Suriel Day & Night

Posted by Shawn

March 11, 2016

Uriel Suriel, founder of Suriel Cigars, has been a close friend to the Kelner family. If the Kelner family name does not ring a bell, think Davidoff as Henke Kelner is the blender to the famed Davidoff line of cigars. His son, Hendrik has been in the cigar industry for 25 plus years and is the master blender for Suriel Cigars. Suriel cigars are made at the Kelner Boutique Factory, which is around two years old, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The cigars have been reported to be aged at least one year before setting foot on a store’s shelves.

Size: 5×52

Vitola:Â Robusto

Wrapper: Brazil

Binder: Dominican Republic

Filler: Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru

This cigar has a good feel to it. It wasn’t too hard or soft and had no issues of non-uniformity to it. There are no major veins, spots or any other cosmetic deformities to the medium brown wrapper. The draw stayed dead on perfect for my likings. The burn had a few slight waves in it, but no issues that needed any attention. The ashes were nice and tight with hues of white, grey and black. The ashes held for about an inch or so. They could have held on for longer, but an ashy lap is not something I was looking forward to. Overall the construction of this cigar was spot on quality.

The first third started out with a nice medium strength light wood note accompanied by a slightly stronger black pepper & coffee. A bit of sweetness on the back half of the draw complimented the coffee well and helped offset the black pepper a bit. The wood note lessens and the black pepper and coffee took the position of the key flavors. The coffee note is not like your typical dark roast coffee, its more of an exhotic coffee.

Heading out of the first third and into the middle portion of the cigar, the wood notes changes into more of a roasted peanut flavor. The coffee flavor still hung in there as a background flavor, but the sweetness lessened. The smoke seemed to get a good bit more smoother, creamier and more rounded off in the middle of the cigar. The retrohale was an experience that I had to visit quite a few times as it was so good. I am not one to retrohale a cigar more than two or so times, but this one deserved more. The retrohale had more of the roasted nuts, a bit of the black pepper and a smoothness that kept me coming back for more.

Leaving the middle portion of the cigar and heading for the home stretch, the black pepper eases off more and the roasted nut flavor gets the addition of a slight saltiness. The smoke is still pretty smooth and creamy; although the saltiness lessens the creaminess some. The coffee is still in the mix, but its not much of a key flavor as it once was. The sweetness is at its all time lul, but still poking its head into the smoke here and there in the finish. Ending the cigar, the roasted nuts seemed to go back to the beginings with a woody note, yet a bit darker wood flavor. The coffee note stills keeps its exhotic composure, but the sweetness is now just a fond memory as its just about mute. The smoke stays pretty smooth and creamy till the end. The finish, at the end, had a slight bite to it, but nothing to be alarmed with as the cigar ended very honoralbly.

The middle portion of the cigar is where it really shined for me. I really like how the roasted peanuts and coffee notes mingled. I wish the sweetness would have stayed around more in strength in the flavor profile as it was a nice way to offset some of the bolder flavors. I really really enjoyed this cigar. I think it would be a good smoke for anytime of the day for anyone. Many boutique cigar lines are hitting the shelves each day. Many are good smokes, but many have the ability to be better smokes. Some are rushed and possibly not aged enough to be a good cigar right off the store shelf. This is not the case with The Day & Night as I didn’t get any harsh or foul flavors in the entire cigar.

This cigar shows the artistry of Hendrik Kelner and his blending skills and knowledge of tobacco. Going outside of the box in the cigar industry will go far these days. The use of fancy boxes, labels and shapes these days is all eye catching and good for people looking for that. But a well blended and constructed cigar with new and interesting flavors and tobaccos (like the Peruvian in this cigar) will go further in today’s market in my eyes.

All and all, this cigar was one of the best I hadÂ in 2015. I will be recommending it to all of my local shops as I would really like to smoke it more and more. I think it would appeal to many levels of cigar enjoyers as it wasn’t too strong of a smoke, the flavors were a good med-full and offered a nice flavor complexity. I was unable to find any price points on the cigar, but if it can be competitive and stay around the $10 range I am sure it will be a hit. Would I pay more? Yeh, but not much more as paying more than $10 for a robusto sized cigar is not very logical for me these days.

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