Doc of Doc’s Cigar Corner
The featured cigar is the Cameroon Maduro Black Label by Bobalu Cigar Co.
It’s time for a new review of a Texas cigar, so where better to go than the Bobalu Cigar Company in Austin? Their Black Label Cameroon Maduro blend is available in several vitolas, and I will touch on two (Churchill 7″ x 50 and Toro 6″ x 50) in this review. The cigars are identical excepting length, with all-Dominican filler and binder, and a very dark maduro wrapper from Cameroon.
The Black Label blend is Bobalu’s flagship, blended 23 years ago, and continuously available ever since. It is also available in a Corona vitola, but I was unable to obtain any aged samples at my last visit to Bobalu. I hope to review the Corona in the future.
For the Churchills and the Toros, the flavor profile of the Black Label was a combination of smooth natural tobacco with notes of white pepper, cedar, and a pleasant bitterness.
One of the Churchills smoked was distinctly different from all the other examples. This cigar had a distinct aroma of chocolate pre-light, which persisted into a sweet-evolving-into-bitter chocolate as the cigar burned; other flavors and notes were the same as the other Black Label examples of both vitolas. In the single cigar with the strong chocolate flavor (which was the first one smoked), the chocolate blended very well in a balanced fashion with the other flavors, leading to my surprise to find it absent in the other cigars. One Toro example showed an almost-undetectable hint of chocolate concurrent with brief bitterness, but this did not recur.
All examples were V-cut and had an easy draw. Construction was fair, with some unevenness of burn requiring touchup, and occasional slow or fast runners which resolved with positioning. Minor capleaf disadhesion was seen in one example.
With the exclusion of the chocolate flavor as a constant, I rate this cigar as “good” (87), a solidly constructed daily cigar with no distinct problems or standout advantages. If the chocolate aspect were a constant feature, and with the same degree of construction issues, the rating would increase to 94, putting the cigar into the “very good” range.
Rating: 87
This is a good daily (Toro) or after-dinner (Churchill) cigar.
Availability: This cigar is not available in local stores. It can be found at:
Bobalu Cigar Co.
8501A Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78457
1-888-332-4427 or 512-469-5877
Or on-line at: https://www.bobalu.com/
Single Churchills sell for $7.95, or $114.00 for a box of 25. Because prices are variable, call for current information.
Enjoy!
Doc
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