Cigar Review: Tabacos Baez Serie H

Famoses, 5" x 50 ring gauge / approx $7

Don Pepin Garcia introduced the Tabacos Baez in 2008 as a tribute to his birthplace of Baez, Cuba. The original release was a medium-bodied smoke with a Connecticut wrapper. The next stick with the Tabacos Baez name was the Serie SF, for "Short Filler." At CigarFest we were given another new line...at least I hadn't seen it before...the Serie H, for "Habano." The filler and binder are reportedly Cuban-seed tobacco and it is a Nicaraguan puro.

The medium-brown wrapper of the Serie H shone with an oily sheen when I freed it from its cellophane prison. The color was very even and the veins were all small to medium. The aroma from the wrapper was a nice mix of barnyard and chocolate...don't ask me how that is a nice combination, just trust me that it is! The foot had a rich chocolate aroma. I have to admit that I still find the Tabacos Baez band design to look cheap and rather amateurish, although it does seem to have been revised and improved a bit since the initial release. My Palio cutter made a nice clean slice through the cap, leaving a very easy draw. Prelight I noticed a sweetness that had a little cocoa in it as well as some earthiness and spice.

Lighting up I got initial flavors of earth and a bitterness that was hard to describe exactly. There was not much sweetness in the smoke at this point to balance it out, though. As the first third progressed, some of that bitterness did abate and some natural tobacco sweetness crept in, balance the flavor profile quite nicely. The burn line was very even through this segment and the draw was great--it might have actually been a tad loose as the cigar seemed to smoke pretty quickly.

The second third continued along nicely with the balance improving; bitterness and sweetness coexisted pretty well with neither dominating. There was some pepper in the retrohale during the first third but it pretty well dissipated during the second, leaving a nice nuttiness and lots of cedar. Construction continued to be very good with the ash holding on for about an inch before needing to be tapped off.

There really was not much to report in the last third; it just did not change much. Overall, this was a very good medium-bodied, medium-priced smoke that did not give off any fireworks but neither did it make me want to put it out early. I probably would not buy man of these unless I could find them for an outstanding price simply because it did not do much to distinguish itself among the many others at this price point. It might be a good "step up" cigar for novices, though, as they try to move up from milder fare without risking a nicotine overload or depleting their checking accounts.

Body: 5/10

Strength: 4/10

Complexity: 5/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 1.5/2

Construction: 2/2

Flavor: 4/5

Value: .5/1

Total: 8/10

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