Smoked: Espinosa Laranja

Smoked at: Sharonville, Ohio

Espinosa Laranja Reserva robusto is a medium-full bodied, med-full strength cigar with a nice Brazilian wrapper. The first thing I notice after lighting it is a loose draw. It’s not really a problem because this stick provides a very generous smoke output. The draw and the smoke output may be related. A cold draw persists through the entire smoke. The burn line was darn near perfect throughout and yet there was flaky ash that fell off several times.

The Laranja is zesty and Cuban-esque featuring cedar (gets really strong in the second third) and also some oak in the third, cream, almonds, hay, spices, something between butterscotch and graham crackers bread/toast notes, aged tobacco and some dried fruit – tropical flavor. So is this citrus? Am I tasting orange or orange peel/zest or is it the color of the band and the name of the cigar influencing my brain to seek out orange flavor? In retrospect, I wish this had been a blind tasting. It’s why I try to avoid the flavor profile section of cigar reviews with sticks I have yet to smoke. Anyway….the “citrus” fades a bit on the final third giving way to more pepper. The retrohale is pretty harsh and musky. Overall, this is a very cedary creamy cigar and one of the better smokes I’ve experienced recently.