Revisiting the Bolivar Britanicas

[CaptainQuintero]

After the dark and wet first tasting which left a lot to be desired, a few months have passed and this cigar gets a second chance.

5 3/8 x 48

Dropped head perfecto

My Palio is in the shop so went with a V-cutter. Mainly as the first cigar was plugged to high heaven. Like the first single, the second bands points to the original 46 ring guage which was changed to 48 after the bands had been made.

Draw at cold is nothing apart from plain tobacco. Draw is an absolute wind tunnel.

First Third.

Very mild opening, in fact it's struggling to even achieve that. Nice flavours of coffee and suagr cane with hints of fruit. Essentially it's like an extremely mild Bolivar Petit Corona. The blend seems almost exactly the same but toned down a lot. The draw is still a wind tunnel, not sure which I prefer, the plugged first cigar or this wind tunnel second!

Second Third

So mild!!!! The coffee and fruit flavours, as mild as they were, have vanished. Blind folded I would have said this is a Cuaba that had fallen into a glass of lemonade at the factory. Just utterly plain and extremely mild dark tobacco, the odd hint of sweetness wandered in a few times.

Final Third

The few sweet hints have gone now and has been replaced with a bit of mint leaf. The main flavour (If you can call it that) is still the sickly mild dark tobacco. I didn't know it was possible to blend cigars to be so utterly bland and tasteless. This it to Bolivar what the Monte Open series is to Montecristo. Just a pointless cigar. Not bad if it was the same price as a Bonita but at £17 online these are pretty terrible, both in terms of quality, flavours, price and construction. The skill of rolling perfectos must have been lost at whatever factory these have been rolled at (Partagas?) The first of these cigars I had was plugged at both ends, just as if the tobacco had been bunched to go into a parejo mould, and then stuff into the perfecto mould. This time the draw was unacceptably open. Essentially these cigars suffer from the exact same construction problems as Cuaba.

Score? Part of me thinks these cigars don;t even deserve a score but I will give points where points are due:

10 points-Didn't go out

5 points -Mint in final third

5 points-For the wafting farts of flavour in the initial first 6th.

20/100

Don't bother, grab a box of BBFs or BRCs from Rob.

[riazp]

wow...looks like these need some serious aging.

[gigabyte056]

Thanks for the honest review mate and sorry for your wasted time

[Ryan]

Thanks for the review, I had one of these a few months ago and it was fine but boring.

The only thing they have going for them is that they're not at gouging prices for a UK regional. I've seen them at £15 in a UK duty paid location.

Compared to the Punch Medalle d'Oro at a rumoured £23-£25 each, they're not bad value at all.

That Punch price is a lot more than the Italian Diademas from a couple of years ago, and they were completely covered in foil!

[Michel1968]

Too bad... I do like your honest report, very valuable! Thanks!!!

[Charltonc]

I do not know about these regional editions anymore. I did love the SLR Pacifico and PL Asia Pacifics, but I could easily reinvest my money into vintage stock for the same price.

[CaptainQuintero]

Sounds like you managed to get one of the better ones Ryan!

I think with these releases it's totally hit and miss, you can't say all REs are bad or all are good. The Flor de Cano Short Robusto is probably the best cigar I've ever had. I've had half a box which had had ratings from 98 to 92, nothing less. Then I've had some of the other UK REs and they have been just terrible. I mean terrible, just hot mud and charcoal. It's strange how they can vary so wildly.

Aging potential on these... I don't know. QDO are mild and age amazingly but you can tell that they have something to give when young. I don't really know where these can go based on what I've smoked. Maybe if you are lucky it could turn into a Fonseca? I've always stood by you can age a good cigar and it will most likely get better. If you age a bad cigar it will just be an old bad cigar!

[almudawi]

Wow.. That's a bullet dodged.. Thanks mate for the review! Saved me a bit of money there

[Lotusguy]

I guess now I should count myself lucky that I didn't get any allocation of boxes

Thanks for the review!

[ronin]

Saw a review of this on YT by another retailer. "Rich full bodied. Destined to be a classic" So much for hype. Thanks for the review.

[bassman]

With regular Boli PCs & CJs being so fantastic from about 07 to date, why even bother with expensive Boli REs?

[winelover]

Score? Part of me thinks these cigars don;t even deserve a score but I will give points where points are due:

10 points-Didn't go out

5 points -Mint in final third

5 points-For the wafting farts of flavour in the initial first 6th.

20/100

Don't bother, grab a box of BBFs or BRCs from Rob.

I like your scoring logic no messing about at all.

Agree with Bassman - when the standard line up is going so well, why bother?

[phoenix]

wow...looks like these need some serious aging.

Judging from the review... I'm thinking they peaked out of the gate and are now circling the toilet.

[phoenix]

Maybe if you are lucky it could turn into a Fonseca?

[SteveGriff]

Shame you've had such bad luck with these mate.. I have had two that were pretty good. But I agree with the people on here in regard of the Bolivar standard line being so good, why buy a more expensive stick...?

Looking forward to trying the Punch Medalla d'Oro when they come out... but with the price tag being chucked about I doubt I'll be buying more than a single or two, let alone a box.

[mazolaman]

Yep, not much more to add about this Boli RE.

The only decent re I had was a Por Laranaga that was pretty good.

Cuaba construction has improved, along with most Cubans as of late, and their flavour is a nutty tobacco, quite unlike this Boli, IMO.

[canadianbeaver]

Michel and I split a box when they came out. I am letting them sit for a long, long time. As of late, I am collecting RE's from around the world, for no reason other than I have been traveling so much.

Too late to give them back so I will have to make the best of it... great box though!!

[pjansen]

Too bad the packaging was very nice and old school.

[mk05]

That ash tells the whole story no?

Thanks for the review. Never had a Bolivar I liked.

[mb55317]

I'm surprised at this review because the one I tried at launch was IMO a good cigar. Agreed it starts off light but mine had some wonderful sweetness that built towards the end in to something quite, dare I say it powerful- I felt it in my stomach. Strange. Maybe I was just lucky. Have a couple of boxes stashed away so I hope they all turn out to be like the one I smoked.