tea

This Regata is a unique figurado not made in any other Habano brand. It follows the tradition of the brand’s most iconic size the Montecristo Nº2 but takes only around half an hour to enjoy. The Montecristo flavor is primarily bitter oak with a spicy backbone. But this is my first Open Series cigar and I’m excited to taste if they are anything like it’s Montecristo siblings.

A beautiful figurado with a wonderful thick smoke and a great draw. There is a lovely sweet fruit on the draw, tea on the tongue, a wonderful oaky aftertaste and a sweet nutty scent. In short, a light bodied sweet fruit/oak smoke. I rate it 89 from a box date dec 2009.

I am not much of a Hoyo fan and the brand have a reputation for their light flavors favored by beginners. But light flavors alone doesn’t make it a beginners cigar. In my opinion a beginner cigar is a medium earthy/creamy cigar, not a cigar with rich vegetal flavors, which is a more demanding taste spectrum for beginners.

If there is a poster child for a vegetal cigar, this must be it. Tea on the draw, tang on the tongue, grass in the aftertaste and fruit in the scent. A light-medium bodied smoke bursting with vegetal flavors. Potpourri rolled in a Cuban wrapper. I rate it 88 from a tubos dated 05/2006.