Garo Habano Los Lectores

By Daniel T. | March 31, 2010

The final of 5 Garo Habano reviews has arrived, and we’re finishing it off with the Churchill sized Los Lectores. The Garo Habano website claims this cigar to be their throwback to the times of Cuban cigars with complexity and strength. The Ligero filler promises to make this cigar a spicy one and likely full bodied. To say the least, this cigar combines the products of 3 different countries. The description sounded interesting and enticing as I read it before lighting up this cigar.

The Los Lectores comes in 6 sizes:

Robusto “G” (6.25×54), “R” Robusto (4.75×52), “T” Torpedo (6.5×52), Churchill (7.48), DC (7.5×54) and Salomon (7×58)

You can notice that all the sizes are fairly large ring gauges and as mentioned, the one up for review today is the Churchill. I was hoping to end this string of reviews on a high note but unfortunately this cigar was not the shining star of the bunch. I’m lighting this up on a sunny day and hoping to settle in for a long enjoyable smoke…

Cigar: Garo Habano Los Lectores
Drink: Diet Dr. Pepper
Vitola: Churchill (7×48)
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Ligero Cubano / Seco Piloto
Price: $8.00 from Garo Habano Website
Burn Time: ??? Did not fully burn either sample

Construction:
• Fairly even and round throughout, one sample had a very soft 2 inch spot near the foot
• Light brown colored wrapper
• No major veins
• Small crack in wrapper just above the band, nothing major
• Messy triple cap
• Tightly packed foot but there is one small hole, hope it doesn’t cause any tunneling
• Fairly soft when squeezed throughout
• Draw is a very open
• Draw improved about half-way through

Burn:
• Messy at the start, the wrapper is bubbling just past the burn and is quite wavy
• Needing extra attention to stay lit near the first couple inches
• Lots of canoeing that needed attention
• Cigar went out just past halfway point and needed re-lighting
• After going out twice more and cutting it once I tossed the stick with over 2 inches left
• Also tossed the second sample early due to more burn problems

Smoke & Ash:
• Moderate amount of smoke
• Seems to dissipate pretty quickly
• Moderate resting smoke
• Ash is Very flaky
• Medium grey colored ash, very weak, falling off in my lap a lot
• Ash never passed an inch

Tasting Notes:
• Wrapper and foot both have a barnyard/hay aroma
• Pre-light draw left a strong peppery flavor on lips and tongue, with an added hay flavor
• Initial draws offered none of the pepper I was expecting from the pre-light draw, mostly just a simple tobacco flavor and some burning wood taste
• Retrohale is very mild and smooth with a short finish, again just tobacco flavor so far
• The burning wood flavor turned to a woodsy/cedar flavor
• Flavors went very bitter after the re-light, let’s hope they come back
• Flavors came back after about 6 or 7 draws
• More relights and nothing but bitterness, nowhere near enjoyable anymore
• Even before relights the flavors were very bland and boring

Final Thoughts:
This was a disappointing cigar. The other Garo’s may have been one dimensional but they did have decent flavor. This particular cigar suffered from multiple flaws in flavor, burn, draw and construction. I’d be curious to hear if anyone else has tried one of these and if they had the same problems I did. Perhaps a smaller Vitola would do away with some of the problems I experienced?

Pairings:
I can’t suggest a great pairing for this cigar simply because of the problems I encountered. If I had to go by what the website says, the Ligero would likely need a good strong pairing like coffee or scotch to be well balanced.