Tabacalera Aragon VII Potencia Green Maduro

Purchased: 10-Pack Robusto (5.5 X 54)
Price: $36.25
Store: Tabacalera Aragon
Buy Again: Absolutely
Box Worthy: YES!
Experience Rating: 89

I love finding great cigars at excellent value! I discovered these from a couple of posts on Reddit. Aragon sells direct to the public so there’s no middleman involved. The prices are therefore quite inexpensive. Like Every Day Is Cigar Day, Aragon is yet another example of a manufacturer passing on the cost savings to customers by selling direct.

My first order with them consisted of three different cigars: 10 Unlabeled Habano, 10 Unlabeled Maduro, and 10 VII Potencia Green Maduro. The unlabeled ones have been good, solid smokes that are perfect for when I want an uncomplicated smoke. I put them in the same class as a couple of my other kick-around smokes: RP Cargo and Toraño Dominico. But these are better than those, so I’ll be keeping stocked up on them.

The VII Potencia Green though is a completely different story. It’s rich and full-flavored, redolent with molasses, vanilla cream, coffee, honeycomb, and leather. A fleeting flowery note wafts in and out through the smoke, and I also get a cereal-like flavor – slightly sweet Cherios – that is very pleasing. It’s not super-complex, but I don’t think that was the intent with this blend. Its decadence makes up for its lack of complexity. It’s like tasting the juices from a pressed duck that has been turned into gravy or eating a well-aged Parmigiano Reggiano. There are lots of flavor notes but that’s all you get. But it doesn’t matter because they’re so rich and pleasing, you just don’t care about complexity.

The smoke is on the mild side of medium, but the smoke production is thick. To me, it’s reminiscent of smoking a great Cuban cigar; rich and decadent while being smooth and mild. Davidoff has this down in spades as does Montecristo (I really need to get more #4s). With this cigar, despite it being wrapped in a Mexican San Andress wrapper which is typically bold, it’s a beautiful mild medium-body smoke that isn’t at all overpowering. And speaking of the wrapper, it is toothy AF!

Construction-wise, it’s packed. I had to use my PerfectDraw a couple of times to clear a path. But that’s not a negative mark. I do that on 75% of the cigars I smoke. I only had one wonky burn issue in the first third, but from then on, the cigar burned evenly and in the second half, I didn’t have to make any corrections.

This is a nice, slow smoker as well. It took me 50 minutes to get to the halfway point. The thought just occurred to me that the foundation of this cigar is molasses. I couldn’t put my finger on it with the first few cigars I’ve had. I knew there was always a sweetness, but writing this entry made me think about the type of sweetness. It’s unmistakably molasses. And it intensifies the longer I smoke the cigar.

Yeah, this is definitely going to be part of my regular rotation. It’s another cigar, like the Ave Maria Argentum, that punches WAY over its weight class. Why the hell would I buy factory smokes or fumas when I can get these at such an incredible price!