MBOMBAY KeSara Vintage Reserve Nikka
If you never heard of the Mbombay Tabak cigars, you must not be on any form of social media. They are very active on instagram, facebook & twitter while posting their pictures as well as reposts of other people enjoying their cigars. Mbombay offers six lines of cigars each rolled in Costa Rica. The Vintage Reserve’s tobacco is aged 3 years longer than their other tobacco. Its available in two sizes, a 5.5×46 petite perfecto and a 6.5×46 “Nikka”.
Size: 6.5″x46
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Deas Florado 2002
Binder: Ecuadorian Havana
Filler: Dominican and Peruvian
Country of Origin: Costa Rica
Price: $12*Â Â Â
First Looks
This is a very beautiful looking cigar. The wrapper has a slight sheen to it, no major veins to be worry with and best of all a closed foot and pigtail cap. Now I know a closed foot and pigtail cap don’t add any flavor charectoristics; but they are cool in my book. Although I have seen myself leaning away from closed foot cigars as at times its hard to see if you have a good toasting of the foot. Other than that, no slightly issues with this cigar. The wrapper seems to have a cocoa like aroma to it with hints of a slight spice to it. The foot’s aroma reminds me of the Andes Candies mint/chocolate candies my Mom used to give me as a treat as a child. The cold draw is a little thick, but not too thick to be concerned with and has notes of cedar and some of the mint flavor I detected in the foot. Note: This is not a infused/flavored cigar.
Construction
The draw stayed like the cold draw was with a slight thickness to it; but no issues. Each ash was “encouraged” to fall at around an inch and a quarter. Said ashes were of a slightly off white shade with tight rings of hues of gray. The burn was very good considering it came from a closed foot cigar. In the past I have had issues with closed foot cigars and their wavy burn lines. This wasn’t the case at all for this cigar and the construction quality shows.
Flavor
After toasting the foot thoroughly, taking a sip of Sumatran coffee, I sit back, relax and start to enjoy flavors of a very smooth creamy cedar note and a slight hint of a sweetness. Getting into the cigar some, I notice a hint of a citrus like tone appearing in the smoke. The slight zest adds to the cedar some giving it a slight kick but still maintaining the creamy smoothness of the smoke. Leaving the first third, I start to notice flavors of dried fruit, mainly berries, that perk my senses. It took a bit to figure out what it was and this flavor pushed the citrus notes to the back of the smoke; almost diminishing it.
Throughout the middle portion, the creaminess in the smoke moved from one of the main flavors to background accompaniments of the citrus that has lessened some. The sweetness of the dried berries seemed to enlarge some, then diminish throughout the mid portion. It was trading places with the cedar and other wood notes and added to the complexity of the smoke. Taking fewer sips of my coffee to see was it the coffee adding the sweetness or the cigar’s natural sweetness; it was the cigar. The cedar notes, when in the front of the smoke, were quite a bit stronger than the dried fruit/sweetness notes. Leaving the mid part of the cigar, the sweetness, creaminess and cedar combine to form a nice conglomeration of flavors. Each was no stronger than the next and was one of the highlights of the cigar.
Finishing off the cigar, the cedar and other lesser wood notes seemed to shine more than ever before. The citrus is a faint hint of the past as well as the even lesser dried berries/fruit notes. The sweetness fades to the back as well and the creamy cedar shines more and more. Almost to the end of the cigar I got a leather note that mixed into the cedar. It was very unexpected and I am on the fence about whether I liked it or not. Right at the end, the cedar ends and a different, almost dark, wood note arose with hints of the dried fruit from before in the background; totally unexpected. None the less, the cigar ended well with no objections to construction or flavor.
Final Thoughts
This was a very nice cigar. The longer aged tobacco showed in the blend as it was pretty smooth, yet still had a lesser medium body with a solid medium flavor strength. The complexity of the smoke was mainly a mix of a creaminess, cedar, citrus, dried fruit/berries and some sweetness. Overall, the flavors didn’t actually change throughout the smoke. Its just where they were presented, back & forth with subtle changes in the smoke is where the complex part is. I really enjoyed this cigar, it had a nice mix of flavors that complimented each other no matter where they were in the mix. For the $12 price tag*, I say definitely give it a shot as this cigar was very enjoyable to me.
*This cigar was provided to me, unsolicited, from Mbombay Cigars for this review.  Many thanks to those great people for the opportunity to review this cigar!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment