If you have followed along with my reviews or my Instagram, you should be familiar with Patina Cigars. Launched 5 years ago by Mo Maali, Patina Cigars is a boutique cigar company that makes my “desert-island” cigar - the Patina Habano Precipitation. When I caught word of the Patina Sumatra blend being in the works, it quickly became one of the most anticipated releases of 2022 for me. I mean, it’s a Patina Cigar with arguably my favorite wrapper leaf! Then I find out that the binder is one of my favorite tobaccos - Connecticut Broadleaf, what?! Combine those with the familiar Patina filler combination of Pennsylvania Broadleaf and Nicaraguan tobaccos, and I’m drooling just at the thought! Well I finally got some of each vitola in and I figured I ought to review one.
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: Nicaragua America Cigars S.A.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra Oscuro
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Nicaragua
Vitola: 6 x 46 Copper (Corona Gorda)
Price: $10.95 MSRP
Link to Purchase: Guitars & Cigars Farm
Release Date: August 2022
Company Website: www.patinacigars.com
Expectations
I anticipate full body and flavor from this cigar, but I look for a lot of nuance and complexity. The strength may build to medium to medium-full. In terms of flavors I look for a lot of richness with leather, earth, baking spices, and savory meatiness. I imagine there will be some cream and/or chocolate that make an appearance.
Prelight Characteristics
This cigar is a bit spongy, but is fairly dense. The wrapper has even coloration and is pretty clean. I love the colors and design of the Patina primary bands, and I really love the secondary band on the Sumatras. The cigar smells like cream, spices, and some earth. The cold draw has some faint berries and grains.
First Third
This cigar starts off with medium-full bodied smoke with medium flavors of a slightly salty, woody, savory cream. There’s a little tangy sweetness to it as well. Very quickly a cane sugar sweetness joins the draw and the finish goes more woody and adds some coffee. The retrohale incorporates some milk chocolate and a bit of earthiness. Coming to the end of the first third the performance has been perfect and the flavor and body are up to full.
Second Third
The second third begins mostly consistent with the first third except the cane sugar has faded. The milk chocolate from the retrohale is the primary sweet note in the draw. Nearing halfway it is becoming even more chocolatey. The second third maintains this profile until the end where the chocolate has begun to taper off and give way to some more wood and earth. The performance has remained perfect throughout this third as well.
Final Third
Nearing the secondary band there are the first signs of any pepper. There’s also some saltiness joining back in. Just into the primary band point the pepper has not increased its presence. It’s mainly baking spices, some wood, and a bit of cream and earth. It went out on me, but I think it’s because I got distracted and hadn’t puffed in a few minutes. It relit fine and actually added a bit of brown sugar. It is requiring a bit more frequent puffing in this final third as I almost let it go out again. There’s some warm nuttiness coming in on the draw. Coming to an end there are no changes to report. Besides it requiring more puffs in this third, the performance was fine.
Overall Experience
With a final burn time of 2 hours and 11 minutes this was a very good cigar. There were not an over abundance of transitions, however there were a lot of nuanced flavors and a few transitions. Throughout there was almost always an underlying creaminess, wood, and saltiness. Then there were big moments of milk chocolate that went nicely with the saltiness and wood. The earth and pepper were subtle and accented the primary flavors. This was pretty different from the Robusto I smoked, which I expected given how different the vitolas are in the Patina portfolio. I recommend giving this cigar a go if you are not a fan of pepper and earth bombs, and lean towards softer, more complex, yet dark profiles.
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.