Budget Habanos

[craig]

Good read. I agree on the montecarlos. I am smoking a box now from 07 and there is a little harshness on the first inch but overall these are very tasty now.

I would have to put my vote in for h upmann corona majors. They are cheap, they taste great, and they come in tubes so they travel very well.

Haven't had those, I guess because they are priced just below Party Shorts / Bolivar CJ / RASCC - and Partagas Shorts are one one of my favourite smokes

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While I'm here, let me add a few more smokes to the Budget Habanos comparison:
Quintero Panatela - Sep 06 - so that all the Vegueritos vitolla can be reviewed. Needs more time.
Quintero Brevas - date unknown(!) - but smoking well now.
Jose L.Piedras Cazadores - Jul 08

And a planned review schedule:
Feb 09 - Por Larrañaga Panatela at 1 year
May 09 - JLP Petit Cetros and RG Panatela Extra at 18 months
July 09 - Quintero Londres Extra at 2 years, Quintero Brevas
Aug 09 - JLP Cazadores and Petit Cazadores at 1 year, Por Larrañaga Panatela at 18 months.
Oct 09 - Quintero Panatela and JLP Conserva at 3 years
Nov 09 = JLP Petit Cetros and RG Panatela Extra at 2 years

[pmp]

Haven't had those, I guess because they are priced just below Party Shorts / Bolivar CJ / RASCC - and Partagas Shorts are one one of my favourite smokes

I don't really every smoke anything smaller than a mareva these days so those on my radar. BPC, PLPCs, Party PCE, and Dip 4s are more comparable. The corona majors can hold their own. Not very complex but still good. I wish they sold plpcs in 25s.

[craig]

I don't really every smoke anything smaller than a mareva these days so those on my radar. BPC, PLPCs, Party PCE, and Dip 4s are more comparable. The corona majors can hold their own. Not very complex but still good. I wish they sold plpcs in 25s.

I wish they sold PLPCs in Canada!

I must admit that I've shied away from H. Upmann because the two vitolla that I've smoked (Mag46 and Sir Winston) needed years of aging before I found them enjoyable.

Amongst mareva's, I currently like the Monte and the Boli PC. From your list above, have you had the PCE's? I was wondering what they are like.

[CoventryCat86]

I'm a huge fan of the JLP Cazadores and I actually like them young.

The last Sir Winston I smoked was about four to five years old and I thought it smoked great.

I also love Quintero Brevas and as with the JLPs, I don't mind it when they're young. I have some 15 year old Quinteros around here somewhere and yes, I do notice the difference between the aged ones and the raw ones but like I said, I don't really care if they're young.

[jeanbreckman]

looks very interesting

[craig]

Name of Cigar: Por Larrañaga Panatela
Ring/Length Shape: 5"x36
Filler/binder/wrapper:Vuelta Abajo, short-filler
Wrapper Colour: Colorado Claro to Colorado
Wrapper Sheen: a bit
Sample web price: $1.75US
Date of box: Jan 08
Date of last review: Nov 08
Date of review: Feb 09
Storage: sealed Mason jar in coolerdor, 65F/65%RH

(Aside: the storing of tobacco in sealed Mason jars is borrowed from pipe smokers, and is an old form of packaging Habanos - and a new form of packaging of some Tatuaje's. I tried jars with JLP's a while back (half the box in jars, half in a wooden box(SBN, not a dress box)) and after six months, I liked the mason jar'd cigars better. Currently I'm repeating the experiment with a number of other cigars. Interesting (to me) observations: Some cigars out-gas enough to generate positive pressure in a sealed jar, others do nothing. Also, the wrappers on jar'd cigars seem to not exude oils in the jar, unlike cigars stored un-cello'd in a box or humi. Once out of the jar, the oils seem to come out right away. Back to the PL ...)

These PL's have just hit one year of box age, and the improvement from the last smoking at nine months is noticeable. While a number of smokers like the tannic (sharp) taste of a young smoke, I prefer that the tannins be reduced. (I don't notice the tannins if I drink alcohol while smoking a cigar.)

Pre-light showed a typical Cuban short-filler wrapper: far from flawless, somewhat coarse, and with colour variations. The bunch was fine - no soft spots, and the cold draw was perfect. As is seemingly typical with a cigar taken fresh from a jar, the aroma was fragrant and generous. There was a definite fruity/floral taste to the cold draw.

Upon lighting the cigar, I was immediately hit with mild sweet smoke - although not an overwhelming sweetness. There was a lot of smoke, and a mild tickling of the sinus' if I exhaled through the nose. Not a peppery smoke. The trademark PL caramel taste was not very strong, and was overwhelmed by basic tobacco taste. No richness or leather, etc. - PL's, at least the Panatela and the Montecarlo, do not seem to have any ligero, or very little of it. A slight saltiness crept in about a 1/2 inch in, but a purge got rid of that. No bitterness at all.

The flavour of the cigar was not intense; fairly weak in fact. However, what was there was quite agreeable, though not complex. This is a mild smoke in terms of body, although it had a surprisingly strong nicotene punch compared to a similar non-Cuban.

The ash was very dark, but held up well for a short-filler. Burn and draw were perfect - a welcome contrast to the Quintero Breva's that I have been smoking recently, every one of which has needed a poke or two. (This is probably due to the relative amounts of ligero between the two smokes. Ligero holds more moisture than volado or seco.) Trying to smoke in a normal big-ring fashion did lead to hot mildly-burning smoke on the tongue, but being patient and taking it slow made all the difference. I took 45 minutes to get this thin-ringed 5"x36 cigar down to a 3/4" nub. (Most people rate this as a half-hour smoke.)

Overall, I'd say that this particular cigar was typical of a PL panatela. Not heavy, or rich, or full-bodied, or complex; but a straightforward mild-bodied smoke with hints of sweetness that would go well with coffee. (I had this one with water.) Note that when I say mild, it is relative to other Cubans; this isn't like a tasteless (to me) mild-bodied Dominican/Honduran that is prevalent in this price range. With one year of box age, these are ready to be smoked now, but I'll be waiting for the spring before I work them into rotation.

Finally, for those into numbers like myself, I scored the cigar at 74 without taking price into account - identical to the cigars-review.org rating of 7.4

[597]

Thanks for the reviews.

[pmp]

I wish they sold PLPCs in Canada!

I must admit that I've shied away from H. Upmann because the two vitolla that I've smoked (Mag46 and Sir Winston) needed years of aging before I found them enjoyable.

Amongst mareva's, I currently like the Monte and the Boli PC. From your list above, have you had the PCE's? I was wondering what they are like.

The corona majors and regalias are quite good. I wouldn't overlook them. Also if you haven't had an upmann no 2 you really need to. Those are downright fantastic.

Party PCEs taste more partagas-like to me than the shorts. If you are a fan of that full dark bittersweet flavor that partagas has then you will like them. I like my cigars more earthy. Partagas is very underrepresented in my humidor but I keep those around for people who really like partagas or uneperienced smokers who want to try something cuban that is full bodied.