Stogie Reviews: Pinar del Rio 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Natural Robusto
19 Jan 2011
Abe Flores reinvented his company prior to last summer’s industry trade show. There, he introduced his re-blended standard lines, dropped his cigars’ prices by 10%, and debuted a new creation: the 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Maduro.
That cigar got off to a fast start. In August, when we reported live from the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) annual convention in New Orleans, Flores told us that he had sold 8,000 boxes of the Capa Maduro in two months. Priced around $5 each, his strategy was to lure more enthusiasts to Pinar del Rio and entice them to try his other lines.
Now Flores has a new line that he’s eager for us to try. Called the 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Natural, it features the same interior tobacco as its Maduro predecessor—a Dominican criollo ’98 binder and a two-country filler blend from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic—wrapped around a four-year-old Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper.
The Capa Natural Robusto (5 x 52) is an attractive, golden-colored smoke with an intricate pigtail cap and a pre-light aroma of sweet hay. The wrapper is clean and oily with minimal veins. In all, this cigar makes an aesthetic impression befitting a stogie twice its price.
Notes of leather, grass, dry oak, and vanilla characterize the introductory profile. While the flavor is more salty than it is creamy, there’s an underlying nuttiness present that adds a balance to the overall taste. Floral notes will also be found by attentive enthusiasts.
After the first inch, it becomes clear that the Capa Natural Robusto is built with care and precision. The white ash builds off the foot sturdily, the smoke pulls through with ease, and the burn is straight and true. These combustion qualities are consistent from light to nub and across all three samples I smoked for this review.
All three also developed flavors of cedar and black pepper at the midway point—welcome additions to the medium-bodied profile. Here, I conclude that the 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Natural Robusto is a homerun as far as I’m concerned. Between its MSRP of $4.55 and its complexity, this promises to be a welcome addition to my humidor for some time. I look forward to sampling the seven other vitolas in the Capa Natural line, and I have no reservations about awarding the Robusto four and a half stogies out of five.
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photo credit: Stogie Guys
Sounds like a bargain. I will be on the look for these.
This one sounds like quite a departure from other PDr blends, which I find to be ho-hum.