Arturo Fuente Hemingway Best Seller Natural

Yes I’m back! Vacation is over and Tony is putting me back to work. He’s shackled me to a desk, gave me a laptop, camera, ashtray and a few cigars and told me to get back to work. This all with the purpose of him getting back to his normal slacking-off style, hehe! I opened up the package and found a few really good cigars that will be reviewed over the next few weeks.

So today we have a cigar I’ve wanted to try for awhile. It’s the Arturo Fuente Hemingway “Best Seller”. This Figurado shaped cigar was sent to us by our friends of at CigarsDirect.com. They carry a wide variety of the Hemingway line which can be seen at this link. The Cigars Direct link has a great explanation of how the Hemingway series came to be. They also have a wide variety of accessories available to compliment anyone’s collection.

I won’t get too much into the story of the Hemingway series since it’s available at the link above, but needless to say, literary aficionados should have an idea of where the names come from. You can also read more about the Arturo Fuente company and family by visiting their site The Hemingway series does include a wide variety of vitolas all with unique names and most are available in a maduro version. The “Best Seller” is one that is available in Maduro but the one being reviewed today is with a natural Cameroon wrapper.

Cigar: Arturo Fuente Hemingway “Best Seller”
Drink: Havana Club Silver Dry Rum (Mixed with coke and on the rocks)
Vitola: Figurado (4.875 x 46/60)
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: $9.99 from Cigarsdirect.com
Burn Time: 1.25 Hours

Construction:
• Very neatly made with a perfect slow taper from the foot to the cap
• A quick taper also on the foot
• No major veins throughout the wrapper
• A nice medium cinnamon-brown tone to the wrapper
• Can’t really tell if the foot is packed well but the cigar is firm and even throughout with just a tiny spring
• Cleanly applied triple cap
• Cut was clean and even
• First couple of draws were tight due to the fast-tapered foot but it quickly opened up to a perfect draw
• Band slid off effortlessly

Burn:
• Toasting was even, quick and easy since I only had to light the small tapered end
• Burned through the tapered foot evenly and without any problems
• There was a small wave in the burn but it never got worse so I’m going to blame a slightly off lighting job on my part
• The wavy burn ended up correcting itself around the halfway mark and smoothly sailed to the nub after that
• The cigar is burning nice and slow without the need for extra attention, staying lit very easily
• Good burn time on this smaller vitola

Smoke & Ash:
• Started off with very little smoke but once I passed the tapered part of the foot I was getting bit mouthfuls of smoke
• A good amount of resting smoke the gives off a fresh cedar aroma
• The ash is nice and strong, holding well past the first inch, even with the weaker tapered foot holding on
• First ash held on for nearly 2 inches before gracefully falling off in the ash tray

Tasting Notes:
• Dry aroma is very woodsy and earthy with hints of cedar
• Foot is a little small to get a good aroma from, smells the same as the wrapper
• Pre-light draw is woodsy with some nutmeg and pepper spice on the lips
• Initial draws are very earthy and woodsy with a but of a dry finish
• Body is starting off fairly mild
• Retrohale has some interesting citrus flavor to it and an amazing finish, almost like inhaling the aroma off a fresh batch of vanilla sugar cookies
• After passing tapered foot the flavors opened up a bit more, I’m getting hints of vanilla and a cinnamon/nutmeg spice to compliment the cedar and earthy tones
• At about the halfway point the cigar started to slowly get more body to it coming up to a medium or so
• After the ash fell off, the woodsy/cedar and earthy tones really took prominence in the flavor department with some of the spices making an appearance here and there
• As I approach the last 1.5 inches, I’m getting some pepper spice in the flavor profile as well
• The retrohale has also made a big change, adding some bite and bringing the the cedar flavor, the sugar cookie finish is just about gone but damn it was a nice touch
• Only had to purge this cigar once near the nub and got very minimal harshness

Final Thoughts:
This was a really good cigar! I usually only retrohale ever 4 or 5 draws but the retrohale was so interesting on this one that I found myself doing it nearly every draw. If you don’t retrohale, I think you’d miss most of the complexity in this short vitola. I will caution you to smoke this cigar nice and slow and take your time. I found that taking too many draws made the cigar heat up too much and a lot of it’s flavor was lost. Burn, construction, ash, and flavor were all spot on in this cigar. Most of the Hemingway line is fairly pricey, this particular vitola comes in at a lower price and if you take your time smoking it and enjoy it you will definitely get your money’s worth. Tony had a problem with the band on his Arturo Fuente Opus X Perfecxion No. 5 but mine slid off easily and did not damage the wrapper at all.
Considering this is a fairly small vitola, the change in the flavor profile was pretty dramatic past the halfway mark and the body ramped up at a perfect rate. I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for more of these, I enjoyed i quite a bit.

Pairings:
Since I’ve been out of town on vacation seems I was a bit low on good beers, scotch and port. I decided to try something different. I’ve enjoyed a lot of different Rums but I always seem to go back to Havana club as my go to bottle. Don’t get me wrong though, there are some much better Rums out there, but for the price this one seems to hit the spot just right. I know a lot of people enjoy their cigars with Rum, either on the rocks or mixed with coke. I tried it both ways and with this cigar the mix with coke seemed to fit a bit better. I think this would go very well with a nice Amber ale or some port. A nice coffee or just diet soda would also go well here.