El Surco

El Surco - roughly corona-sized, lasted 35 minutes.
Drink: none.
Tunes: nope.

El Surco was a pre-revolutionary cigar factory in Cuba.

Now El Surco is the brand name of a domestic machine-made Cuban cigar. These are not "Havana's" in the sense that they are not export-grade cigars. They are made for domestic consumption and cost about a dollar a bundle - i.e., about a nickel a cigar. The cigars are not sold to tourists and theoretically cannot be exported outside of Cuba. The usual way to get these (and similar domestic Cubans) is to slip your helpful hotel staff a few bucks, and they'll go to a locals-only store and get you a bundle wrapped in paper.

This particular bundle was brought back from a Cuban vacation by a friend of a friend who knew nothing about cigars but wanted "real" Cubans. They sat for a few months in a zip-lock and then I got them - dried out and wrappers that cracked into pieces with any pressure. I've slowly brought them up to about 60% RH over the past six weeks.

Construction was rough, as expected. How rough? Well, the wrapper had a beetle hole - before the cigar was rolled. The wrapper varied in shade from candela to oscuro. Not pretty, and single-cap (machine-made ...)

Taste was pretty uniform - no "thirds" here. Just tobacco taste. No leather, no nuts, no chocolate, no refinement, no granola - just raw, fresh, extremely strong, tobacco taste. A hint of sweetness and a hint of saltiness - but I'm not saying there was complexity. No bitterness or burning hot smoke. The cigar was the opposite of complex. The cigar was very full-bodied and very strong on the nicotene side. It seemed like the smoke could be cut with a knife and fork - the smoke didn't rise, it didn't fall, it just hung thickly in the air.

Ash was dark grey, and held on nicely. No construction issues; the tobacco was fairly lightly packed, so the burn was good.

All in all, the opposite of refinement. You'd have to be a pretty "experienced" cigar smoker to not immediately go green - I'm feeling a bit queasy, and that's after a huge dinner of Chinese food - but if you want a strong one-dimensional cigar, you can't go wrong with Cuban domestics.

Some pics of a similar domestic Cuban cigar - the ones I have are slightly better looking:
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med....jpg#S17632525
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med....jpg#S17632513

Thanks for the review, Craig.

Very interesting.

Will

So these are like the Cuban Backwoods? Cool!
JK JK Nice pictures along with the story you explained things really well. Not sure if I'm man enough to even bother with something like that, but I don't imagine I'll have any Cubans changing my sheets any time soon. Thanks for the writeup

Holy Sh*t this particular example that I'm smoking is strong.

Above review applies, except the freshness has diminished.

Link to Badwhale's blind review (cigar #4) http://www.cigarsmokers.com/threads/...lenge-contest!

My Espanol is pretty shitty, but I think it says they're bad for you.:smiley36:

Doc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by craig

El Surco - roughly corona-sized, lasted 35 minutes.
Drink: none.
Tunes: nope. Hi I just came back from Cuba and bought a pack of Elsurco and I love the

El Surco was a pre-revolutionary cigar factory in Cuba.

Now El Surco is the brand name of a domestic machine-made Cuban cigar. These are not "Havana's" in the sense that they are not export-grade cigars. They are made for domestic consumption and cost about a dollar a bundle - i.e., about a nickel a cigar. The cigars are not sold to tourists and theoretically cannot be exported outside of Cuba. The usual way to get these (and similar domestic Cubans) is to slip your helpful hotel staff a few bucks, and they'll go to a locals-only store and get you a bundle wrapped in paper.

This particular bundle was brought back from a Cuban vacation by a friend of a friend who knew nothing about cigars but wanted "real" Cubans. They sat for a few months in a zip-lock and then I got them - dried out and wrappers that cracked into pieces with any pressure. I've slowly brought them up to about 60% RH over the past six weeks.

Construction was rough, as expected. How rough? Well, the wrapper had a beetle hole - before the cigar was rolled. The wrapper varied in shade from candela to oscuro. Not pretty, and single-cap (machine-made ...)

Taste was pretty uniform - no "thirds" here. Just tobacco taste. No leather, no nuts, no chocolate, no refinement, no granola - just raw, fresh, extremely strong, tobacco taste. A hint of sweetness and a hint of saltiness - but I'm not saying there was complexity. No bitterness or burning hot smoke. The cigar was the opposite of complex. The cigar was very full-bodied and very strong on the nicotene side. It seemed like the smoke could be cut with a knife and fork - the smoke didn't rise, it didn't fall, it just hung thickly in the air.

Ash was dark grey, and held on nicely. No construction issues; the tobacco was fairly lightly packed, so the burn was good.

All in all, the opposite of refinement. You'd have to be a pretty "experienced" cigar smoker to not immediately go green - I'm feeling a bit queasy, and that's after a huge dinner of Chinese food - but if you want a strong one-dimensional cigar, you can't go wrong with Cuban domestics.

Some pics of a similar domestic Cuban cigar - the ones I have are slightly better looking:
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med....jpg#S17632525
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med....jpg#S17632513

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Hi i just bought some of those cigars in Cuba and I like them for 2 bucks for 25 can not go wrong