Video review HERE.
(Description taken from Cigar-Coop.com website)
General Cigar Company and Espinosa Cigars have announced a joint project known as Warzone. It’s a Cameroon wrapped cigar that is produced at Espinosa’s La Zona factory, and its a new brand that will be distributed by General Cigar.
It marks the first time both companies have worked with each other – and it’s also the first time La Zona has produced a Cameroon wrapped cigar. It was a project spearheaded by Justin Andrews of General Cigar along with the Espinosa Cigars team. Andrews is a rising star at General, best known for his work on the Diesel brand.
“Erik Espinosa is a true artisan and visionary in the handmade cigar space. We’ve had our eye on partnering with him for many years and have always admired his style. The time was right for us to collaborate with him to develop Warzone and we look to working together on future projects,” commented Chris Tarr, Vice President of Marketing for General Cigar in a press release.
“Being a boutique cigar maker, I don’t have all of the resources that General Cigar does. So when it came to developing the blend, they gave me full access to their tobacco library. Man, that was amazing. They had this special Cameroon wrapper set aside, and the minute the bale was opened, I knew that’s what I wanted to use. Warzone is the first cigar of mine to be made with Cameroon wrapper so this is an important project for me in a lot of ways,” added Erik Espinosa.
Warzone is being sold as a separate brand in the General Cigar portfolio. According to General Cigar, “Warzone was named to celebrate all that’s been hard fought and won. Whether it’s the independent growers in East Cameroon cultivating the delicate leaves without fertilizer or much water, or the brave Cuban patriots who battled royalist oppression and Spanish domination, or anything in between, Warzone speaks to the fact that nothing worthwhile is easy.”
Blend and Origin
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Colombian, Nicaraguan Havano
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: La Zona S.A.
Vitolas Offered
Robusto: 5 1/2 x 52
Toro: 6 x 52 REVIEWED TODAY
The cigar is medium brown with golden hues. It has a nice feel in the hand.
The test draw after cutting the cap was good. I am keeping an eye on this cigar as several others have become very soft during the smoke. The initial flavors at light up were cedar, buttery caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon, spiced apple, a little nutmeg, and black coffee. There was a nice amount of black pepper initially rated at an 8. The black pepper jumps out and is very nice.
At the first third (33 minutes) the buttery caramel decreased. You still have cedar and spiced apple, a nice amount of brown sugar, cinnamon, a little more nutmeg, and now there is an earthy black coffee. The black pepper toned down just a bit. At this point the cigar has nice sweetness and sufficient darker notes. The cigar is medium bodied. The finish has caramel and nutmeg with above average lingering black pepper. I started off with the first third rated at 92.
Things started changing in the second third (1 hour 13 minutes). The cigar became very spongy and soft. In this stage I lost the spiced apple and buttery caramel leaving the cigar a basic unimpressive cigar. There are still cedar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black coffee. But they are average, at best, in flavor intensity. For the second third I lowered the score to 90 but with the extreme sponginess I deducted a point leaving you with a second third score of 89. At this point I fear the cigar may drop lower in the final third. 
The cigar lasted an impressive 1 hour 36 minutes. It reached full bodied. The cigar continued to lose flavor. It no longer tastes anything like a true Cameroon cigar. The flavors are average or below; not impressive at all. The cigar is extremely soft now. This was a huge disappointment. In no way does this cigar taste like a typical Espinosa cigar. The cigar started out pretty good and went straight downhill after that. I was very disappointed with this cigar. I rated the final third at 87.
Overall Score: 89.33
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