Background:

I’m Matt (@MattSRoss81) – not Eric. Eric asked me to review the La Musa as a guest review and I jumped at the opportunity. I am not a reviewer, nor do I claim to be, so this might be slightly different than your average review.

I first was introduced to Emilio Cigars by my friend ZackTheStogieMan and immediately took a liking to the brand – this was even furthered by my first meeting with Gary in Esteli in May 2012. If you’ve never been lucky enough to meet and talk with Gary, I highly suggest tracking him down – great guy with an “interesting” sense of humor! During the duration of our 45-minute or so conversation, Gary gave me insight into his life and journey, nut kicks, and more. One of the more fascinating topics we touched on included his “muse” and her association to the Grimalkin/La Musa. While its not my story to tell, I suggest you ask him about it when you get to meet Gary as it gave me a new-found respect for Gary and the cigar itself. I know I looked at the smoking experience delivered by the Grimalkin/La Musa differently before I spoke to Gary as I did after.

As a matter of full disclosure, both samples smoked for this “review” were received, without request, from Gary. While I greatly appreciate his generosity, that does not impact my opinion.

Cigar:

The La Musa is exactly what a cigar should look like – a beautiful Habano Rosado wrapper with minimal, if any, visible oils and minor veins. I found the cigar to be very firm though this would not impact the draw. The band, while a bit “plain” for those who care about such things, fits with the Greek Muse theme and, in my opinion, is a step up from the “creepy” Grimalkin band (felt like I was being watched previously)!

After admiring the cigar, I took a straight-cut off of the cap and took some pre-light draws. An abundance of flavors hit my palate including a bit of sweetness and I could tell that this was going to be a winner. After toasting the foot, I lit the La Musa up and got to enjoying!

Smoking:

For the purposes of this “review”, I smoked two samples – one that sat in my humidor for 7 days after I received it and one that sat in my humidor for 14 days after I received it. Typically I prefer to let cigars sit in my humidors a bit longer – especially in winter months – but I was eager to smoke these. The first sample had considerable burn issues and had to be touched up several times, but the second, while wavy, required no touch-ups.

Immediately off the light, I noticed a bit of spice – especially on the retrohale. As the first third progressed, the spice became a bit more muted, though, and the abundance of flavors I got on the pre-light draw returned. I’d say this is a medium strength smoke with a sweetness on the draw with some minor spice on the backend.

The ash stayed on the cigar pretty well – perhaps an inch or so at a time – but I did notice that it wasn’t very tight with an intriguing flakiness to it.

As the smoking experience moved into the second third, the spiciness I noted in the beginning continued, but mainly on the backend as a creaminess joined the sweetness. The flavor remained relatively the same for me through the end. After about an hour and fifteen minutes of lush, billowing smoke, La Musa had done what she set out to do – tempted me with nuance and skill – and added another mainstay to my collection!

Conclusion: