This April, Aganorsa Leaf announced a followup to last years Signature Selection, the Signature Selection Maduro. The Signature Selection Maduro uses the same Corojo 99 Cuban Seed wrapper grown on Aganorsa Leaf farms in Jalapa as the original, but a higher priming than the the original. It has also bee fermented longer. The rest of the blend uses the same tobaccos.
This cigar was reviewed blind (no bands) by a panel of at least 4 reviewers. They did not know what they were smoking beforehand. The scores are an average of all the reviewers' scores with outliers removed. All of our cigars reviewed are shipped to the panelists with Boveda packs to ensure optimal smoking experience.
Like the original this will be a regular production cigar, but only made in small numbers of 250 boxes of each vitolas will be sold this summer. The sizes are: robusto (5×52), toro (6 x 52), corona gorda (6 x 44) and Belicoso/109 Head (6.25 x52). Prices range from $9.99 – $10.99.
Vital Stats:
Vitola: Corona Gorda Length: 6″ Ring Gauge: 44 Country of Origin: Nicaragua Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo Maduro Binder: Nicaraguan Filler: Nicaraguan Factory: Tacabos Valle de Jalapa S.A. (TABSA) Blender: Max Fernandez Number of reviewers: 5 – Alan(Eulogy) Mickey T. (irratebass) John A. (Bostoneo) Ryan H. (Ryan H.) Isaac M. (The Nothing) Price: $9.99 Age: 2 Months Release Date: July 2019 Contributed by: Aganorsa Leaf
Initial Impressions
Appearance: 91
“A dark chestnut brown wrapper with medium sized veins running the length of this corona gorda sized stick. Topped by a marvelous fan cap. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Aroma: 93
“A snug cold draw reveals flavors of sweet cedar, tobacco, and leather. On the nose, a slight barnyard smell wafts. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Flavor: 90 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium-Full
“The cigar starts extremely spicy. The smoke output is just plumbs and plumbs of spicy thick smoke. Cigar is medium plus In strength and is very meaty. Cigar is quite complex in its layers, profile includes peanut wood and leather with an added dried fruit sweetness. Wonderful cigar and the nic kick is strong with this one. Burn is suffering but holding it’s own. It is sad this is too good of a cigar to suffer this kind of problem.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
“Upon lighting up, flavors of spicy leather, tobacco, and cedar fill the mouth. An inch in and the spiciness subsides, while the rich tobacco and leather notes become dominate. The burn doesn’t seem to stay quite lit for long, relights are needed. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
“Surprisingly different than the first third. I’m getting dark chocolate, black coffee, cedar, and a cinnamon bite. Occasionally, there’s still a bit of citrus to be found but this is not as sweet as the first third. I’m having a hell of a time trying to keep it lit though and it’s not burning very well.” –Alan (Eulogy)
“Cream has decided to rear it’s head in the party, still lots of earthy flavors going here….no real transitions to speak of other than the cream showing up. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“Earth takes over burn has really been a challenge you have to be quite attentive to keep the cigar going this might be attributed to the tight draw. Such a shame.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
“Some of the sweetness from the first third has reappeared. I’m getting more plum and baking spice with a woody finish. It won’t stay lit at this point if i set it down for more than a minute and I’m finding myself relight or keeping a quicker pace than I’m use to. ” –Alan (Eulogy)
Overall Impressions
Draw: 88
“Draw was too tight causing what I feel was the burn problems.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
Burn: 79
“It required at least six outright relights. Burned wildly wavy when it would stay lit and would go out for no reason at times. ” –Alan (Eulogy)
Construction: 83
“Construction was ok, but due to the burn it really became a chore to smoke and stay lit. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“From a flavor standpoint this is a great cigar. It’s the construction, burn, draw, and constant relights that make it score so low from me. I would love to try another one just to see if it was a fluke but the devil is in the details. ” –Alan (Eulogy)
“This was an ok cigar. It didn’t really blow me away. There were lots of wood, and earthy flavors mixed with white and black pepper, but the cigar sadly didn’t shine for me until the final third where cream came in and really rounded the cigar out. Unfortunately the cigar really annoyed me with the burn issues. I can’t recommend this cigar because of that reason. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“I was only able to get halfway through this one as it completely stopped burning even though it was lit. The flavors it did offer however were very enjoyable, but who knows how it would of ended. Sadly it became unsmokable. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
“Wonderful taste and smells came from the cigar very good with a couple manufacturers problems still worth a box in my book” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
“I hope my co-panelists did not have the same experience as I had. This cigar was pretty much unsmokable. The glue on the wrapper looked bad, and trying to keep the cigar burning was even worse. Hard pass from me. ” –Isaac M. (The Nothing)
"This was an ok cigar. It didn't really blow me away. There were lots of wood, and earthy flavors mixed with white and black pepper, but the cigar sadly didn't shine for me until the final third where cream came in and really rounded the cigar out. Unfortunately the cigar really annoyed me with the burn issues. I can't recommend this cigar because of that reason. " -Mickey T. (irratebass)
