I’m almost eight months into a new job and I’m still struggling to get back into my rhythm with the blog. I’ve fortunately been riding quite a bit as of late, but it’s been difficult to find quiet time to put thoughts “on paper” and cover some of other aspects of Moto Adventurer that I enjoy talking about (Pubs & Street Eats?). I actually had big plans to get this posted back in November when things seemed to “calm down”, but that rapidly went out the window. Fortunately, I’ve finally circled back, and as it turns out, the wait may have made things better in the end. At any rate, I took a few moments Friday evening and enjoyed another one of those “finer things” and here’s my report.

The Stick

The Sobremesa Cervantes Fino (Corona), 6 ½” x 46 (complements of Cigars City), is produced by Steve Saka’s Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. You may recognize Saka from his time with Drew Estate, more specifically the Liga Privada cigar line. The Sobremesa is rolled in the Joya de Nicaragua factory, the filler includes a blend of Nicaraguan Seco, and Viso tobaccos along with a Lancaster County Ligero Broadleaf, a Mexican Matacapan Negro de Temporal binder, and is completed with La Meca Ecuador habano dark rosado wrapper.

The Sobremesa is a two banded cigar; the branding is ultra-simple with only “Sobremesa” at the foot, and the crown on the main band; which I find somewhat reminiscent of Drew Estate’s Undercrown. The “branding” is actually very discreet, even more so than Blind Man’s Bluff, but an earthy cocoa aroma immediately emerged from the wrapper once opened. Parallel to the earthy scents, the habano wrapper is a dark chocolatey color, seemed to be wrapped tightly, and the stick was medium weight in the hand. I again went with the straight cut, and I’m glad I did, as the initial pre-light draw seemed kind of tight to me, and as expected, included matching coffee notes.

The Toast

During the initial light, I detected a shade of barnyard in the smoke, but it was quickly overshadowed by bold coffee notes. After lighting the stick, I was absolutely intoxicated with the rich cocoa and coffee essences; I simply can’t emphasize the richness of deep cocoa scents after the first few puffs. Progressing through the first third I picked up a hint of pepper, but almost exclusively to the retro-hale; it simply couldn’t overpower earthy coffee overtones. Initially the smoke was light and the draw was still a shade firm; I was a little concerned that it may end up being difficult to keep lit. The ash was a mostly white, with just a shade dark hints. Most of the way through the first third, the burn line stayed very consistent, with the ash holding solid for about an inch to inch and a half.
The previously light smoke did start to build some as the stick burned down into the second third. Admittedly my palate is somewhat unrefined, but somewhere under the copious deep coffee and cocoa I began to detect subtle woody cedar notes. Through the mid-section the woody notes combined with deeper earth tones started to move towards the top, and more pepper notes were detected in the smoke. Still in the second third, the burn line was just a shade uneven but surprisingly it stayed lit quite well, despite my previous concerns with the draw.
Moving into the last third, the cocoa coffee notes started to soften as earth and cedar notes became even more prevalent; I also picked up a very subtle creaminess. Progressing through the last third I corrected the burn line just a bit, not a big deal. Heat finally started to build a bit in the last third, but nothing like the fire I experienced with Blind Man’s Bluff. Burning down to the nub, as I was trying to get every last puff out of the cigar, it finally got too hot to hold, overall very earthy and consistent.

Closing Thoughts

I actually enjoyed two Sobremesa cigars from Cigars city; with a span of a couple months between them. I kind of feel that the time in the humidor made the second cigar even better than the first. Per my comments above, the rich cocoa smells when removing the packaging cannot be understated. That really set the stage for the whole experience; as an avid coffee drinker, those rich flavors really fell in line with my tastes. I was pretty preoccupied with the tight draw on the first cigar, which proved unfounded, and was completely unnoticeable in the second cigar. I did notice a subtle nicotine buzz on the tail end of the first cigar, but very little with the second. With total smoke time of about an hour to hour and a half, I ultimately enjoyed the first third of the stick the most, with its obvious coffee overtones, followed by the pleasant blend of earth and cedar in the second third. The overall body and flavor is rich, but in no way overpowering; I would say that this is a good medium cigar, despite the dark tones of the wrapper, for both experienced and new cigar smokers that enjoy obvious earth tones. There is no doubt that I will be looking to get more of these cigars.