Cigar Reviews – 601 Red Label Robusto
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Made in: Nicaragua
Size: 5×50 Robusto
Price: About $7-$8 per single Cigar
Cigar Background: This cigar is blended for United Tobaccos Inc. (also known as EO Brands) by Don Pepin Garcia. It’s been said the 601 is the date which the owners of EO Brands, Eddie Ortega and Erik Espinosa, first visited Pepin’s factory in Nicaragua.
Prelight: I’ll be honest with you I am not big on prelight inspections because frankly it doesn’t matter to me what the cigar feels like or looks like as long as it taste good and burns fairly decent. But I’ll do it anyway for you guys. Cigar looks good and no noticeable defects – there are you happy.
Flavors: This cigar starts off with the signature Pepin spicy blast which I have come to expect and love from the majority of his cigars. Before I explain more about the cigar, let me tell you how I define spicy. I define spicy and peppery very different. Spicy to me is a clean heat, like if you were to put cayenne pepper in your eggs. It will leave your palate tingling because of the heat but is very clean feeling unlike pepper. Peppery to me is a term that I associate with a spicy earthy flavor. Think of it as putting too much pepper in your eggs. You would get a little bit of heat but also a very earthy flavor on your palate. Now getting back to the cigar; within the first couple minutes the spiciness quickly mellows down and becomes a backdrop for a slightly sweet, woodsy, leathery flavor. I will also mention the spicy aspect of the cigar reminds me a lot of crushed red peppers, like the ones that you put on pizza. To me the flavors of this cigar are very well balanced. They are not overly complex but nothingreally takes center stage and they all work together very nicely. There isn’t much change between the first third and the second third but on the final third the cigar becomes a little earthier.
Smoking Characteristics: A pretty even burn throughout the entire cigar but the ash dropped prematurely at about every inch or so. The draw on this cigar is perfect; free with the slightest bit of resistance so the cigar doesn’t smoke too hot.
Final Thoughts: I like this cigar a lot. It won’t blow you away with complexity but it is a solid performing cigar with flavors I truly enjoy. This is a great cigar to keep in your weekly rotation and with the price range of $4-$6 (depending where you get them) you can’t go wrong.
Worth a Try: Definitely if you are a Pepin fan like I am.
Buy it again: I have a box of these and when that box gets close to running out I would not hesitate to pull the trigger.
Rating: Great
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Nice review man. Did you take those pictures? They look really good. I need to get into some “artsy” picture taking. We should definitely do a joint review at some point, maybe both smoke the same cigar, write up our take, and publish them side by side on both of our sites.
Yep I got a new cannon point and shoot camera before we the baby came and its waaaayyyyy better than my superzoom sony camera that I spent a crap load of money on. Its super easy to do. I just have a utliity light (hence the yellowish look) and put the camera in macro mode. We should defintely do a joint review, that would be fun as hell.
Hey Adam,
Great review of a reasonably priced stick! I’m already thinking about when I can fire up one of those bad boys
I would have loved to go to Cigar Night on Tuesday but Candi’s working so i’m watching the lil ones. Speaking of you getting much sleep these days. Sounds like you have it a little better than I did.
Adam,
Congrats on the website, it looks great!
Somehow your dad created a cigar connoisseur, eventhough he doesn’t understand half of your review.
One request, can you review the $1-$2 a stick cigars for us guys a little short on cash?
Nice Review Adam, i just picked up a few of these sticks at Appleton Cigar. Looking forward to giveing them a try.
Nice review dude. The 601 red always delivers a satisfying smoke.