Back Story:
Serie JJ range was developed by Don Pepín Garcia and his son Jaime García. Medium- to full-bodied, the wrapper is a Nicaraguan Corojo oscuro, and the binder/filler is Nicaraguan. Packed in plain boxes of 24 except for the Salomon, which comes in boxes of five. The band is similar to the “Blue Label”, but is white with a red border. There is also a second, straight band, white, with “Serie JJ” printed on it.
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan Crillo
Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo & Criollo
Size: Robusto 5 x 50
Price: Around $8.00
Pre-Smoke/Construction:
The wrapper is a nice tan almost rosado color with minimal veins. No soft spots were noticed. Overall, construction on all were very good, all the way to the triple cap. When sniffing the wrapper and foot, it smells like spicy/sweet tobacco. The pre-light draw was free, and tasted like pepper.
Flavor:
Right away, the first third had a nice spicy pepper. It was very smooth, but punched fairly hard. It was enjoyable, but there was really nothing more to it then that. All burned very clean, although i was constantly distracted by the pepper in the retro hale.
The second third continued with smooth pepper. I did notice some wood notes that increased in strength but never once appeared to over take the pepper. The burn continued to be razor sharp on all with tight ash.
The pepper really mellows out in the last third and coffee flavors take over. A ceder flavor is very noticeable at this point. The burn was crisp but did get warm in my hand.
Conclusion:
I drank coffee with these at all times it tended to tone down the bite and although I really enjoy spicy full bodied cigars this one bit very hard on retro hale and distracted me a lot. I personally could not smoke this on a regular basis being that I am always on the move multi tasking and the distraction and bite takes away form the enjoyment for me. This cigars spice takes away from any real complexity it may have. If you enjoy full bodied cigars give this a try if you have nothing else to do but smoke. A great outdoor smoke with coffee or scotch. As for the price point there are many full bodied cigars in this range that I would choose before reaching for this one.
Tags: cigar, Jaime Garcia, Pepin Garcia, Review, Rosado, Serie JJ, White Label
