Emilio Series H Maduro Robusto

Posted by Shawn

January 15, 2013

Emilio Cigars has a vast array of cigars on the shelves of cigar shops these days. From the Milder Suave to the fuller Grimalkin (La Mousa), there is an Emilio to fit everyone’s likings. Emilio also distributes a good number of smaller boutique company lines such as Nomad, 1502 etc… I smoke a good bit of the Emilio AF series and Grimalkins mainly, but occasionally toast up a Series H Maduro for a change of pace. Growing fonder and fonder of the Maduro wrapper, I am always looking for another one to try. So I have had a few of these here & there and is a good mid priced (around $6.50) maduro cigar.

Size:Â 5 1/2 x 50

Vitola:Â Robusto

Wrapper:Â Jamastran Ligero Maduro

Binder:Â Nicaraguan & Costa Rica

Filler:Â Nicaragua & Costa Rica

Country of Origin:Â Danli, Honduras

Source:Â Sample from Emilio Cigars

First Looks:Â A very dark maduro wrapper is offset by a simplistic white band that just makes the darkness of the wrapper stand out even more. The wrapper is pretty smooth with just a few minimal veins that run the length of the cigar. I like the “extra” half inch of this robusto over your “typical” robusto. It gives you just a little more smoke time when you really are enjoying the cigar. The cigar feels fairly dense with no major hard or soft spots.

Construction: Toasted up quickly and evenly with my Xikar Tech Single flame lighter. The draw was nice with a slight bit of resistance and produced a fair amount of drawn smoke. The room note was not all that great, but I have smelled a lot worse. I couldn’t place my finger on a distinct room note, but it was so-so in my opinion. The burn was slightly wavy at first, but evened off around half way through the smoke. Â It never needed a touch-up or relight, which is always a pain to me. The off burn could have been due to the wrapper absorbing some of the humidity from the recent rain I had at the house. Each of the ashes lasted on average of an inch and half and held nicely with a few flakes.

Flavor: First few puffs give me some hay with muted cocoa and chocolate. Accompanying those flavors is a slight bit of spice on the tip of my tongue. A pleasant mix where no one flavor is overpowered by the next. But, the spice is the minimal of the mix. Working into the first portion, I start to taste a bit of a chalky (yet vaguely sweet) chocolate note with a small amount of lingering spice.

Working into the half way point, the spice seems to ramp up slightly from the previous portion. Still not a spice blast, but its evening off with the malted chocolate notes. The longer I held the smoke in my mouth, the more the spice intensified, but never got overpowering. After the halfway point, the spice turned into more of a peppery spice and started to overpower the chocolate flavors more and more as I progressed towards the end of the cigar. At the end of the cigar, the Â flavors got a blast of chalky chocolate with an almost woody flavor to it. With about an inch or so left, I laid it to rest, the flavors got too chalky for my likings.

Final Thoughts:Â The Emilio Series H Maduro is a nice, balanced smoke that is easy on the palate and wallet. Overall a pleasant maduro that is not overpowering in body, yet has a medium to full strength flavors. I have had better, as well as way less pleasurable maduro cigars. When I first tried this cigar about a year ago, I wasn’t overly impressed with it. Now that I have had a few more, I am getting a better liking for them. Would I smoke it again, sure. Would I recommend it to another cigar enjoyer, yes mainly to a maduro newbie who wants a maduro cigar that is good, and won’t have to spend a whole lot of money on.