Alright, the Quintero Brevas, I've smoked lots of these in the past. At first it was because they were cheap and seemed pretty popular. I liked these from the start for what they are: good for the price with nice flavors. Now I thought the Brevas was due for a review. I've taken some pictures too. They are clear enough in my opinion, I guess I need to work on my shakey hands :whistling:
At first I was actually going to smoke a Cohiba Robusto, which has been resting in the humi for some time. Then I saw the Brevas beside it in my cigar caddy. I thought, what the hell. I only have one CoRo left, but lots of Brevas, I'll save the Cohiba for some other time. So, I get ready to actually try to taste this cigar and give it a chance to show what it goes for. I'm not drinking anything with this cigar. I sit outside in the backyard, watching NYPD Blue on my laptop (great show btw) and start the cigar.
This particular Brevas feels good when rolling it between my fingers. For this price I'm prepared to get a bad one every now and then. The cap is a bit damaged, but it doesn't look serious. I cut it with my Xikar. The draw before lighting is perfect. I light it with my Zippo (with Z-blazer insert). It lights up great and the draw is perfect. Initial flavors don't tell me much. After a couple of minutes I'm starting to get something out of it. There is some flavor I would describe as "toasted". Nothing particular, but that's as close as my vocabulary takes me. Then there's the well known raw tobacco taste (this seems to be the case with the Quintero's and eg. JL Piedras) mixed with, what is clearly, strong coffee. Also, I might have finally gotten what people describe as "leathery", because this is what I would describe as one of the flavors I'm perceiving. These flavors stay pretty much all the way. I'm starting to think that some of these flavors put together create what I've always thought of as the basic Cuban earthy flavor. Very pleasant. It continues to burn well. I drop the ash at about one quarter at a time.
The smoke of a cigar is important to me, as is also the case here. It's thick and creamy, exactly the way you want it to be. It smells sweet, smelling pretty much like caramel. In between puffs, I usually take some time to just smell the smoke, to get as much out of the cigar as possible. After about half of the cigar I encountered some bitterness, but nothing serious. It passed. When about 3/4 of the cigar had burned I had to correct it a bit with my lighter. Again, nothing serious. It's just that it had burned so well so far, I didn't want to risk it
As I usually do, I smoked this one to the nub too.
To sum it up, great cigar for the money. I guess it's not very complex, but it sure has a lot more to give than one might think. Min Ron Nee seems to think the Brevas age extremely well. Perhaps I'll have the patience to age them for some years. I highly recommend these :thumbs:
-John
At first I was actually going to smoke a Cohiba Robusto, which has been resting in the humi for some time. Then I saw the Brevas beside it in my cigar caddy. I thought, what the hell. I only have one CoRo left, but lots of Brevas, I'll save the Cohiba for some other time. So, I get ready to actually try to taste this cigar and give it a chance to show what it goes for. I'm not drinking anything with this cigar. I sit outside in the backyard, watching NYPD Blue on my laptop (great show btw) and start the cigar.
This particular Brevas feels good when rolling it between my fingers. For this price I'm prepared to get a bad one every now and then. The cap is a bit damaged, but it doesn't look serious. I cut it with my Xikar. The draw before lighting is perfect. I light it with my Zippo (with Z-blazer insert). It lights up great and the draw is perfect. Initial flavors don't tell me much. After a couple of minutes I'm starting to get something out of it. There is some flavor I would describe as "toasted". Nothing particular, but that's as close as my vocabulary takes me. Then there's the well known raw tobacco taste (this seems to be the case with the Quintero's and eg. JL Piedras) mixed with, what is clearly, strong coffee. Also, I might have finally gotten what people describe as "leathery", because this is what I would describe as one of the flavors I'm perceiving. These flavors stay pretty much all the way. I'm starting to think that some of these flavors put together create what I've always thought of as the basic Cuban earthy flavor. Very pleasant. It continues to burn well. I drop the ash at about one quarter at a time.
The smoke of a cigar is important to me, as is also the case here. It's thick and creamy, exactly the way you want it to be. It smells sweet, smelling pretty much like caramel. In between puffs, I usually take some time to just smell the smoke, to get as much out of the cigar as possible. After about half of the cigar I encountered some bitterness, but nothing serious. It passed. When about 3/4 of the cigar had burned I had to correct it a bit with my lighter. Again, nothing serious. It's just that it had burned so well so far, I didn't want to risk it
As I usually do, I smoked this one to the nub too.To sum it up, great cigar for the money. I guess it's not very complex, but it sure has a lot more to give than one might think. Min Ron Nee seems to think the Brevas age extremely well. Perhaps I'll have the patience to age them for some years. I highly recommend these :thumbs:
-John
