The San Cristobal Quintessence belicoso is a 6.5x54 hand rolled cigar made by the Garcia family in the My Father Cigars factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The cigar has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with Nicaraguan filler and Nicaraguan binder. Jose “Pepin” Garcia blends premium aged binder and filler tobaccos hand picked form the Garcia family estates.
First impressions: This cigar is beautifully rolled with a golden brown color, and gives off the appearance of paradise. This cigar starts off right in my wheelhouse. The initial flavors are pepper, cinnamon, coffee, plum, and cream. This cigar is in your face from the start in a fantastic way.
Halfway through: The pepper starts to tamp down a bit, but it’s replaced with cashews, honey, more cinnamon, and more coffee. It is a very interesting transition to go from such bold spiciness, to such nuanced nutty, sweet, and a little cinnamon on your coffee flavors. Just as I think the cigar has decided to downshift to medium, the engine races and we are back to full throttle heading into the final third.
The final third: This medium-full strength cigar has hit cruise control. The pepper and spiciness is offset by plums, butter, and coffee. The burn is inconsistent and required relighting. Nothing bothers me more than a cigar that wont stay lit. However, the great spiciness and flavors help push this cigar to a winner over the construction issues.
Overall: Pepin Garcia’s signature spiciness is prevalent in this smoke. This blend is masterfully split between dark fruits, coffee, cinnamon, and pepper. When the cigar stayed lit it was a really good cigar. But it took a lot of TLC, and the final third construction issues were a bit of a turn off for me.
Pass or Smoke? Definitely a smoke, but beware the construction issues.
