Tesa Cigar Co. Shaman 6×54 Fig.

Tesa is a Cigar shop in Chicago. It’s also a line of house-blend cigars from their factory in Nicaragua. The Shaman line is one of their core lines. It’s described as a “tribute to the centuries old mystic use of tobaccos”, and it is their medium-strength blend. The 6×54 Fig. is a torpedo vitola with a foldover foot.

Statistics

CotM: March 2014



March 2014





Shape: Torpedo

Torpedo





Chosen by: goatcan







Size: 6″ x 54







Country of Origin: Nicaragua







Wrapper: Brazilian Arapiraca







Binder: Sumatra







Filler: Nicaraguan Jalapa Criollo ’98







Color: Colorado

Colorado





Strength: Mild-Medium







Price Paid: Trade

Trade





Smoke Date: March 7, 2014

March 7, 2014





Age: 6 weeks

Accessories Used

Cuban Crafters Perfect Cutter (Silver & Carbon Fiber), Silver & Chrome Vector Stratos single-flame torch lighter, Handmade English walnut ashtray made by wedgewoodrings.

Pairing

Ardbeg Uigeadail single malt Scotch served neat in a Glencairn glass. The cigar brought out a lot of caramel in the whisky, and the sweetness of the whisky complemented the floral notes in the cigar. This was an excellent pairing.

Appearance/Nose

So I actually was in possession of two of these, and they had noticeably different wrappers. One was lighter and toothier, The other was darker and smoother.

I opted to go with the lighter, toothier one because it looked a little more appealing to me, and because it had been resting for about 6 weeks in my humidor while the other just arrived 2 days ago. In my experience, a darker wrapper often means a slightly more flavorful cigar (when we’re talking about two cigars from different batches of the same blend), so I may have made a mistake in choosing this one, though I usually have good experience with toothier wrappers too.

Anyway, this one was light chocolate brown with a fairly thick, toothy wrapper with a bit of shine to it. The torpedo head came to a nice point. The black and white band was simple, but striking and elegant. I actually like the presentation of this cigar a lot. The foldover foot is something I don’t have a lot of experience with (I’ve smoked maybe 3 other foldover-footed cigars?) but supposedly it makes them easy to light. The nose is light and floral, reminding me of jade oolong tea.

Construction

The construction was solid. This cigar was firm and had some good heft to it. The torpedo head was very nice, and I do enjoy when they come to a sharp point like that. The stick was firm and springy throughout. The burn was impeccable–truly perfect the whole way through. The ash was a smooth light gray, and held on for as long as I wanted it to. It only ever fell when given a very firm tapas or in the case of the first ashing, when cutting the cigar with a strong “snip!” In addition, the big chunks of ash were solid, and truly beautiful.

Cold Draw

The cold draw was very tight, (probably due to the foldover foot) and had a light hay flavor.

Smoking

First third

The folded food burned away in a fiery flourish. I enjoyed that. The first puffs were sweet and floral, with a strong, grassy underpinning. There was a large presence of coffee and grass on the finish. Green coffee perhaps?

The smoke production was quite high, and the draw remained on the tighter side of smooth. The floral notes grew stronger, accompanied by caramel, coffee, and grass. The tight-ish draw made me take double-puffs to get a full mouth of smoke.

The coffee flavor grew, but the floral notes did not subside. Toasty coffee and perfumey rose notes dominated. Despite me original thinking it had a heavy tight pack, the cigar was burning fairly quickly for me, already an inch down at just under 20 minutes.

The draw tightened up a bit, and I decided to take off a bit more head in an attempt to open it up. It worked admirably, though the ash came off early (into the ashtray for once, thankfully) from the force of the snip.

Second third

Caramel, coffee, and flower continued in the second third. The grassy note which never disappeared, still played a prominent role in the middle of the palate. There was no spice to speak of in this stick so far, either in the mouth or retrohale.

Though the flavors were rich, the body was definitely somewhere around medium or mild-medium. The floral notes stayed strong through the middle third.

This has got to be the most floral cigar I’ve smoked. It reminded me a bit of a dancong tea (hooray for flavor references that maybe 1% of my already laughably small reader base might know!) For the unfamiliar, dancongs are a subset of Chinese Oolongs, sometimes called “phoenix” teas which are known for their floral aromas and flavors, but generally don’t have too much more going on for them beyond that. That said, I fucking love dancong, so it’s a compliment.

Final third

As the second third ended, the ash, already substantial, was going nowhere. It was firmly glued in place by mystical shamanic forces (I presume). The flavors of flowers and coffee continued, with the grassy twang subsiding a bit, but maintaining a presence. The band popped off effortlessly, in a perfect show of glue-restraint. Thank you!

The smoke production was excellent still, producing quite a cloud, even when parked in the ashtray. The body ramped up to a medium after dropping a big chunk of ash.

The grassy note finally faded into the background, leaving a strong fore presence of rose with a light coffee finish. The coffee and caramel intensified in the home stretch, with some black pepper even joining in, but the flowers never completely gave up.

Notes

Draw: Easy without being loose, after a second cut .

Easy without being loose, after a second cut





Body: Mild-medium

Mild-medium





Primary Flavors: Flowers, coffee, caramel

Flowers, coffee, caramel





Smoke Output: Full

Full





Smoke Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Overall

I loved the flavor profile, but I do wish the body was a bit fuller. I’m looking forward to trying some of the stronger Tesa blends that I have sitting in my humidor (312, Gran Cru). The coffee and floral notes were delicious (I’m a sucker for floral cigars), though the grassy note tasted a bit like perhaps the tobacco was a little young and could benefit from more aging. I’d love to see how these are with a couple more years on them. I love a cigar with a burn so even you never have to pay any attention to it. After a string of wobbly burn lines that required rotation, touch ups, and relights, it was nice to have a cigar with zero burn maintenance whatsoever. Top marks for construction, with high marks for flavor profile and a bit of wanting in the body department.

Rating