Aug. 15, 2011
I have now smoked two of the Panacea Black Maduro Robustos from the Flatbed Cigar Co. located in Pennsylvania. The wrapper is Brazilian Maduro, the binder is Dominican and the filler is a blend of Cuban seed seco & ligero and Olor Dominicano, according to the Flatbed website.
Having recently smoked and enjoyed two of the Panacea Green Pennsylvania Broadleaf, I was curious to taste the Black Maduro.
The Black Maduro has a nice, dark wrapper and was firm from head to foot. I did have my concerns about burn issues though because both of the ones I tried had a veiny, rough feel. You could gently rub your thumbnail around the body and it would hang up on the veins. Then I checked the foot and rubbed my finger across it and found several stems sticking out. This made me think it wasn’t going to burn well. Never let first impressions guide your thoughts is a lesson to be learned.
I watched the burn carefully and am pleased to report that on both of the robustos, the burn was fairly even and self corrected the few times I noticed it started to burn unevenly. The ash, which was dark grayish white with black streaks held tight to both cigars and didn’t fall off until close to the halfway mark. I could see by looking at the ash the slight leanings where the cigar corrected the burn.
Pre-light aroma was mild barnyard hay. Pre-light taste was sweet with a little spice. Both cigars had a good draw that wasn’t too easy. Other than the visual, they felt like well constructed cigars.
The initial taste was a little leather, a little wood, some coco notes. The smoke was plentiful and left a creaminess on my palate. There was just a hint of sweet and spice. Strength at first seemed mild. The flavor profile didn’t’ change very much and was consistent throughout both cigars. As I got to the last third of the cigars the spiciness began to pick up and develop more towards black pepper.
Just about the entire smoke was cool. Neither one started developing into a hot burn until I smoked them down to the band. I did take the bands off and continued smoking them. In all the smoke lasted about 1 hr. 40 minutes.
This was the second Panacea blend I’ve tried, the first being the Green, and I was again impressed with how enjoyable they were to smoke. It shows that it is possible to make a good cigar in places other than the islands or south Florida.
