I was approached a couple of months ago by Serino Cigars to review there Royale Maduro XX.  I hadn’t heard of Serino Cigars at the time, but was happy to give them a shot.  Serino Cigars was founded in 2016 by Tony Serino and his son, Carson, who partnered with Omar Gonzales Aleman.  Aleman worked at Partagas and was the head director at La Corona in Cuba which manufactures Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo de Monterrey, Cuaba, Por Larranaga, Saint Luis Rey, San Cristobal de Habana and Montecristo.  Aleman has a new La Corona factory based in Esteli, Nicaragua now which is where Serino cigars are made.

They have four lines:  Maduro, Medio, Connecticut and Maduro XX.  I was sent the Maduro XX in the toro size for review.  The Maduro XX is a more full bodied version of their maduro with a higher grade of tobacco.  Let’s look at the specs:

• Wrapper:  Ecuadorian Habano 2000 Oscuro
• Binder:  Undisclosed
• Filler:  Nicaragua (Esteli and Jalapa)
• MSRP:  $10.20
• Vitola: Toro
• Size:  6 x 52

Pre-Light and Construction

The wrapper is absolutely gorgeous with an oily chocolate brown wrapper.  The draw was perfect with notes of rich earth, cocoa and coffee.  I’m really impressed by how smooth this wrapper really is.

First Half

This cigar is very tasty.  I pick up notes of leather, oak, cocoa, coffee, black pepper and caramel.  The flavors are very rich and savory.  The retrohale is a blast of the black pepper which I can’t fully retrohale without having my eyes water and my sinuses start stinging like mad.  I was able to do just half the smoke for the retrohale though, which really made the flavors pop.  The draw was spot on and the burn was excellent with a full body.

Second Half

The second half started with stronger flavors of coffee, cocoa, leather.  The black pepper tailed off some, but was still present.  The retrohale was still full of black pepper, but I got some of the oak notes as well.  It lost the sweet caramel note as the cigar turned more savory.  The body of the cigar was a little more full near the end.

Overall Impressions

I really love this cigar.   The flavors were very nice and savory.  The cigar smoked great with an excellent burn and draw.  The body got more full as the cigar burned down.  As delicious as the Maduro XX was, I’m looking forward trying the other lines.  Serino Cigars is still young so they aren’t available everywhere yet, but several online retailers are carrying them now.  If your local cigar shop carries them, definitely check these out or any of the other lines you come across.