Fuente 8-5-8 Sungrown Rosado (2018)

[Gator]

Bought a box of these back in Dec 2018, and have been chipping away to the point where there’s only 8 left of the box of 20. Paired with Lagunita Hoppy Refresher, sitting in carport watching storms while waiting on wife & son to return from the lake.

Some pepper, wood, maybe cinnamon at times, and a floral sweetness was present throughout, with something close to a vanilla creaminess showing up occasionally. Smoked great until the last 1/4, when it turned stankity. Construction was excellent, not one single touch up required, which hasn’t been the norm lately for the Fuente cigars I’ve smoked, lots of construction issues. Maybe Carlito could pose for pics less and work on improving construction consistency more, or maybe go to Padrons factory and see how they do it, but I digress.

Overall, fantastic cigar, 5.5 years seems to be the right amount of age, it’s about as good of a cigar I’ve had in a bit, I’d give it a 92.

 

[CigarStone]

Great cigar!

And yes, it's a shame the direction Fuente has taken in the last decade or two.

 

[meadeweber]

Funny, I just purchased a couple ARTURO FUENTE UNNAMED RESERVE 2021 yesterday and the tobacconist that I purchased them from told me that they remind him of the 8-5-8 Sun Grown Rosado. Not surprising I guess since it does have the sun grown rosado wrapper and Dominican filler as well. They were rolled in 2016 so they certainly have some age on them. I'm looking forward to trying one in the next couple weeks!

 

[Gator]

Great cigar!

And yes, it's a shame the direction Fuente has taken in the last decade or two.

I love a lot of the flavor profiles of Fuente, and I remember when almost every Opus was almost perfect construction wise. No longer, I have more issues with Fuente than any other brand, other than Cubans. They seem to be more interested in marketing to the Facebook fanboy than their core customer group, but wtf do I know…

 

[Gator]

Funny, I just purchased a couple ARTURO FUENTE UNNAMED RESERVE 2021 yesterday and the tobacconist that I purchased them from told me that they remind him of the 8-5-8 Sun Grown Rosado. Not surprising I guess since it does have the sun grown rosado wrapper and Dominican filler as well. They were rolled in 2016 so they certainly have some age on them. I'm looking forward to trying one in the next couple weeks!

Right on, I picked up 10 of those recently, will let them sit for a few years. I was told that’s when they started the production, that they’re pretty fresh, but who knows, all I know is the last one I smoked was fantastic

 

[CigarStone]

I love a lot of the flavor profiles of Fuente, and I remember when almost every Opus was almost perfect construction wise. No longer, I have more issues with Fuente than any other brand, other than Cubans. They seem to be more interested in marketing to the Facebook fanboy than their core customer group, but wtf do I know…

They have always had a F'd up marketing strategy in my opinion. Even back when I was a Fuente whore, they played games with their high end stuff trying to make it seem like you were getting a chance to buy the holy grail.

 

[meadeweber]

Right on, I picked up 10 of those recently, will let them sit for a few years. I was told that’s when they started the production, that they’re pretty fresh, but who knows, all I know is the last one I smoked was fantastic

Gator, do you think they need to sit longer even though they were rolled in 2016? You thought 5.5 years was good for the 8-5-8 Sungrown Rosado.

 

[Gator]

Gator, do you think they need to sit longer even though they were rolled in 2016? You thought 5.5 years was good for the 8-5-8 Sungrown Rosado.

I just smoked one recently that I’ve had for awhile, it was great.

 

[Gator]

They have always had a F'd up marketing strategy in my opinion. Even back when I was a Fuente whore, they played games with their high end stuff trying to make it seem like you were getting a chance to buy the holy grail.

Yeah, and I’ve never bought into that hype, give me some Anejo & Opus, they can have their purple rain 20th anniversary of something bs. I did jump on a box of Casa Fuente that were right around $20 a stick, those are phenomenal. I’m going to start back on Padrons, and lanceros, I have a box of mixed lanceros in the bottom of my coolidor I’ve had for 5 or so years, I never seem to get to them before I’ve grabbed something else.

 

[CigarStone]

Yeah, and I’ve never bought into that hype, give me some Anejo & Opus, they can have their purple rain 20th anniversary of something bs. I did jump on a box of Casa Fuente that were right around $20 a stick, those are phenomenal. I’m going to start back on Padrons, and lanceros, I have a box of mixed lanceros in the bottom of my coolidor I’ve had for 5 or so years, I never seem to get to them before I’ve grabbed something else.

If you willing to spend $20/stick, Cubans are still a better cigar in that price range. Not that I would know, since they are illegal.

 

[meadeweber]

If you willing to spend $20/stick, Cubans are still a better cigar in that price range. Not that I would know, since they are illegal.

It's tough to find Cubans, of a decent size, for $20 now days if you can even find them.

 

[Gator]

If you willing to spend $20/stick, Cubans are still a better cigar in that price range. Not that I would know, since they are illegal.

I priced some recently, and fk me running, they’ve what, doubled in price?

 

[insight]

Great cigar, great drink for the cigar. Lagunitas is like 5 minutes away.

I haven’t bought any premium Fuentes in a while but clearly at some point the inner circle unobtanium hype went mainstream for them. I could understand the hype and excitement back in the day around the rarer releases, not everybody gets to smoke an unreleased Fuente blend or a quad wrap opus culebra, so that made it easier to rationalize. But then that wasn’t good enough, there had to be a bunch of colors of opus and then they take the elusive don carlos senior blend, make it an annual limited release and charge people rent money for it. I’m pretty sure I smoked a few of those new ribbon opus and I can’t remember a fucking thing about any of them.

 

[ranchand]

I smoke lots of fuente cigars but not the high priced stuff. Best sellers, rothchilds, don carlos all satisfy my cravings, even the queen B during days on the tractor is good!