Barn Work Sessions: Warped Cigars Chinchalle

Usually for these “Sessions” reviews I have a little bit of an introduction, or something to talk about. That’s not really the case here, just a normal barn cleaning day. So I’ll just talk a bit about this cigar:

The Chinchalle is the first cigar by Warped Cigars to come out of the Dominican Republic. Honestly, this doesn’t set up as a match made in Heaven for me. I’m not usually impressed with Warped stuff and typically Dominican-heavy blends aren’t my favorite. That being said, I am a cigar geek and this decision by Kyle Gellis intrigues me. So let's see what happens.

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic

Factory: Tabacalera La Isla

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano 2000 Rosado

Binder: Dominican HVA 

Filler: Dominican 

Vitola: 5 x 50 Robusto

Price: $12.50 MSRP

Release Date: Sept. 2021

Company Website: www.warpedcigars.com

This cigar has a smooth, medium brown wrapper with some veins. It is quite firm and fairly dense. I’m not really a fan of the band. The color is dull and the design doesn’t do it for me. First light shows medium body smoke with medium flavors of peanut shells, oily wood, and soft pepper to start. The retrohale is slightly metallic, sweet, and shows some more oils. Quickly the smoke gets to full body and medium-full flavor. I realize as I am typing this that I got distracted and forgot to write down the prelight smell and taste. Oh well. About an inch in and it’s still full body, but medium flavor again. The peanut shell has disappeared and what’s left is a subtle sweetness, some pepper taste, and still mainly oily wood. This flavor profile holds through the first third. The second starts to show the slightest earth and maybe a bit of cocoa, but mainly just oily wood and pepper. The performance has been perfect to this point. The draw is a touch loose but good. Hitting halfway the cigar is still fairly consistent with the oily wood, pepper, and subtle earth. The cocoa dropped out and a slight general sweetness is returning. The retrohale shows a brighter fruit sweetness with a touch of pepper. Entering the final third there’s a bit of a ramp up in the wood and sweetness on the draw. The sweetness is a bit more of a berry-like sweetness. The earth is coming up a tad too. Both the flavor and body are full and the strength may be medium. Hitting the band the wood takes on a slight char and the sweetness and pepper ramp up. It’s more of a tangy sweetness like citrus fruits. It’s becoming a bit bitter and sour as I get near the band, but it corrects as I get further into the band point. The smoke is becoming primarily pepper, in both taste and heat, along with some wood, and a bit of earth. The retrohale is loads of pepper and some of the citric sweetness. Ending at about an hour and ten minutes with the flavors remaining unchanged. 

Overall Experience

Overall the cigar was not bad. The cigar performed quite well and there was nothing in the profile that put me off. However I likely won’t revisit it, but would smoke another if I were to be given one or received it in a trade. There was nothing groundbreaking in the flavor profile. The beginning of the final third was a nice shift away from the first half flavor profile, but then it got a bit too peppery where it was toeing the line between peppery and harsh. I think this was an interesting release from Kyle, and I always enjoy a company doing something outside of their norm. I also think this was a nice introduction for me, and likely many others, to the still “new” Tabacalera La Isla. 

Try the cigar yourself at Small Batch Cigars and let me know what you think! Use code “Whiskey” to get 10% off your entire order. Plus, sign up and begin earning 5% back in rewards points with each purchase.

Feel free to reach out to me with questions, concerns, criticisms, or just to talk at @guitarsandcigarsfarm on Instagram, or via email at trevor@whiskeyandwhitetails.com.


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