When you here the names Quesada and Plasencia in terms of cigars, you think quality, flavor, and history – not to mention, two of the best cigar making countries on the planet Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. So in the ever-expanding world of collaboration between cigar families, it should be no surprise that Quaesada and Placencia have forged another relation to produce the new Fonseca Nicaragua.
Fonseca has traditionally been a Dominican based cigar but this time they have went with a Nicaraguan puro. The best part of this introduction is the price point, $5.00 to $6.00. Yep, you read it right; another value priced cigar, in the world of post $10.00 smokes. I hope the FDA is reading this!
With the help of Placencia, the Fonseca Nicaragua by Quesada combines select tobacco from Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe. The wrapper is a dark Criollo ’98 Oscuro from Jalapa.
The Fonseca Nicaragua is available in 3 vitolas:
- Petite Corona – 5 x 42
- Robusto – 5.5 x 54
- Toro – 6 x 50
The Fonseca Nicaragua are packaged in boxes of 20.
For this review I sampled the Fonseca Nicaragua Robusto.
Cigar Review Notes
- Tea and pepper in foot
- Sweetness along the barrel
- Rugged wrapper
- Capped well
- Cold draw delivers an earth and black pepper through a slightly restricted draw
- Love the array of leaf color in the foot
- Pepper blast on first light wrapped in a fruit background
- Dry cocoa powder quickly joins the party
- Nice full palate of smoke early in the burn
- Light almost white ash on a medium char line
- Fruit matures into a dried currant flavor
- Cocoa and fruit notes are dominate
- Ash falls after the first third
- Sweetness enters in second third
- Spicy aroma
- Hint of nut with a very dry cocoa powder still present in taste and aroma
- Cocoa moves to a chocolate syrup by end of second third
- True character showing at the end – only wish it was about an inch earlier
Overall, the Fonseca Nicaragua was an excellent cigar even if it was priced higher. At the current price point, it is incredible and certainly worthy of a box buy. It had some very dry cocoa powder notes through most of the burn along with notes of fruit and pepper. The burn was spot on. My only issue with this fine creation is I wish the final chocolate syrup note came an inch earlier to make this pleasure last longer.
Fonseca Nicaragua