Casa de Entrada by Cigarcia

Entrada Toro

This is a very pretty stick. I’m usually not srawn to San Andreas wrappers, but I can’t help but love that postage stamp band on the Entrada. I bought a 5-pack of these a few months ago, and I figured it was time to review one. At the time I purchased these, they were available only in a 6″ x 54 toto or a 6″ x 60 gordo. Since then, a 5″ x 52 robusto has been added to the line.

Statistics

Shape: Box-pressed Parejo







Size: 6″ x 54







Country of Origin: Nicaragua







Wrapper: Mexican San Andreas







Binder: Nicaraguan







Filler: Nicaraguan crillio, viso, and corojo







Color: Maduro

Maduro





Strength: Medium







Price Paid: $11.80

$11.80





Smoke Date: March 11, 2014

March 11, 2014





Age: 3 months

Accessories Used

Xikar Xi3 STK Titanium Black cutter, Silver & Chrome Vector Stratos single-flame torch lighter, Handmade English walnut ashtray made by wedgewoodrings.

Pairing

Da Hong Pao (“Big Red Robe”) loose leaf Chinese oolong tea served in a small glass pot and glazed ceramic and cracked celadon “rust and green” tea cup. Da Hong Pao is an extremely famous and prized Chinese oolong tea. Of course, this is not “true” Da Hong Pao from the famous 3-bushes (which goes for like $40,000 per ounce), but rather a clonal of one of those. It is rich and roasty with a deep mineral flavor. It was an excellent counterbalance to the dryness of the Entrada.

Appearance/Nose

Without a doubt, the first thing one notices about the Entrada line is that amazing postage-stamp band. It’s gorgeous! I really cannot stress enough how much I like the band on this thing. The band on the foot is rather plain, and on this unit, the embossing of the word “CIGARCIA” does not line up with the white lettering. Not even close. The wrapper is a dark maduro with quite a bit of shine. It has a fudge-like quality to it. The nose was chocolate, pepper, and a fresh-cut grass.

Construction

The box press felt a bit spongy, but I do appreciate that it is more square than rectangular (making it easier to rotate). The box press was more severe at the head, which has visible corners, and tapered away to the foot which was almost round. There wrapper looked excellent, though a bit wrinkly near the head, and the cigar was topped with a smooth triple-cap. I later discovered that the wrapper was most-likely dyed and gave off brown coloring onto my skin (see next section) The burn was a bit wavy and did require a small touch up near the beginning. After that, it evened itself out mostly, though it was quite wavy the whole time and I was constantly rotating (again, thankful for the squarish box press). The ash was highly contasting with dark, almost black spots on a nearly white base. It held for up to an inch, but fell off at about a half inch most times.

Cold Draw

I used a brand new cutter and I’m still getting used to it, and snipped off slightly more than I had intended to. The cold draw was perfect and smooth, with notes of chocolate and pepper. One issue I encountered was that after wetting the head, However, the wrapper turned my lips and fingers brown when they touched the wet leaf. Dye? Yeah, probably. Either that or steamed, but given the amount of brown that came off on me, I’m leaning towards dye.

Smoking

First third

The first puff was loaded with black pepper. Underneath the pepper, there was a cocoa-like, earthy flavor. The finish was very dry, with a bit of tingly pepper remaining.

The retrohale was sweet, with a little bit of floral fragrance and a lot of pepper burn.

The extremely dry finish continued, as did the pepper, with a lot of woody notes. The smoke production was on the high side of normal. About an inch in, it grew sweeter in the spice, with a bit of clove.

The finish was still rather dry and woody, with the Nicaraguan tobacco asserting itself through heavy pepper.

The chocolatey flavor of the wrapper began to show through leaving a thick coating on my palate between puffs.

Second third

Coming into the middle third, the pepper died off significantly. The primary flavors were sweet, dry cedar. The chocolate and floral notes seem to have wandered away since I first noticed them.

Have I mentioned that the finish was dry? It was. I found myself reaching for my tea quite a lot between puffs.

The woody flavor began to develop a bitter, slighty charred note. It wasn’t bad or off-putting, like an overheating type of burnt, and was actually kind of nice. By this point, the pepper was completely gone. The retrohale added some of that red wine flavor to the dry wood and char.

Final third

The final third saw a bit of smoothing to the dryness. A bit of sweetness and cream picked up to balance it out.

The ash kept coming off as I was trying to take photos, at about a half inch each time, which was slightly frustrating.

A buttery flavor emerged from the cream and added a new layer of taste.

The woody taste finally subsided, though the char remained. Burnt toast, buttery cream dominated, with a bit of cedar lingering on the finish.

Notes

Draw: Smooth

Smooth





Body: Medium

Medium





Primary Flavors: W ood, dryness, black pepper, butter

ood, dryness, black pepper, butter





Smoke Output: Medium

Medium





Smoke Time: 2 hours

Overall

The tannic dryness was the star of the show here. What a dry cigar! The presentation is about break-even for me, as the incredible one-of-a-kind band was offset by a dyed wrapper. I’ve smoked plenty of dyed/steamed-wrapper cigars, including probably several I didn’t even realize were dyed. Still, it seems like a bit of a cheat to me, especially since that band would have looked great on a more rustic-looking, mottled wrapper. The draw was perfect, though the ash was less than stellar. The flavors were not my preferred profile, but were quite nice if you prefer dry, woody cigars (I think I wrote almost that exact same sentence about the La Riqueza). The final third, being less dry and woody and more buttery, was my favorite part. I really wanted to love this cigar, but the flavor profile was not my bag, the construction left me wanting (see: ash), and the toro vitola is not one of my favorites (when I obtained these, the only other option was an even less enticing 6 x 60 gordo). I gather a corona is forthcoming in the future, but for the price and difficulty to obtain, I do not think I will be going out of my way to get one.

Rating