General Cigar Company - "Macanudo Estate Reserve Jamaica" churchill (Jamaica / Connecticut)

Today's cigar is a special super-premium offering from Macanudo. It's the "Estate Reserve Jamaica," a blend of aged Jamaican longfillers and a Connecticut shade wrapper. Macanudo, as a brand, started out as a sub-brand of the Cuban version of Punch, and actually started out in Jamaica, but switched over to the Dominican Republic in the year 2000. I've enjoyed many a Macanudo in my day, from the pleasingly dark maduro Prince Phillip to my first ever cigar, the Portofino.

I really like the wooden box "tubo", which has a little piece on the back that raises the cigar when you open the lid. In appearance the cigar is a light wooden color, with an even color throughout. There are no seeds or knots in the tobacco as far as I can see. It's a nice-looking stick.

Lights up slowly at first, and takes a few minutes. But once it gets going, it burns OK. The chief flavors here are dry and wheaty - like cereal. It's grassy, smooth, a has a little hayseed taste thrown in there. The texture is really mellow, and pleasingly well-balanced. It produces a light grey, cement-colored ash which burned evenly and almost all of the way down before I had to put it out.

I'm a bigger fan of mild / medium-mild cigars than I am of fuller-bodied smokes, so I'm glad I got a chance to try this one. It's a little expensive for a single cigar - $17.99 I think - but a good purchase nonetheless. It's definitely heavy on the presentation points - the special wooden box, the uniform and flawless wrapper, but luckily has a nice mellow taste as well.