History: Manual Quesada opened his MATASA Cigar Factory in 1974. They made a Dominican version of Fonseca. They now make blends for Fonseca, Cu-Avana, Casa Blanca, Cubita, Nat Sherman and others. They had an article in Cigar Aficionado Magazine about him and his family. Manual's nephew and two daughters are huge players in running the company and will most likely take over the company. If I remember correctly, the kids blended next cigar, the 35th Anniversary.
Anyway, the 30th...was a perfecto 5.7 x 24. The wrapper was Hershey chocolate brown, smooth as silk, oily with a par wrapper construction. Pre-light was a hint of spice and good draw. After lighting I new I was going to really like this cigar. The spicy/pepper was absent, but a great draw gave generous amounts of white smoke. This was a complex cigar. Great tobacco flavor with hints of cream. Medium bodied that finished full. About an inch into the cigar, something that I never experienced in a cigar before started to happen and continued until about half way---resin started bubbling/oozing out of the center of the head of the cigar. It wasn't enough to run off of the cigar, but it was odd. (Have any of you had this happen before?) I wiped it off after a while. Unfortunately, the resin was a taste was in the middle of the flavors for the rest of the cigar. It wasn't bad, but I'd love to try this cigar again (was a single purchase off of cigarbid.com) to see if this happens again and if not to really see what this cigar has to offer.
8/10 (with a potential of a 9.8/10)
Take care-
Joe
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Adam and Jeff, correct me if I am wrong but I think we enjoyed one of these at my house in one of the first offical OCCS meetings. If I remember correctly, we smoked in my garage and played a mean game of Monopoly that Adam won. I really enjoyed mine but I can't remember what I rated it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the resin, that is an odd one to me. I wonder if it was a "dye". I have heard of some cigars being dyed to match the others in the box. Was it thick, oily what. I have never seen that.
Matt I believe you are correct, and I remember enjoying the smoke, too. This had to be one of the many meetings I forgot to bring the journal, as there is no written record of this cigar. Good thing we have the blog (which is going to be a year old next month).
ReplyDeleteI have seen similar "resin" in cheap machine mades, and just chalked it up as tar or the flavoring used in such smokes. I have yet to experience this from any hand made.
Adam