Part of a sampler of cigars from the Peppin farm, I was looking forward to starting off the tastings with the newest cigar from the son of Don Pepin Garcia; Jaime (pronounced Hi-may) Garcia’s Especial Reserva.

The cigar starts off with a powerful pepper taste which remains for about half of this Robusto’s smoke. It’s only overwhelming at first light. The cigar has a dark, rich taste carried by a definite smoky wood sense. Retrohaling really brings out the flavours in this, with chocolate and a hint of wine being noticable on the tongue in the aftertaste. The smoke is fairly warm in the mouth, but the pepper delivers a hot nip all around.

The aroma is an amazingly warm tobacco smell that’s quite hot to the nose up close. The pepper still nips the nasal passages, but a warm herbal sense with a light vanilla quality are found. Some notes of cherry and amaretto seem to be present.

I really like the smell of this cigar, it’s warm and very rich with tobacco. The taste is fine but not astounding, and despite the pepper presence, it’s not disturbing to smoke. I’ll continue through the other cigars in this sampler before deciding if I purchase more of this, but I could see a 5 pack at some point to enjoy the amazing smell again.