Lacking flavor or very mild....Anyone else find this

I was at a friends house enjoying nice conversation, drinks and cigars. I pulled out a couple of Esencia Belicoso which we opted
for light before the Casa Fuentes.

Upon inspection, I found no cracks in the wrapper, and it was packed well from foot to head.

Pre light draw was perfect, not to tight or to loose.

Lit the cigar with a pocket torch.

From the first puff it was very mild. Different taste from any other cigar I had tried. But reminded me of Illusione but very little flavor.

While it burned well and drew well, it had very little flavor even in the middle portion of the cigar.

I smoke it down to about an each of it's original length and got a bit hot right before that. Not uncommon.

Overall impression:

Beautiful cigars with good construction but way to mild for me. A tad high on the prices for a new stick. But Marc from BOTL
did a good job with this cigar.

Thank you Mark :thumbs:

Who knows? Someone in The Musical Cheese Pass may like mild? Doesn't sound like my cuppa tea though. Thanks fo the reveiw (warning).

I emailed marc from BOTL to ask about these yesterday, he called me about 5 minutes later. He asked what I like to smoke, I said Tatujae's, other Pepins, LfD and Illusione, and he said strength these are right up there with them....... I haven't tried them yet myself, but I hope your's was a dud

I have not smoked the Beli, I have smoked all the other sizes and they are a full bodied smoke. The crowd should be receiving a bunch of these today so I'm sure they will tell us their thoughts on these.

puffstuff said:

I have not smoked the Beli, I have smoked all the other sizes and they are a full bodied smoke. The crowd should be receiving a bunch of these today so I'm sure they will tell us their thoughts on these.

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I hope the other sizes have more to them. My father smoked a few robustos and found them to be very mild as well. I will get into the Petit and Corona Gorda and give you my take on those as well.

Mark

I just finished smoking a corona gorda. This cigar is definitely full bodied. The flavor intensity starts out more in the left side of medium and picks up to full medium, plus, as you smoke it down.
There is no spice or pepper at all. If I had to compare it to another cigar, I would say that is is somewhat reminiscent of the Liga Privada no. 9.

Construction was excellent; delivering ample amounts of smoke from a perfect draw. Fairly slow burning, staying even until I put it down at about 1-1/2".

I've had these about a day or two. 95 - 100 degree weather here. I'll let them sit a week or so and revisit to see if they change significantly after travelling and resting.
I'd say they are definitely worth a try

If you are talking about the Escencia from Palio...they should be full bodied. I know Jack loves strong cigars and the Petit Corona was a powerhouse, reminding me of a Cuban Bolivar.

I wasn't impressed with the one I smoked tonight. Neither was my buddy. Had a bitter, nutty, ashy taste. He agreed on the bitterness. I could feel the full bodied strength of it, but the flavors were way off. Hopefully these were just duds, but they're not high on my list to try again.

Wow, I seldom find myself in disagreement with the pack. I found it to be full bodied with LOTS of flavor. I quite enjoyed it.

O.K., here's an update. The first one I smoked was after 3 days. I smoked another two over the weekend. A good week to calm down in the humidor. One Saturday, and one last night, Sunday. It was still full bodied, but the flavors came on a lot stronger. VERY complex smoke. This is a very good cigar.

I say that objectively. I did not fall in love with it, but do like it enough to get a box, and experiment with aging, etc. I.e., Second tier for me. I'm a confessed Pepin whore with a good mix of top shelf Padrons and VSGs. And the excellent Liga Privada No. 9.

Definitely worth at least a fiver.

NullSmurf said:

Wow, I seldom find myself in disagreement with the pack. I found it to be full bodied with LOTS of flavor. I quite enjoyed it.

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Same here. Liked it enough to add a box of beli's to the cabinet.... :thumbs:

JHolmes763 said:

I wasn't impressed with the one I smoked tonight. Neither was my buddy. Had a bitter, nutty, ashy taste. He agreed on the bitterness. I could feel the full bodied strength of it, but the flavors were way off. Hopefully these were just duds, but they're not high on my list to try again.

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I have to revise my position on these after having some of the petite corona size cigars that Al sent me. Very flavorful, great smell, strong... I loved it. I could see/taste where the reference to Illusione came from when smoking the petite coronas. I don't know what was wrong with the belicosos. Just duds, I guess. I'll be putting the petite coronas into my regular rotation, though. Thanks for making me try them again, Al.