Robusto, 5" x 50 ring gauge, ~$5.50The Alec Bradley cigar company really came on strong in 2009, releasing 4 new cigars, including the Family Blend, a mixed-filler, bargain smoke. The Family Blend was created, according to their website, "expressly for the fathers of the company's three principal executives." It is available only in the robusto size and features fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua, a binder from Indonesia, and a wrapper from Honduras. It is one of many value-priced premium cigars to hit the market this year as well.
The wrapper got a little beaten up because it does not come wrapped in cellophane (a recurring theme with Alec Bradley smokes it seems), but it still looked good overall. It had a nice oily sheen and moderate-sized veins. The body of the cigar had faint aromas of hay and humidor, while the foot had faint aromas of nutmeg and cocoa (again a casualty of no cello wrapper).
The prelight draw was fairly loose, common for a short or mixed-filler smoke. The flavor was very nice, though, with plenty of cocoa and coffee. After lighting, the first few puffs were rather indistinct from a flavor perspective. There was plenty of smoke and it was rather oily, leaving a very coated mouth-feel. During the first third, the Family Blend had flavors of leather and black coffee and it went very well with the coffee I had with it.
This cigar is pretty much a middle-of-the-road, medium-bodied smoke and I chose to enjoy it on a Sunday morning before church. It was a beautiful morning with the autumn colors just starting to ramp up to their peaks. The blue jays recently came back to East Tennessee in force and I got to watch them playing in the front yard for a few minutes. Bird song filled the air on all sides and dogs barked in the distance and then...all at once, silence. The occasional jay shriek and the wind in the treetops. Definitely a great way to start another beautiful day here in God's country.
The second third featured a rather abrupt flavor change as the black coffee flavor got much stronger and was joined by a nice peppery bite. While the first third was just good, in this segment the cigar really started to get interesting. So far the construction was as good as you get with a mixed-filler stick-no draw or burn problems, but the ash falls off easily at just over a quarter-inch.
As the final third started, the wrapper began to split and break where it earlier showed signs of wear. This points out the folly of using a thin, delicate wrapper leaf and then failing to protect the cigar with a cellophane sheath. Most of the time I don't knock anything off for incidental wrapper damage but it seems negligent to not use the cello, so in this case I deducted half a point on construction. The flavor, however, is still very nice, plenty of coffee and pepper and an introduction of roasted nuts near the end. Really a very nice cigar for the price of admission and one that I will revisit with some frequency.
Body: 6/10
Strength: 5/10
Complexity: 8/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
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