Jose Pepin Garcia of My Father Cigars consistently releases phenomenal blends. Aside from an occasional My Father cigar, I truly discovered the cigar company a few years ago, and they quickly became my 3rd favorite cigar company. Founded 2003 in Little Havana, the Don Pepin and my Father line consistently provide great construction, wonderful flavor profiles, and a consistent quality in all of their blends. Today I smoke the My Father TAA Exclusive.
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano-Rosado
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Vitola: 6 x 50 box pressed torpedo
Price: $11
Upon visual inspection my TAA Exclusive bears a soft, silky-smooth brown wrapper with very few veins. The cigar has a light hand feel, squeezing gently there is a lot of give, seems to have a loose pack. Pre-light scent was not easily discerned, but I was able to pick up notes of cocoa and a slight barnyard note.
A straight guillotine cut provides the typical perfectly open draw, I mean this is a My Father cigar, not a Cuban.
;-P
Once fully toasted and burning, I am first amazed at the amount of smoke output. This is totally unexpected, especially with the slim light brown wrapper. If a cigar is going to produce cloudy plumes of smoke, more often than not it would have a thick and dark maduro wrapper.
So far, The flavor profile is mellow without one note dominating another, they work well as a whole to conceive a nice balance. The generous smoke provides burnt caramel, browned coconut, dark chocolate, and cedar, these as the most prominent flavors. Additionally, there are hints of almond, and a mellow spice much like nutmeg to complete the flavor profile at the finish. Both the spice and almond linger on the palette.
The ash was a tad flaky at the beginning, it could have been partly due to me fumbling the stick while attempting to place it in the ashtray, I knocked the beginning ash off. Zero points for my touchdown, in fact I should be penalized, but please don't flag me. Not long after, the burn line became quite even and the ash stopped flaking.
The TAA Exclusive part of this cigar is a unique size of the regular My Father cigar. I am almost certain the blend is identical to the non-TAA Exclusive My Father. The Tobacconist Association of America (TAA) shops are the only ones allowed to carry the Exclusive. I am not sure if my local shop is included in the TAA or not, this particular stick was sent to me as part of a secret Santa cigar exchange. I guess I was not naughty enough this past year.
The pepper wakes up after the halfway point. I am somewhat surprised what little spice was there during the first half of the My Father, cigars blended by Don Pepin tend to be full of spicy goodness.
Final Thoughts...
I view the My Father cigar (single pink band) as their flagship cigar, like what the OpusX is to Fuente. Of what Don Pepin provides in different cigar releases, this has it all. The flavor profile, everything seems to work well together without one nuance overpowering the next. The smoke is quite cloudy, difficult to not like that. The retro-hale is very nice, velvety smooth, which is fantastic considering the My Father is a full body stick. The construction only had slight issues in the burn line department, not a big deal to me. I absolutely need to restock my humidor with a few of these lovelies.
My grade for the My Father TAA Exclusive: A-
I appreciate your views, upvotes, follows, and resteems.
Feel free to comment.., I enjoy interacting with fellow cigar smokers, or any who find interest in it.
-Greg
I tried one of these a few weeks back. I'm kickin' myself for not taking some photos of the cigars I'm trying each week. Ah well...maybe next week. :-D
What did you think of it?
For me pictures is a habit, mostly for posting in cigar groups. :-D
It wasn't what I was after in the end. I was chasing a flavor that I found in one of the cigars I won in the giveaway. I don't recall the name, but it wasn't carried by my local cigar store. It began with a 'z' if I recall correctly.
I'm surprised...., but that is why cigars are personal preference, for the most part.
Hmmmm... They were: Spectre, Romeo y Julieta Montague (Dominican), Varina Farms Winter Warmer, Joya De Nicaragua 1970, Cuban Fonseca, Cuban H. Upmann.
The spectre. I really liked that one.
Now that you mentioned it, I don't remember ever trying one. I must have gotten it sent to me or in a sampler pack. You can find them for around $6 each in a 5 pack: http://www.cigarsinternational.com/cigars/75452/spectre/
AJ Fernandez cigars are always great to me.
I do not smoke, but great cigar review.