Robusto, 5" x 50 ring gauge, $9.70The Alec Bradley company was very busy in the second half of 2009. They introduced 4 new cigars and several new sizes for existing stogies. I have smoked--and enjoyed--the Family Blend and the SCR...now I get a chance to see what the Prensado is all about. According to SpanishDict.com, "prensado" means "luster, which remains on stuff." Huh? Whatever...this cigar features filler from Honduras and Nicaragua, a Nicaraguan Jalapa binder and a Corojo 2006 wrapper grown in Trojes, Honduras. Alec Bradley company president, Alan Rubin, called this "the most powerful cigar he's ever sold."
This is also the first box-pressed cigar AB has sold and it looks nice. It had a velvety feel and was dark brown in color with some mottling. It had some medium-sized veins. The label is ornate, using shiny and dull gold foil as well as embossing--with my printing and graphics background, I can appreciate the time and money that went into this. As with AB's other sticks lately (all the time? I don't know) there was no cellophane...so there wasn't much aroma from the wrapper, and really not much more from the foot, maybe just a little cocoa. The prelight draw was good and the flavors were of sweet chocolate and a touch of coffee.
Initially, I tasted dark roasted coffee and roasted nuts. A few minutes later there was some black pepper. The pepper built up to a pretty good strength throughout the first third and there were underlying flavors of espresso and cocoa powder.
The second third had less pepper and more coffee--espresso, to be exact, dark and smoky. There was a little bit of a woody undertone and I did have the cigar canoe on me, requiring me to touch up the burn line.
The last third was nutty again with lots of coffee, along with the bitterness that comes with that flavor. This seemed to me to be a very good medium-to-full bodied stick that just did not have a huge amount of complexity. After the pepper died down it did not have a lot of interest going on. It was good but not great and not nearly as strong as I would have expected considering Rubin's comment. I think the thing that put me off about this cigar is that while it was good, it had a "great" price tag and it just didn't rise to that level. If it were $2 a stick cheaper, it would have fared better in the rating department.
Body: 7/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale:
Prelight 1.5/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 7.5/10
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