JC Newman

February 09, 2013

Humo Jaguar Grande (6 x 60)





Video review HERE.


Humo Jaguar is the name of a festival in Honduras, as well as this cigar. The festival features manufacturers who grow tobacco in Honduras and the various blends are judged by over 200 cigar smokers. This was the winning blend in 2011 and it's made by Nestor Plasencia. Miami Cigar markets the cigar and introduced it at the IPCPR.

Wrapper: Honduran Oscuro
Binder: Honduran (Talanga)
Filler: Honduran

The cigar is very well made. It's impressive looking. It's triple capped and very, very dense.




After cutting the cap the test draw was very good. For such a dense cigar there is no trouble drawing through the cigar. The first flavors were sweet cedar with some richness and quite a bit of black pepper. I rate the pepper at a 7 initially.



About 1/2 inch in the ash is a beautiful white. There are now notes of wood and the sweetness of the cedar has peach notes. There are also some thick notes of cream. I'm backing down on the pepper rating to a 6. The finish is one of a French vanilla with a touch of lingering pepper. The cigar is medium bodied at this point.





1 1/2 inches in the ash is still intact and very white. The cigar has lost a lot of the peach notes but the wood is much more pronounced. There are now leather notes. The finish has change a bit also. There are now a lot of meaty, nut flavors, much like raw almond with a sprinkling of vanilla. The lingering pepper is very little at this point. I'd still say the cigar is medium bodied.




About the midpoint the ash did finally fall off but, as you can see, the cigar is burning very evenly. The sweet notes have greatly decreased. There are now nutmeg flavors mixed with the cedar but they are both dwarfed by the wood and leather notes which are quite strong. The pepper remains good and may have dropped a bit. The finish remains the same. If you're ever heard of cigars described as meaty this is a good example. You are reminded of a nice steak when you smoke this cigar. The flavors are very "meaty". The cigar is still in the medium bodied range. The fact that the cigar lost it's sweetness is a big negative to me. I am hopeful they return.





As the cigar wound down it never regained it's sweetness. Even so, it's not a bad cigar. As I said before, it's a very meaty cigar. The pepper actually moved up to a 7. There are a lot of wood and leather notes with secondary cedar and nutmeg notes. The finish stayed about the same. I've had 3 other cigars prior to this one and I don't remember them lacking the sweetness and richness that this cigar had. Perhaps it's bad luck of the draw but I'm rating this cigar. Would I buy this cigar again? Probably. It actually has a time and place to be enjoyed. If the flavors had stayed as they were in the first inch the cigar would have earned a much higher rating.

Score: 88

1 comment:

Kevin Kelleher said...

Thanks for your review