Cigar Review – San Cristobal Seleccion del Sol Belicoso
Wrapper: Sun Grown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Made In: Nicaragua
Size: 5.5×52 Belicoso
Price: about $9 per single
From Ashton Cigar’s website:
San Cristobal Seleccion Del Sol is the finest new cigar of 2009. Handcrafted by Pepin Garcia, These cigars feature a very special sun-grown wrapper grown on the Garcia family’s “Estrella” farm in Esteli, Nicaragua. Estrella sits on a picturesque plot of land surrounded by green hills, where sunlight abounds and the soil is as thick and as dark as coal. Pepin and his son, Jaime hand-selected these beautiful wrappers from the first crop of tobaccos harvested from Estrella explicitly for this cigar. These wrappers are thick and oily with a wonderful flavor and aroma. Available in 3 sizes, in boutique boxes of 20, these cigars also feature an intricate blend of 100% aged Nicaraguan tobaccos. The strength is medium to full-bodied and the flavors are very rich and complex.
Appearance & Construction: The San Cristobal Seleccion dele Sol is a nice looking cigar. The caramel colored wrapper has a few small veins and looks great. The roll is good as well and there are basically no seam lines to this cigar.
Smoking Characteristics: The draw on the San Cristobal is a little snug for my liking but gets the job done. The burn is fairly even but the ash flowered and flaked everywhere.
Flavors: The first few puffs of the San Cristobal Seleccion del Sol are filled with notes of cedar and spice. Once the cigar gets going notes of honey and tea leaves are added to the dry cedary spice combination. In the second third I start to pick up some leathery notes along with a bit of coffee that I wish would peak its head out a little more. The final third was still the cedary flavor. The body of the San Cristobal Seleccion del Sol is medium and the strength is average.
Final Thoughts: All in all I really enjoyed this cigar. What set this cigar back is the draw. I like a nice free draw on cigars and this one was a little disappointing and I think the flavors lacked in intensity because of that. Lately I have been getting away from torpedo’s because of the draw problems I have been encountering and I think next time I will go for a robusto format on this cigar. The flavors, although lacking in intensity, where still very good and this cigar is right on my flavor profile.
Worth a Shot: Yes but go for a different size
Buy Again: If the robusto performs the way I think it should I could definaly see this as a box purchase
Rating: Good but has potential to be great in a different size. See how we rate cigars here
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Please you should try these in another size. i went to a Ashton event early part of the month. They introduced these cigars and we smoked 1 there i like the San Cristobal cigars anyway and wanted to try there newest. This was a great cigar and a much nicer draw than what your saying. Before i left there I purchased a box and placed in my humidor at home. I try to mix up the selection of cigars i have each day and normally a box will last 3 to 4 months before replacing. Cigar count around 400. I keep going back to this cigar and am now down to 3 or 4. I will purchase another box most likely before the end of the month and will try to bury them in there somewhere so i can go back to the others