The Maduro Cigar

[Golden Child]

I did not want to muddle up HLS's favorite maduro thread, but it brought to the forefront my like/hate relationship with maduro cigars.

So, I will lay out my very simple idea about maduro cigars and you guys let me know what you think. So far, one of my cigar friends entirely agreed with me. All the others disagreed to some extent.

I maintain that the maduro wrapper makes a lesser cigar taste better and makes a better cigar taste worse.

So, to broaden the point but keep it fairly simple and hopefully free of too much parsing, this is sort of how I find maduro cigars to work.

I categorized these pretty broadly. The categories are more focused on quality than cost, though those obviously usually run together.



Cheaper (think cheap quality, less price focus) cigars: Almost always prefer the maduro line over the natural.

Mid-range cigars: Generally prefer the maduro, probably 70% of the time.

Premium cigars: Prefer the natural roughly 70%

Ultra-premium: Seemingly always prefer a natural wrapper.

What do you guys think about my theory or the maduro in general?

 

[joshua1970]

mmmm, not sure I agree 100%.... tho you are likely correct on certain brands and likely in the mid-range category I would agreewith you- though let's be honest, cigar flavors tend to vary ever so slightly anyhow no matter how skilled the blenders and rollers may be....

I still think the filler tobaccos makes the biggest difference on a cigars overall taste, tho the wrapper can obviously add or detract from the overall flavor, all dependent on one's personal taste, of course..

interesting theory, would be very hard to test it tho.

 

[craig94yj]

You have an interesting theory and I can see the logic in it's conception. I believe there will be exceptions of course. The Connecticut Broad Leaf in it's maduro state is coveted by many premium cigar manufacturers and I believe can only enhance certain blends of cigar filler tobacco.

 

[Golden Child]

interesting theory, would be very hard to test it tho.

Indeed.

I'm now wondering if perhaps the wrapper seems to make such a difference (to me) on the lower levels of cigars is because the filler tobacco is not as flavorful and the maduro wrapper might come a little more to the forefront?

 

[joshua1970]

Indeed.

I'm now wondering if perhaps the wrapper seems to make such a difference (to me) on the lower levels of cigars is because the filler tobacco is not as flavorful and the maduro wrapper might come a little more to the forefront?

that could be! interesting. I'll have to bear it in mind...... def food for thought!

tho for some super premiums, the maduros are just fantastic - the Habanos SA limited edition series are nearly all maduro wrappers.... but then agian so are the naturals

 

[Golden Child]

Let's keep this in the U.S. market (at least as far as my theory goes.) Habanos throws an entirely other aspect out there.

 

[joshua1970]

hmmm def will give it some thought as I smoke... and i'll try to keep the Habanos out...


I used to have several natural and maduro variants of same brand, tho will have to see if still in my humidors/coolerdors

 

[Kentos]

I thought Cubans were all considered natural no matter how dark?
I haven't been in the cigar culture for a while so things may have changed.