My Father La Antiguedad Toro Review
Cigar: My Father La Antiguedad
Size: Toro 5.6"x55
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano rosado oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan Criollo and Corojo
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: MSRP ~$8.00
Initial Impression/Prelight
I received this cigar in an unexpected bomb from brimy about 2 weeks ago. I'd had a couple really tough, stressful weeks at work, and when the package showed up out of the blue it cheered me up immensely. I felt like a little kid at Christmas, and I can't say enough to Brian how much I appreciated it. I've been looking forward to trying this one since I first heard about it a couple months ago, so here goes on my review!
The La Antiguedad sports an Ecuador Habano wrapper, classified as a rosado oscuro by My Father. It's a medium brown in color, with faint reddish highlights when I examined it in the sunlight. The wrapper was almost smooth, with small patches of tiny teeth, and very minimal veins. I got a typical if strong barnyard and pepper aroma from the wrapper, and the cold draw was perfectly firm and unexpectedly light flavors - a light floral taste, some tobacco sweetness, and generic nuttiness and mild pepper.
Brian said he'd had it for a couple weeks, and now it's been in my humidor at 65% for another 2 weeks waiting for me to get back from a long trip and find a quiet weekend to smoke it alone.
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...ps45zziq2w.jpg
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...s125198b9.jpeg
1st Third
Well, there was a big Pepin blast of pepper upfront, which is what I hoped for and expected despite a low-key cold draw. I also got some strong, bitter oak flavor in the first half inch, but that trailed off quickly and was replaced by sweet coffee, nuts, and flitting creaminess. The first third rounded out med/med flavor and strength, with plentiful smoke, perfect draw, and a crisp burnline.
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...psqn8incir.jpg
2nd Third
The second section was characterized to me by a balanced black pepper, strong coffee, and an in-and-out cocoa flavor. I also got cream and an almond or maybe even sweet marzipan taste, which was very nice with the pepperiness. The retro was stingingly full of pepper with some good heat, more red pepper than black, and I had to retrohale a few times to decide that I was also tasting a faint but pleasant vanilla. The flaky ash hung around an inch, and I remember someone else on Puff (can't remember who) using the term descriptive term "blossom" - the ash sort of split and flowered at times. The flavor overall stayed at medium or maybe medium+, but the strength picked up considerably to what I'd call full and by the halfway point my head was swimming.
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...psonyggv0c.jpg
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...psb4okq3dp.jpg
Final Third
Flavors stayed consistent, although the black pepper became more red towards the end, along with more coffee and some raisin flavors. In the last inch I also picked up some spicy clove-type flavor. Retrohales gave more stinging pepper and traces of the same vanilla sweetness. The cigar ended medium+ flavor and full strength to me.
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...pskz31s96y.jpg
Overall Impression
As a big My Father fan, I was not disappointed. I found myself comparing to the Flor de las Antillas, El Centurion, and My Father cigars while I smoked it. The La Antiguedad has some similarities, but to me it is it's own cigar.
• Per the My Father website, they used tobacco grown all on My Fathers farms, with the exception of the wrapper. The filler is three leaves, from the San Rafael, San Jose, and Las Quebradas regions of Nicaragua, and the double binder is comprised of Criollo and Corojo leaves.
• I didn't pick up any of the leather I normally associate with Corojo but didn't miss it.
• As always with the brand, I love the band. There's a ton of detail, relief, crinkled linen-paper texture, and classic colors, not to mention the cool artwork. I believe I remember reading somewhere that My Father found some original artwork from the old Cuban brand and incorporated it into the band.
• I've smoked a lot the last few weeks, and this is the first cigar that's hit me so hard in a while. My vision got blurry and my head started swimming about halfway through. Maybe part of that is the multiple retrohales, but I still say this is a pretty strong cigar.
• Final smoking time was about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
I enjoyed the pepper and spiciness all the way through - classic Pepin. While the rest of the flavors weren't overly complex, they were all balanced. This was just a good cigar. I'd recommend them by the box, and definitely it's worth a 5-er to see if you like it as well as I did. I had to go back and look at what I scored the FdlA and My Father cigars, because I thought this one stacked up nicely against them, while giving a few flavors I hadn't noticed in those two. Thanks again to Brian, I really liked this smoke.
Verdict: try a 5-er and see if you can handle the power!
http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/...psgidcjnss.jpg
