Cigar news you can use: Cigar review

So who knows about the La Sirena line? Yeah, me either (well maybe you did know about them but I didn’t). I’m not even sure how I got one but since it was something different I thought it would be good material for a review. Started in 2009 by “Arielle Ditkowich after a successful collaboration with Nestor Miranda and Miami Cigars & Co. Today La Sirena continues to be requested at many tobacconists nationwide rolled and sourced by Erik Espinosa’s La Zona Factory (La Sirena -Original), Plasencia’s El Paraiso factory in Honduras (La Sirena LT), La Aurora Cigar Factory in the Dominican Republic (Merlion & Merlion Maduro) and Quesada’s MATASA factory in the Dominican Republic (Oceano) and more recently the Aniversario Especial 10th Anniversary limited edition vitola by Nueva Matacapan de Tabacos S.A. de C.V., Casa Turrent’s factory in San Andrés, Mexico.  La Sirena brand cigars are distributed nationwide and available at over 300 retail stores. The La Sirena is blended with a rare Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro wrapper and one of the three ligero leaf fillers utilizes Erik Espinosa’s “magic leaf”, which adds a layer of creamy complexity.” It boasts some pretty big factories for their manufacturing, let’s see how it holds up.

The wrapper has the color of tanned leather in color, there is noticeable veining and a slight oily finish. The seams are tight and the cigar has a fair amount of pliability when pressed between the fingers. It has the smell of fresh earth, dried fruit and a touch of brackish notes. This could be a subconscious smell caused by the name but I swear it’s there. The cap cuts easy enough causing no damage to the body. The cold draw is very easy with sweat dried fruit, bit of raisin and maybe anise. Again could be caused by the name, but it reminds me of sangria. Not saying it tastes like sangria its just what it makes me think of.

In the first half I picked up flavors of roasted nuts and toast. I had to re-light it a few times to keep combustion which is a bit of bummer but it could be due to it being over humidified however, it’s been in my humidor for 6 months and everything else out of it has smoked fine so, I don’t think that was the issue. The burn was fairly even and there was plenty of smoke. The draw offered little resistance making it easy to smoke.

In the second have the burn was much better and only required re-lighting twice. The flavors became more spicy on the finish. The flavor of nut is still there and a lovely creamy flavor. While the burn is a touch wonky there is loads of smoke production.

While the annoyance of re-lighting was there I did still enjoy smoking the cigar. I liked the draw and the full smoke production. The flavor is easy enough for anyone to not be overwhelmed by but still complex enough to enjoy. If you see it I would say give it a try and see what you think. Because of the burn problem I’m going to give it another try when I find them again and then update this article to reflect any new findings.

Wrapper – Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro

Binder – Nicaraguan Criollo

Filler – Nicaraguan Jalapa & Condega

Price: $7.50 – $8.00 depending on vitola

Website: Lasirena.com

Rating: 4.1 out of 5 pints