Camacho Coyolar Puro Review
Jason Shaffer – 3/6/2008

Yesterday I attended a Camacho tasting at my local B&M, “The Humidor”, on Wednesday evening. They had several “Baccarat” cigars to try, and a large selection of Camacho-branded cigars as well. I was speaking to the Camacho rep, Tom, and asked him to steer me toward an interesting smoke. I told him I usually gravitate toward the fuller-bodied sticks. He proudly handed me a Camacho Coyolar Puro Rothschild and said, “This is a strong one.”

So I took it (it was a freebie), sat down, and prepared myself for what I thought would be a strong cigar. I smoked it. I decided to buy another and then smoke it again the following day and then make my judgments.

So here’s my review and by the end you’ll see if it lived up to Tom’s characterization.

Vital Stats:

Size: 50×4.5, “Rothschild”
Wrapper: Honduran
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Honduran
Country of Origin: Honduras
Price: $4.99
Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Strength: Medium/Med-Full

Pre-Light

The cigar comes in a box of 25 and wrapped in cellophane. Upon removing the cello I found a nice looking wrapper. It has a sort of milk chocolate, or lightly roasted coffee bean color. The wrapper has a few medium veins running its length, and for lack of a better description the wrapper feels almost too thin. The cigar is well constructed with no major defects on the wrapper. It seems firm and well packed with tobacco. There is also a triple cap, which I like very much.

The wrapper of the cigar does not have much scent to it at all really. The foot does have a nice sweet tobacco smell which is a hint of things to come with this cigar.

It cuts quite easily with my new Palió cutter and after the cut my initial observation of the cigar being packed well is confirmed. The cold taste brings a nice draw with a full, rich, sweet flavor coming through. I’m looking forward to this smoke.

The Camacho lights quite easily. My lighter was nowhere to be found so I toasted up with only three very short matches. There seemed to be absolutely no issues during the toasting process and the aromas the cigar are giving off after lighting are very pleasing.

The Smoke
The first draw is packed full of flavor. I mean it; this cigar is really bringing it. I get a tingle on my lips almost immediately, and spice is definitely a theme with this cigar. The smoke is very creamy and right away I get faint hints of ginger and cinnamon. At the moment it is a very spicy (I don’t mean peppery) cigar. It starts to give me a very warm and comforting feeling that almost brings to mind brown sugar at times. The sweetness I detected in the cold taste is certainly coming through now.

The cigar did require a minor touchup a few minutes into smoking but is now burning just fine. At this point I remember writing in my tasting notes, “Bursts of flavor!” That is certainly true at this point. The spice I noticed earlier has definitely now developed into a distinct black peppercorn flavor and is picking up. By the second third of the cigar it almost becomes salty, and begins a sort of “sweet and savory” combination. There are definite toasted nut characteristics coming through now.

At this point I’m going to give a little aside about the ash. On the cigar that I tasted yesterday, the ash held perfectly for over two inches, almost making it to three. Now, I’m not sure whether it’s the fact that I smoked my second one outdoors today or not, but the second example that I smoked today had horrible ash. It was flaky and really wouldn’t hold much past a half-inch or so on average. So I would have to smoke a third to make a definitive judgment on the ash

As the cigar progresses into the final third, the tobacco flavor definitely picks up and becomes the dominating characteristic. Before, the main base flavors were ginger, brown sugar, and spice, and now it has definitely moved to tobacco and, I might sound crazy, but there is a flavor here that I can only describe as dark salted pretzels (maybe I was hungry). Towards the end of the cigar I’m getting a tobacco flavor that is “reminiscent” of a Cuban cigar. It’s that flavor that you just can’t pinpoint other than to say you’ve had it before, and where I’ve had it is in a Cuban.
I’m to the point now where I need to remove the band and, well, it won’t slide off. I had to tear it to remove it. This was the same on the first example I had yesterday. Not a major thing, but something that does annoy me slightly. I talked to Tom (the Camacho rep) about it and he said “sometimes the girls just overdo it on the glue.”

The cigar is now becoming quite dry on my palate. It also starts to heat up substantially once you get into the last inch. The main flavors now are just tobacco and I’m getting that bitter nicotine flavor. The cigar’s finish was quite nice up until this point, and I believe after over an hour and ten minutes its time to put this guy down.

Evalutation
Overall this was a very nice cigar. It was packed full (and I mean full) of flavor. However I would not characterize this as a “full” cigar. It won’t knock you off your feet or anything like that at all. It is not harsh, and its inherent smoothness makes you sometimes forget how much flavor there really is. Every time I took a puff I thought I was going to have to slow down because I would get hit with huge bursts of flavor, but not strong flavor. Therefore I would classify this as a Medium, to Medium-Full stick, but definitely not as full as I had expected based on Tom’s characterization.
Another good point is the cigar only cost me $4.99. That’s the real story about this stick. I would gladly pay $8 for it, so that really helps its rating in my book.
On the downside, the inconsistencies that I experienced with the burn in the second example did take away from the smoking experience. I had to touch it up multiple times throughout and the ash was quite flakey. The end flavors did disappoint me, but luckily only occurred on the inside of the last inch. And lastly, I would have preferred the band to come off easier.

Conclusion
All in all I did enjoy this cigar. Those of you looking for a very flavorful cigar that won’t knock your socks off, go ahead and give this a try. It has lots of interesting flavors, and at $4.99 I would imagine is not outside the reach of anyone’s budget.

Like: YES
Smoke again: YES
Buy: YES

Jason Shaffer is a 19 year-old from central Ohio. Ever since the age of 10, when he was given his first smoke of a cigar by his grandfather, he knew he had a love for it. He hasn’t been able to shake his obsession and is on the constant lookout for new and interesting smokes. He’s smoked thousands of cigars and has studied the intricacies and detailed elements that go into a good cigar. Jason is currently enrolled at Ohio University, majoring in photojournalism. He loves good cigars, good food, the performing arts, and technology.