Perla del Mar

Maduro

Velvety smooth but incredibly good. Immediate punch of dark chocolate at first draw. Other notes of leather and earth also come through. Great draw, but the burn refused to stay even.

Spicy medium

This was a good stick, not great but at $6 it was well worth it. Dark chocolate and coffee were the primary flavors with pepper and sweetness that would come and go. Toward the end cinnamon pushed to the front and the coffee and chocolate started to fade.

My affinity for J. C. Newman cigars starts at this line of smokes. I’m a fan of the shade version of these, so I was curious to see how the Maduro fared. The appearance is great. The band has nice, fancy touches. The cap is neat, complex, and well-set. Not much mottling, and only a couple of stray veins. The wrapper is a good chocolate color and has scents of cocoa, coffee, and hay. The foot smells of sweet tobacco and hay as well. This stick was firm with a little give, implying a good construction even with the box press. The cap held up nicely to my double guillotine cut, and the cold draw gave notes of wheat bread without much else. The draw itself was excellent. After lighting, the first flavor notes I got were milk chocolate and buttery minerals. The retrohale gave copious black pepper and cream. It’s an excellent start. Foot smoke is nicely aromatic. The only knock I gave it was a canoe on the initial burn. It required touching up. After that it burned fairly evenly. The second third was pleasant without much change in flavor notes. The pepper calmed down though. The band resisted coming off, but I was able to coax it. None of the wrapper came off with it. The final third didn’t have many changes either, save for the cocoa turning into more of a dark chocolate. Finished with less than inch left. Very good smoke overall. Plenty of smoke throughout. Flavors and strength started medium and stayed that way. I think I might like this more than the shade version.

Full flavor and awesome aroma