ortega Wild Bunch Series; Big Bad John Jackhammer (6 7/8x60)

Video review HERE.


Fresh off his success with his Serie D maduro and natural cigars Eddie Ortega has introduce a collectors series of cigars with a new blend being introduced each month. The first in the series that debuted in January is the Big Bad John. The vitola is called the Jackhammer. It is a huge 60 ring cigar which is dark brown. Only 500 boxes of these cigars will be made.

Wrapper: Esteli Nicaraguan Habano
Filler/Binder: Nicaraguan

These cigars are made in the My Father factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.

For a cigar this large it does not have the weight I would expect but it is not soft. It appears quite dense though.

After cutting the cap the test draw was effortless. I lit the foot and my initial flavors were a nice cedar/cinnamon combination. The pepper was just as expected, very good, and I rate it at an 8 initially. There are also some other sweet notes on the front end which appears to be vanilla. It gives the cedar/cinnamon a nice sweet flavor. There are also coffee notes. Nice start



About 3/4 inch in the flavors are about like before. The finish is rather short but the pepper lingers for quite awhile. The finish flavors are a sweet cream with some grassy notes. The cigar is burning very evenly. This cigar has what I would call a typical Eddie-esque flavor to it. The vanilla notes have lessened on the front end but the cedar/cinnamon has a sharp sweetness to it.





Just a little over an inch in there are now earth and leather notes to go along with the cedar, cinnamon, and coffee. The finish is still about the same but the grassy notes are decreasing. The wrapper is quite thick and you can actually see how thick it is in the photo.







With about 4 inches remaining the cigar is pretty much like previously stated. The cinnamon notes have a lightness to them now. There is a flavor uptick in the cinnamon. The earth, coffee, and leather notes are still there in various amounts at any given point. The pepper may have dropped to a 7. The draw continues to be very good. The cigar is medium bodied and at this point I'm 45 minutes in.




At the band you can see how perfect the burn is. The uptick in the cinnamon notes continues to be very nice. You get the cinnamon notes first, quickly followed by cedar, then earth, leather, and coffee. The cigar has moved to medium to full bodied now. The earth and leather notes are very elevated now. You get them in large doses!






As the cigar wound down I was at 1 hour 45 minutes. The flavors continued as they were in the previous description with the exception of the cinnamon tailing off a little and you were left with more cedar notes. The finish lost a lot of the grassy notes but they never went totally away. The pepper was very good on both ends. The only negatives about the cigar is it never achieved any richness and the finish was short. The burn was perfect throughout. These should be on store shelves now. This is a good start to the Wild Bunch series and I look forward to the next cigars in the series.


Score: 89