601 La Bomba Napalm (5x52)

I am a fan of strong cigars and Nicaraguan tobacco. With that said, I have the only cigar I have seen with a warning label up for review. The La Bomba actually has a warning inside the box lid letting you know it is not for the novice smoker. I looked forward to lighting one of these up and almost did so before letting them rest. Luckily for them a series of life events kept me from getting into them, and they found a couple of weeks to stabilize in the humi. The La Bomba is a blend from Erik Espinosa and Eddie Ortega that was originally produced in the My Father factory in Esteli Nicaragua. Some of the older boxes that are still out there bear the My Father seal and the newer boxes I have seen have the La Zona seal, indicating that they were produced in Erik's factory in Esteli. I am unaware of any changes to the blend, if there were any, between the two. I have enjoyed every EO brand, Ortega, and Espinosa cigar that I have had to date. The 601 green label is one of my favorite cigars and I will have formal review of it up soon, I hope.

My son recently picked up a nasty stomach virus that put him in the hospital for a night to get IV fluids. Our local hospital doesn't allow smoking or tobacco use of any kind on their premises, so getting a cigar in was out of the question. I enjoyed this stick the day after he was released to come home and feeling much better. It amazes me how fast children bounce back from being sick, and it seems to take us adults forever to get over an ailment. He is much better and I thank all of you that offered prayers and encouragement. It was his first hospital visit since he was born and scared me and his mother pretty bad. I know, so on with the review already lol.

The milk chocolate Habano wrapper on the La Bomba had only minimal veins and a cool pigtail resembling the fuse on a stick of dynamite. The body was well packed and firm with a little give. There we no soft spots or imperfections that I could find. I used my trusty Xikar cutter to clip the cap and found the cold draw to be perfect with notes of cocoa and a mild sweetness. The body offed notes of cocoa with hints of barnyard and the foot had the same mild sweetness and cocoa that the was present on the cold draw. You can tell by that aroma emanating off of this stick, it is going to be tasty and strong. I used my favorite torch, my Xikar executive II, to toast the foot and get things started with no problems.

The initial third explodes with flavor, after all it is a bomb. The first flavors that grab the attention are notes of coffee and cocoa. There is mild caramel tone that comes in on the finish and brings a touch of sweetness to the peppery spice of the retrohale. As I progress into the first third, notes of leather start to emerge. The finish is long and leaves a touch of caramel on the palate and a nice peppery tingle in the sinuses.

Going into the second third the leather notes gain some momentum as the cocoa notes begin to fade into the background. The caramel notes are still hanging out in the background as some toasted nut notes start to pop in and out. I was almost ready to discard the extra full body claim until I hit the half-way point. That is when the body went from full, to wow that is strong. It was strong, but never harsh in any way.

The final third brought a slight increase to the natural sweetness, it helped to balance out the increase in body. The peppery spice that has been tingling my sinuses is now starting to leave a tingle on my palate as well. The coffee notes are still present, but are definitely in the background. The caramel notes that have been lingering in the background gain some depth but also become more infrequent. The leather notes really take the spotlight in the final third, and man is it good. Shortly after starting into the final third there is an earthy note that pops in and out, it's faint but noticeable.

A great stick for those who love full body cigar bliss, I know I sure do. This stick is strong, never harsh, and has a great deal of complexity to boot. I would not recommend this for a cigar newbie or someone who only smokes mild body cigars. The ash held to over an inch each time and I only made 1 small burn correction between the 2 I smoked for the review. If you eat full body cigars for breakfast and have not yet had the La Bomba, I ask what the heck are you waiting for? There is no better time than now. Espinosa Cigars is having a La Bomba challenge going on right now and there are some awesome ashtrays to be won. There is even a autographed box of La Bomba cigars up for grabs!

For More information on the 601 and Espinoa lines visit Espinosa Cigars
You can also chat Erik up on twitter
He runs a t-shirt giveaway on Tuesdays known as "T-Shirt Tuesdays". Who wouldn't want an awesome cigar shirt from Espinosa cigars? I love mine! So if you feel up to the challenge, grab a La Bomba, your camera, and slap some creativity in with it. You better hurry though, 2 winners have already been selected so your time is running out.

Murcielago Churchill (71/8x48)

I picked this interesting stick up at my local B&M (Cigars and Fine Spirits) one day as I browsed the selection in the walk-in. It's dark wrapper and the bat on the band caught my eye, I figured it would be worth a try. Murcielago is spanish for bat, thus the bat on the band. This stick has been in the humidor for about 4 months, I honestly had forgotten about it. The seams were invisible on the dark Mexican San Andreas Maduro wrapper. Inside is a Mexican binder, surrounding a Nicaraguan filler. Murcielago is from EO Brands and was created by Erik Espinosa and Eddie Ortega, with help from Don Pepin Garcia. With those three names involved it has to be good, right? It was box pressed but not the sharpest angles, creating more of an oval shape. The body had a barnyard scent and at the foot, the smell of rich sweet tobacco. The veins were very minimal and the wrapper had so imperfections. It was tightly packed with no soft spots that I could find. I clipped the cap with my scissors and the cold draw was just a tad on the tight side of perfect, with the taste of sweet tobacco. Two matches later and the foot was toasted and I was smoking. The Initial third opened with a fair amount of spice with notes of earth, leather, and cream. The spice did calm a bit after the first inch or so as a fruit-like sweetness came and went. The gray ash held for about two inches between ashes. The second third took on more buttery, toasty notes with the pepper finish getting some nuttiness as well. The flavor profile seemed to lose steam entering the final third, there were no real notable changes. The butter notes became more pronounced as the pepper picked back up just a tad with some light oaky notes. It was an enjoyable cigar with great flavors. I usually try to stick to cigars that are Toro size or smaller but only saw this one in the churchill size. In my opinion, a churchill's burn usually outlives it's flavor profile's complexity. The construction quality is nothing short of excellent, which is not a surprise considering the names involved in it's creation. I believe this one was around 7.00 bucks at my local shop for this size, which is about what you would expect for this cigar. Would I buy again? Yes, in fact, I may stop in tomorrow and see if I can pick up a couple of robusto.