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Stogie Reviews: Cienfuegos Engine #5

23 Feb 2010

Cienfuegos Engine #5Cigar maker Rolando Reyes, Sr. is known throughout the industry for his dedication to quality control. Prior to his retirement in 2007, at the age of 83, his work habits included toiling at his Honduran factory long after hours and inspecting individual cigars up to seven times before they hit the shipping crates.

Today his grandson, Carlos E. Diez, is president of Reyes Family Cigars (formerly Cuba Aliados). He oversees production of all the brands in the company’s portfolio, including Cuba Aliados, Puros Indios, and Cienfuegos.

The latter was unveiled in 2003 as the boldest smoke in the Reyes catalogue. “We wanted to make the strongest cigar we could without compromising the taste and the aroma,” Diez told Cigar Aficionado.

Diez certainly picked a good name for the line. Aside from being a Cuban city, “Cienfuegos” means “one hundred fires” in Spanish. The colorful painting on the band depicts three Cubans in a 19th century tobacco field with a wall of flames on the horizon. And the six vitolas all have fire-inspired names like “Hot Shot” and “Blaze.”

The robusto-sized “Engine #5” (5 x 50) comes dressed in a reddish Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with a Nicaraguan binder and Dominican filler. While soft to the touch and rough around the edges, it nonetheless imparts an overall feel of quality.

Touching fire to the foot, pre-light notes of coffee beans give way to a powerful taste of espresso with a sweet cedar finish. The profile, lacking in complexity, is strong but not nearly as spicy or peppery as most other full-bodied cigars.

This smoothness carries over to the midway point. Here, though, the finish is decidedly meatier with an earthy quality that’s slightly stale. All the while the physical properties are decent with an uneventful burn, a sandy white ash, and a clear draw.

The Engine #5 sells for as low as $4 and as high as $9. It’s a decent buy at the lower end of that spectrum if you’re looking for something authoritative yet smooth, but it doesn’t quite have enough balance to merit a price above $5. That earns it a rating of three stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

2 Responses to “Stogie Reviews: Cienfuegos Engine #5”

  1. Tim Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 9:19 am #

    I always thought thewe were a bundle stick. At 2-3 dollars they're great. For 6-9 there are better smokes out there.

  2. Mike Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 10:28 am #

    I agree with the "sweet cedar" and hints of "pepper". The sweet is subtle enough to appreciate, but this cigar also has some leather and spice (in addition to pepper). I think it's a 4.5/5. We smoked these along side the Cuban Cohiba Robusto and honestly, the Engine #5 had better flavor. And the cigars smell great! Definitely worth $6-9. The Cohibas were $27 and I'd rather have the Cienfuegos. The blend is perfect.