The HVC Hot Cake Gran Canon is a 6x60 hand rolled cigar made in the Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A in Esteli, Nicaragua. The cigar has a Mexican San Andres wrapper with Nicaraguan Esteli Criollo and Corojo filler and Nicaraguan Jalapa Corojo binder. HVC Hot Cakes are some of the hottest cigars on the market right now, so let’s see how it stacks up.
First impressions: The espresso colored wrapper shows plenty of veins but not much oil. The first puffs present coffee beans, cherry, leather, creaminess, and salted nuts. This cigar impresses more with flavor than strength in the first third.
Halfway through: The flavors remain consistent, which is a slight disappointment. I am still getting coffee, creaminess, salted nuts, and leather. At times I start to sense a churro flavor, but it is not very often and is very fleeting. Again, the flavors are very good, but there is not much of a transition in this cigar thus far.
The final third: The burn line needed a touch up twice during the final third. That is certainly a pet peeve of mine. The salted nut flavor starts to come to the fore front with coffee and cream taking the back seat. There are no new flavors, or transitions, to speak of.
Overall: This cigar was very good, not great. I do love that it was a smoke bomb, as most of my favorite cigars are. The flavors are extremely tasty but stayed one note throughout the smoke.
Pass or Smoke? This is a smoke.
