Esencia Lancero
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 11:03AM 
Today's review is of the Esencia Lancero. Esencia is a Nicaruan Puro and is put out by the same company behind Palio cigar cutters (which happens to be my favorite cutter). I am pretty sure these are made at Raices Cubanas factory, which is where Illusione, Casa Fernandez and a few other cigars are produced. This lancero isn't part of the normal line up of cigars Esencia makes, and to be honest I am not sure exactly when they release this Vitola. How I came to posess this cigar is a really random story. I happened to be listening to Dogwatch Cigar Radio live and talking with a few people in the chatroom attached to the video feed and one of the guys from Esencia happened to be logged in as well. He sent out a package of Esencia cigars to all of the people logged into the chat. One of the cigars that showed up in my mailbox happened to be this Lancero! This seems to be a 7.5 X 38 and is a blend of Criollo and Corojo tobaccos.
The Esencia Lancero has a chocolate brown wrapper with a fair amount of veining, making for a rustic looking cigar. The roll feels even, which is always a plus with a thin cigar like this. I hate finding hard spots in a Lancero because this vitola is one that can suffer from a tight draw if there is anything off with the bunching. After clipping off the pigtailed cap (very small tail) the draw seems just right for a lancero. The prelight flavors are of cedar and clean tobacco. I am using a single flame torch instead of the usual double torch I normally carry due to the small ring gauge on this cigar. Once lit this starts out with some peppery spice on the tongue and plenty of deep, dark coffee flavors. There is also some earth and leather in this blend as well. Some cedar shows up on the retrohale, as well as more of the earthyness. I have smoked quite a few cigars out of the Raices Cubanas factory and this definitely reminds me of some of the other stuff they make. The burn is a little wavy and the ash only wants to hold on for about half an inch, which is pretty typical for a lancero.
At the halfway point the spice has really backed off and more leather and some woody flavors have come to the front of the flavor profile. With the peppery spice mostly gone, a more exotic spice flavor has shown up. This is more like cinnamon with a little sweetness on the finish. As I reach the final third I would put this as a solid medium bodied cigar. The burn has evened out nicely and hasn't required any touchups after the first few inches. In th final inch I have noticed a faint dried cherry flavor that I get out of a lot of Illusione cigars, but it is no where as noticable in this Esencia like it is in the Illusione line.
The Esencia Lancero was a pretty tasty smoke! Not a lot of shops around me carry these but I could see myself trying some of the other sizes out since the lancero isn't one that is readily available. As I already said, these definitely remind me of Illusione on some levels. I think overall I prefer Illusione but this is different enough to make me want to smoke it again.
Reader Comments (2)
Very nice cigar review . I haven't seen this at any shops around me. I'll have to look for it.
I've been looking for this a several days ago. Thank God you've made a blog about this one. My friend told me it's very cool to smoke. Craving to try this one!