Smoked a rather interesting one tonight and was thoroughly surprised.
Cigar: La Diabla
Manufacturer: Traficante Cigars
Purchased for $9.50
Size: 4x52
Wrapper: Brazilian Cubra maduro (Cuban Seed)
Binder: Equadorian
Filler: Dominican from Santiago
Construction
Not the prettiest looking thing. A weird lumpy rustic looking pentagonal shape. Medium brown wrapper with a nice oil sheen to it. Evenly packed with a good draw. Cool metal band/tag that came with the cigar.
Prelight
Wrapper smells like licorice and the cold draw also tastes of licorice. I'm pretty sure this was transferred over from another cigar that was shipped with the La Diabla. Shouldn't be an issue once I ignite.
First Third
As I suspected, the licorice was a foreign scent from another cigar. No licorice to be found in the tasting notes. Excellent smoke output and a smooth retrohale. Tasting notes are milk coffee, chocolate, shortbread, and a hint of baking spices. Body is medium. Very nice.
Second Third
Body picks up to medium-full. The flavors from the first third have become richer with hints of graham cracker coming through. Hopefully it becomes more prominent as it smokes through. I love graham cracker in my cigars. Burn is razor sharp.
Halfway through the second third, the graham cracker develops further. The milk coffee has switched to dark coffee.
Final Third
Body stays at medium-full. No strength. Some nice honey sweetness comes in. Combines well with the dark coffee, chocolate, and shortbread flavors. As I get towards the half inch nub, the flavors become much simpler and finish out as dark chocolate and dark coffee.
Thoughts
For a 4x52 size cigar, $9.50 is not cheap in my opinion. However, this was an excellent cigar. I usually don't like the taste of Dominican cigars, but this was pretty damn delicious. Honestly, if someone gave this to me with no band and said "This is a Upmann Maduro No .1", I'd probably believe them. So much of the flavor profile just screamed Upmann to me. In short, this cigar was like smoking the last third of a Connie 1 or A with lots of chocolate laden into the flavor profile.
La Diabla? No, this is chocolate Upmann. I would recommend you folks to try this if it sounds interesting to you.
Anyone else try Traficante cigars before? I don't know if they ship outside of the US.
I'll give this a 91/100. Very enjoyable.