Herrera Esteli Lonsdale Review

Cigar: Herrera Esteli
Size: Lonsdale 6" x 44
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: MSRP $8.95

Initial Impression/Prelight
The Ecuador Habano wrapper was a nice, light golden brown with just a few tiny veins. It had no toothiness and just a bit of oil. The cigar felt well constructed down the length, with no soft spots of knots. Precut I picked up just some barnyard, and after the cut some hay and a hint of pepper. Draw felt a tiny bit tight before lighting.

The band was white with red lettering and gold trim, and it looked really good. I smoked this cigar on Sunday, and got to enjoy a beautiful and sunny 75 degree day. I bought this cigar from my B&M a month or two back and it's been in my humidor at 65% since then.

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1st Third
Unlike my last cigar, I didn't blast and char the foot. Flavors out of the gate were oak and pepper. I did get some acorn-like bitterness which lasted for about the first inch. Towards the end of this section the bitterness did fade, and I picked up some leather and assorted spices. Draw turned out to be ok, smoke output was fine, ash held alright for this size cigar, but the wrapper began unraveling. I'd rank it medium+ flavor and medium strength so far.

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2nd Third
This third continued with the oak woodiness theme, as well as a dry black tea flavor. The wrapper also began coming apart pretty badly in this section, and some of the bitterness from the first third came back but as more citrus than acorn. Throughout this section I also seemed to randomly get a creamy feel from the smoke, but it literally changed from one puff to the next. Again, smoke output and ash were fine.

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Final Third
Despite my best and most valiant efforts to trim and power through, the wrapper issues continued with unraveling and finally a split. Flavorwise, I continued to pick up wood, along with orange peel and some small pepper to go along with that on-and-off creaminess every few puffs, and I did get some continued bitterness as well. In the then I'll call it pretty well medium flavor and strength, or maybe a tick above that.

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Overall Impressions
It was an interesting cigar and it did have some good moments. I know it's been highly reviewed too, but overall I have to say I was a little disappointed.

• Aside from Undercrowns and Papas Fritas, my other very limited forays into DE (2) seem to have been cursed with poor construction. Must be a sign.
• I guess most professional reviewers smoke multiple samples for that reason. Sadly, I don't get any freebies and I just write myreviews based on the singleton.
• I get it, they're handmade items, etc. but I really hope not to have too many $10+ cigars come apart in my hands. I have some pectin powder but really didn't want to get up, mix some up, and try to glue the wrapper back down. Maybe I should have done it anyway.
• Complaints about the unraveling aside, the cigar had some interesting flavors and shifts. I've never experienced such a dry cigar that randomly gave off a creamy puff here and there.
• I would have preferred a lot more creamy.
• Points for never getting hot or bitter even as I approached the end. That's pretty good for a cigar this thin.
• The DE website says, "Cubanesque doesn't even begin to describe it." Not sure if that's a reference to Willy Herrera's heritage or the flavor of the cigar. An alternative theory is it refers to the wrapper falling off, but I don't have enough experience with anything but NCs to say.
• Bad joke above. Willy Herrera was at my local B&M a couple months back for a Herrera Esteli event and I'm sorry I couldn't make it. They said afterwards that he was a good roller.
• The band was really classy and I loved it.


I bet some of the bitterness throughout came from my repeated attempts to fix and touch up the wrapper. This is one cigar that's a little tough for me to classify still - the flavors really weren't in my preferred wheelhouse and it was dry where I would have preferred more smooth, but there were some shifts and nuances. I did appreciate the hints of citrus toward the end as well. You can call me crazy, but I felt there were some flavor similarities to the Padron x000, and for $4 less I'd just go Padron next time.

I'm in the minority on these, so try a single and see if it works for you.

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