Size Name: Robusto
Ring Gauge: 52
Length: 5.00
Strength: Mild / Medium
Wrapper Color: Light Brown (EMS)
Last night I decided on a lighter cigar than usual. I went with the Fonseca Series “F”. I didn’t find out until just a few moments ago that the “F” stands for fuerte. This was surely not a fuerte cigar in my book.
First thing I noticed about this cigar were the really coarse and deep veins in the wrapper. I was horrified after a quick look. It almost looked like my whole five pack had bad wrappers. Upon a closer look it was actually the veins.
The band on this stick is fairly nice looking, had some pronounced embossed letters that just pop when you look at them. The band was really stuck on there. I couldn’t get it off until it was almost burning it with the lit end of the cigar, and even then it took some patience and a lot of care to get it off without damaging the already fragile veiny wrapper.
The initial draw was rather loose. One of those draws that gets you lots of air through the cigar but not much smoke. This seemed to be the normal thing with this cigar until you?re beyond the first inch. After that point the smoke just comes pouring in.
The taste was very mild. There were some nice off and on sweet spots in the initial stages of the cigar. There was a very distinct aftertaste with this cigar, it is hard to explain. The taste was almost woodsy and vegetable while leaving a dirty taste in the back of my throat.
Around the half way point of this cigar I started to pick up little sweet spots. These were very pleasant but came on very sudden, then where gone before I knew it. I was now getting more of a woodsy flavor overall. The aftertaste was still there but was starting to fade away.
Around the time I was forced to remove the band the cigar was getting a lot better in terms of flavor. The aftertaste was almost gone and there were some nice peppery hints popping up just as the sweet spots did prior to this. The woodsy flavor was now turning into a spicy flavor. The overall strength had picked up considerably.
In closing I think the best part of the cigar was four inches into smoking it. I was not fond of the aftertaste throughout the cigar and the coarse veins really put a dent in the scoring for me.
My rating sheet can be found below.
I found the serie “f'” to be extremely mild yet flavorful at the same time. It was probably the tightest rolled cigar I have smoked in a while, although once an inch or so was ashed it seemed to hit effortlessly. Definitely not an overpowering cigar, the aftertaste is best enjoyed with a corona. I highly recommend this cigar for it’s true mildness and overall neatness in appearance. Of all the Fonseca’s I have tasted, this is my favorite.
You know I have been working in my local cigar shop for some time now and had the opportunity to try out this cigar… honestly I must have picked a total dud because I was so dissatisfied with it I haven’t gone back to the Fonseca’s since. The wrapper was paper thin and was flaking on me when trying to take the band off, the draw was extremely weak, and the overall flavor was offputting. The only thing that really drew me in was how nice it was visually. I would not recommend this cigar and instead recommend something like an Ashton Classic Magnum.