We have well water here on the farm and have noticed recently that it has seemed a bit harder than normal. It was a reminder that I needed to do some maintenance to our water sanitation system and schedule an appointment to have our softener serviced. Since our sediment filter, UV light, and reverse osmosis drinking water system is all in the garage, I figured I would smoke something while I worked. I grabbed something in my favorite size - the Favilli (formerly Mombacho) Tierra Volcan Corto.
This little rothschild is a Nicaraguan puro coming out of Casa Favilli in Granada. Mombacho Cigars S.A. announced in late 2021 that they are rebranding the Mombacho Cigars line in the US to “Favilli”. Interestingly, when Mombacho Cigars S.A. began distribution into the US market, the cigars were under the Tierra Volcan name, before transitioning to the Mombacho Cigars name in 2017. This all is a bit confusing, especially since this Tierra Volcan is in the Mombacho - era packaging. Anyhow, it's been a minute since I have smoked something from this company, and the first time I have smoked this blend.
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: Casa Favilli
Wrapper: Sun Grown Jalapa (Nicaragua)
Binder: Criollo Viso Condega (Nicaragua)
Filler: Condega & Jalapa (Nicaragua)
Vitola: 4 x 50 Corto (Rothschild)
Price: $10.00 MSRP
Release Date: June 2014
Company Website: www.mombachocigars.com
This is one of my favorite vitolas for my personal smoking pleasure. This little guy puts off a ton of sweet, raisiny chewing tobacco scent. I love it. I like this era of bands and I love the color scheme of this one in particular. The wrapper on this has a couple splits that hopefully don’t cause any issues. Otherwise it is quite clean. The cold draw is dark chocolate almonds and craisins. The prelight smells and flavors of this are killer. First light is medium bodied smoke with medium-full flavors of some earth with a bit of minerals, some tannic wood, and baking spices. I have to hold my finger over one of the wrapper splits to get the best smoke output. About a half inch in the wood is primary, followed by some earth and spice. There is a bit of dark chocolate on the finish, along with some tannins. The retrohale is peppery up front, but quickly subsides to a creamy dark cherry. I have to touch up a bit of a canoe going into the second third. The flavor profile has been holding fairly consistent so far. There may be just a bit more baking spice on the draw. Hitting halfway the draw has lost a lot of the wood and tannins and I am left with medium flavors of some drying spices and earth. The retrohale has settled down a bit with the pepper. It’s got a bit of the spices in it as well and a little bit of cherry left. I ran inside for a minute just after hitting the secondary band and the cigar went out. There’s no notable changes from relighting it. I just got a very interesting mango note that didn’t last. Nearing the primary band I am getting a little strength kick, but I am hungry, so it’s probably no more than medium. Coming to an end at an hour and 28 minutes the only change was the introduction of pepper into the draw. The performance was perfect since the relight.
Overall Experience
Overall I thought the cigar had some of the best prelight characteristics I have had. At first, it was promising and seemed like something up my alley with the earth, slightly tannic wood, and baking spices. The peppery, creamy cherry on the retrohale was also quite nice. However, when the profile became more of a drying spice and earth, it got a bit boring. The end caught a bit more of my attention with the pepper coming in. I also would have been happy to see that random mango note stick around for more than a puff or two. All in all, it wasn’t bad, but not something I look to return to. However, this one was from October of 2020, so I may consider picking up a fresher one to compare. That is something I forgot about with this packaging - they stamp the date the cigar was banding on the back of the band. I think this is a really neat concept.
Feel free to reach out to me with questions, concerns, criticisms, or just to talk at @guitarsandcigarsfarm on Instagram, or visit my website www.guitarsandcigarsfarm.com.