Double Robusto, 5.5" x 54 ring gauge, $7.60Back in December 2009, I reviewed my first Savinelli cigar, the Liga Especial, and it was an unqualified hit, scoring 10 out of 10. It remains one of the best medium-bodied sticks I have had the pleasure of smoking. Wanting to know if the high quality and rich experience applied to other sticks with the Savinelli name, I picked up the RyR: Rico y Raro, or Rich and Rare. This stick was introduced in 2008 and was re-blended to increase the strength in 2009. It features Nicaraguan filler and binder with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. Savinelli's website claims, "You no longer need to sacrifice flavor for strength! The Savinelli Rico y Raro delivers both in one great smoking premium cigar."
The wrapper of the RyR was fairly lumpy with a few medium-sized veins and quite a bit of oil both on the leaf and on my hand after touching it. The pinch test showed it to be fairly pliable--probably "just enough" give. From the body, I got a faint whiff of barnyard, but it was very faint. From the foot, there were some wet forest and chocolate aromas, with maybe a touch of coffee, too. The prelight draw was very easy and gave up earthy flavors with touches of cocoa and pepper spice.
After lighting, initial puffs featured black pepper and coffee bean flavors. After about 5 minutes my impression was that this would be an interesting smoke: definitely some nice dark roast coffee, along with cocoa powder and black pepper, all wrapped up in a nicely medium-to-full bodied smoke. A small touch-up was required at the end of the first third, but other than that construction was so far flawless.
As I made my way through the second third, the body increased to where it was in the low end of the full-body spectrum. There was still some coffee and cocoa, but I also got some flavor of roasted nuts and a little maduro sweetness. The pepper faded to almost nothing.
In the final third, I got more roasted nuts, black coffee and cocoa sweetness--not much different from the earlier portions of the smoke. Overall a very good cigar; it was mellow and smooth from end to end and I thought the RyR (Rico y Raro) was a good choice for a period of R&R (rest & relaxation). There was an underlying earthiness to it that subdued some of the familiar Nicaraguan flavor profile of coffee and cocoa, but not so much that I did not still enjoy it. What it did was mute the flavors and complexity a bit and that caused it to fall just short of great, in my opinion. Overall a very good medium-to-full bodied smoke at a very comfortable price point.
Body: 8/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale:
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
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