Jose L. Piedra Review/Help


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Backstory:

This post is a bit of a review and an ask for help on some identification. This was my first, and the only one I owned, Jose L. Piedra. Unfortunately, I do not know what type of Piedra it is L. Back in 2015, my Kansas City Royals made their post season World Series run. During that run, they played the Toronto Blue Jays and to me, it was one of the most exciting post season series I have ever seen. Because of this a fellow BOTL from another forum, who lived in Toronto and was a huge Blue Jays fan, decided to do a sportsmanship cigar trade and he labeled this one “Jose Piedra”.

Review:

While smoking this cigar, I was inspired by @PigFish to use a new smoking technique. Watching his reviews, I noticed he used, what I refer to as, a quick three puff method instead of a single long draw. So, I decided to give it a shot and I won’t lie, it made a huge difference for such a small cigar. I have found that on smaller RG cigars, I seem to put them down in their early third due to the smoke getting too hot which give them a nasty flavor. With this new technique, I got more time out of this stick. Anyway, let’s move on!

Wrapper was nice and oily. Had a little toothiness to it. Draw was perfect, not too tight, not too lose. The first third was great. The smoke was thick and the flavor was upfront butter with a bit of leather on the finish. It was smooth, probably medium body.

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Second third the leather was replaced with a nice cedar flavor from beginning to end. The smoke was still thick and smooth but the buttery factor was gone.

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Final third, the cedar was gone and the buttery flavor with a nice leather finish came back. This was honestly one of my favorite cigars. Lasted right around an hour and went very well with my Glenfiddich 14 Bourbon Barrel Reserve my wife gifted me for Father’s Day.

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Help:

I loved this cigar, so I went to see if I could find it online but since I was not given any other information on this one than “Jose Piedra”, I have no idea which line it is. To make things worse, the price for any box of Jose Piedras on INT was amazing! Outside of the review, I do know this. The cigar was similar in size to a Partagas Mille Fluere, but it was longer. I would say the RG is pretty much the exact same as the Mille Fluere as well. Looking at the Habanos website, I am thinking it could be either the Brevas or Nacionales. If I am wrong about the RG being the same as the Mille Fluere, then maybe it’s a Convervas or Cremas but I’m just not sure.

Would anyone have a good idea on which one it is? Any information would be most appreciated!

 

TLDR; Has a fantastic Jose L. Piedra that I need help identifying!

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  * Looks like it could be a Cazadores

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If it was similar in RG to a Party MF, then this cigar is likely a JLP Brevas or Nacionales which are nearly identical in size. Looks a bit too short to be a Conservas or a Caz, and it's obviously not a Petit Caz.

As far as JLP, I'm a huge fan of the Petit Cetros and I will go to my grave believing they are blended differently and far superior to the rest of the JLP lineup. All the rest of the lineup I've had were pretty bad with the exception of some Petit Caz which can be good. I smoke about 2 boxes of Petit Cetros per month and have for years. The consistently score 89-90 points for me. Sometimes I hit a 91 or 92 and sometimes a 87 or 88. Not bad IMO and for what I was getting them for for years ($1.40 each) it was a no-brainer.

I'm not a big believer in wrapper influence on taste, but one thing that I have found consistently over many years of smoking JLP is that good wrappers matter big time with JLP. Dark and rough wrappers are big trouble. Light brown or colorado and smooth is good. Seems to be a rule with these--one of the only cigars I can say this is the case with. Looks like the cigar pictured has an excellent wrapper, and so I'm not surprised it was good.

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5 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

If it was similar in RG to a Party MF, then this cigar is likely a JLP Brevas or Nacionales which are nearly identical in size. Looks a bit too short to be a Conservas or a Caz, and it's obviously not a Petit Caz.

As far as JLP, I'm a huge fan of the Petit Cetros and I will go to my grave believing they are blended differently and far superior to the rest of the JLP lineup. All the rest of the lineup I've had were pretty bad with the exception of some Petit Caz which can be good. I smoke about 2 boxes of Petit Cetros per month and have for years. The consistently score 89-90 points for me. Sometimes I hit a 91 or 92 and sometimes a 87 or 88. Not bad IMO and for what I was getting them for for years ($1.40 each) it was a no-brainer.

I'm not a big believer in wrapper influence on taste, but one thing that I have found consistently over many years of smoking JLP is that good wrappers matter big time with JLP. Dark and rough wrappers are big trouble. Light brown or colorado and smooth is good. Seems to be a rule with these--one of the only cigars I can say this is the case with. Looks like the cigar pictured has an excellent wrapper, and so I'm not surprised it was good.

Thanks for the info, especially on the wrapper. Sounds like my next step should be getting a 5ver of the Brevas, Nacionales and Petite Cetros. With that flavor at that price, can't go wrong. I can see how this could be someone's daily smoke. Thanks!

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I believe JLPs are probably the best bang for your buck in the entire HSA line. I smoke Conservas all the time, I received a free '07 box back in 2014 as part of a vendors sale. I've been hooked since. JLP does have very similarly sized cigars in their range so its tough to tell exactly which that was, especially without measurements. 

My recommendation is to pick up a 5 er of any sizes you may interested in and decide for your self. I know a lot of people dog on the marca, but I really think they are a hidden gem.

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16 minutes ago, irratebass said:

Tell me more about this@PigFish three puff method

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

Not sure if you watched any of his video reviews but for some reason it stood out to me. He basically takes a quick puff, pushes the smoke out the side of his mouth, 2nd quick puff, pushes the smoke out, 3rd quick puff, etc.

Sounds funny when I type it out so I recommend watching his reviews. And to be honest, this may be something that is common to fellow cigar smokers but to me, it's new. That being said, if it took me 3 plus years of enjoying this hobby to realize that this was a legitimate "technique", then I guess chalk it up as me being slow. No one has ever accused me of being smart :teacher:

I usually just take one long draw and gather as much smoke as possible. Alot of small cigars would heat up pretty fast and become acrid, especially during the summer months here in the Midwest. I even found this to be true in the case of my favorite size cigars, churchills, double coronas, lanceros, etc. With the short puff style, I was able to enjoy a nice cool smoke for a longer amount of time than I normally do. I haven't tried it on a larger RG/length but I plan to do so this weekend and see if it makes a difference. All in all, if I'm you think I'm not crazy in my thoughts on this, give it a shot and let me know what you think!

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Not sure if you watched any of his video reviews but for some reason it stood out to me. He basically takes a quick puff, pushes the smoke out the side of his mouth, 2nd quick puff, pushes the smoke out, 3rd quick puff, etc.

 

Sounds funny when I type it out so I recommend watching his reviews. And to be honest, this may be something that is common to fellow cigar smokers but to me, it's new. That being said, if it took me 3 plus years of enjoying this hobby to realize that this was a legitimate "technique", then I guess chalk it up as me being slow. No one has ever accused me of being smart :teacher:

 

I usually just take one long draw and gather as much smoke as possible. Alot of small cigars would heat up pretty fast and become acrid, especially during the summer months here in the Midwest. I even found this to be true in the case of my favorite size cigars, churchills, double coronas, lanceros, etc. With the short puff style, I was able to enjoy a nice cool smoke for a longer amount of time than I normally do. I haven't tried it on a larger RG/length but I plan to do so this weekend and see if it makes a difference. All in all, if I'm you think I'm not crazy in my thoughts on this, give it a shot and let me know what you think!

 

 

Thanks for the detailed description, I guess I'm gonna have to check out some of his reviews

 

*edit*

 

That is one section of the forums I don't follow that much, so I see now how I missed this, anyway I see what you mean now....i wouldn't say I do it like that, but mine is similar,@PigFish is more like a "sipping" technique which I have used before, especially with longer and smaller rg's, but I like his technique, and will have to try to remember to do this at lunch today, I'll report back.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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