Cuban Crafters Medina 1959 Miami
Once again, I found myself reaching into the grab bag of cigars that the fine people at Duque Cigars sent me. I ended up with tonight’s review, the Cuban Crafters Medina 1959 Miami.
A little about the cigar… It is rolled in their Miami factory, and claims to have the taste of pre-Casto Cubans (hence 1959). They claim it is medium to full, and uses well aged Cuban seed Habano. The cigar was blended by Manuel Medina, former Galeron chief of the H.Uppman factory in Cuba.
As always, I am pairing this cigar with water. I’ve never smoked one of these before, so lets see how the Medina 1959 Miami goes.
Wrapper: Sumatra
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Size: Robusto 5 x 50
Price: Around $5.00
Pre-smoke & Construction:
The brown wrapper had some discolorations, and wasn’t veiny at all. I always appreciate a well placed triple cap, and this one looked nice. When squeezing, the cigar had some soft spots, but nothing extreme. The wrapper had a sweet smell, and the pre-light draw simply tasted of tobacco. After clipping the head with my trusty Xikar scissors, I found the draw to be free, maybe even slightly loose. Overall, the pre-smoke inspection is good. The ash held on for just under an inch, and I never had to correct the burn.
Flavor:
The first third kicked things off with a very smooth spicy pepper. This thing just bellowed out thick clouds of smoke, which had a very creamy sensation to it. Mild earthy undertones lingered and then would go away. Shortly after, they would return, and go away, and return. You get the idea. As this third came to a close, a nice nutty chocolate entered the picture. Considering this was just the first third, I’d say this little smoke is off to a great start.
The second third began with an increased earthy flavor, but again, it would appear and fade to the background. Chocolaty/mocha notes would increase in strength from time to time as well. A sweet flavor was noticed as I progressed into this third.
The last third increased in body a bit. I’d have to call it medium to upper medium. It may have hit the full body range. The creamy smoke continued to billow out. An interesting sweet spice appeared that reminded me of cinnamon, and it would come and go. The mocha did the same. It would appear, and go away just as quickly. A nutty flavor stayed pretty consistent. The earthy notes were almost impossible to detect, but I’d notice them from time to time. As I wrapped up, I noticed woody flavors.
Conclusion:
Wow I think this was a great cigar. The flavor profile made me pay attention. I really enjoyed the complexities and I really had to focus to detect the changes. This is the only 1959 I smoked. If all of them are as good this one, I’d have to definitely recommend you try it. A big thumbs up!
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tommy Zman March 8th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I had one of these recently and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I agree, very woody flavors (okay, not like woody from Toy Story or woody in your trousers – you know what I mean.)
Nice review, T – pretty spot on!.
- Zman