As I was walking the floor of this year’s Total Product Expo (TPE) I had the pleasure of hanging out at the JRE Tobacco Co. booth where they presented me a sample of their newest limited-edition cigar – the Aladino Candela. I was taken aback a bit because when I think of JRE the word candela does not come to mind but I was quickly corrected when I was informed that the cigar is a homage to Julio Eiroa who was the largest grower of candela back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. We learn new things all the time. Since I like a good candela and I really enjoy the craft that Aladino has been creating over the years, I was all in on this one.
The Aladino Candela is a limited to just 8,000 cigars and are expressed in a single 5 x 50 robusto vitola with a wallet friendly MSRP of $8.50 per cigar. The company noted – they hope it resonates with consumers because if it does, they will consider increasing production.
As for the blend, it is a Honduran puro described as:
- Wrapper – Honduran Candela
- Binder – Honduran Corojo
- Filler – Honduran Corojo
The Aladino Candela comes packaged in 20-count boxes and have been limited to just 32 shops that have tripped down to Honduras to visit the company’s fields and factory.
Pre-Light Examination
The Aladino Candela is a beautiful looking candela wrapped cigar. The wrapper has a uniform green color and is silky smooth from head to foot. There are just a few veins noticeable in the wrapper. In contrast the foot exhibits rich brown colored corojo leaf, perfectly bunched, providing the cigar a firm feel with no soft spots. A well applied triple cap finishes the construction.
A single band adorns the cigar using a maroon, silver and yellow motif. The Aladino logo is boldly centered in the band n bright silver leaf along with the years 1947 on the left and 1961 on the right which represents the years the company were creating cigars in Cuba before fleeing. The name Julio R. Eiroa is printed in maroon on a yellow strip on the bottom.
Running the Aladino Candela along the nose, I noted a herbal vegetal note along barrel and fresh bready aromas off the foot.
With the pre-light examination out of the way, I used a lit cedar spill to warm the foot with the soft flame and drew in the first puffs of herbal and nut. Follow along as I burn this one to ash!
Cigar Review Notes
I opened the cap perfectly with my CigarMedics baller cutter and gave it some cold draw puffs that I found to be spot on with restriction and offering notes of coffee, sweetness, and a mild tang.
- Initial light offers notes of herbal and mild nut
- A solid white ash forms on top of a thick wavy char line
- Natural sweetness quickly adds to the profile
- The smoke is full, thick and chewy
- Mouthwatering citrus notes begin to develop
- Ash falls in a good chunk revealing a decent burn cone
- Pleasant cream and coffee notes join the mix
- The citrus morphs into a dry fruit wrapped by the cream
- A slight off burn develops but does not force a touch-up
- Spice notes enter down to the final
- Smoke got a tad hot in the final
- Medium in Strength
- Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 20 minutes
Final Analysis
If you are a fan of candela cigars, the Aladino Candela should be in your regular rotation. This medium strength cigar offered a fine array of balanced and pleasing flavors throughout the journey. It began with the characteristic candela herbal like notes but also had a pleasant nut flavor lying underneath to start the journey along with an evolving gentle sweetness which immediately gave it dimension. I enjoyed how it evolved and offered notes of cream and coffee midway and then how it offered dry fruit notes once the mouth watered up from an earlier burst of citrus. It did have an off burn but did not require a touch up and the smoke did get hot in the final cutting the experience short. I would say grab a fiver of these, and le a couple age as they may or may not be making more of them. I rate this a 90.
Point Deductions: (-1) Wavy Burn; (-1) Slight Off Burn; (-2) Smoke Got Hot in Final
