Maya Selva – Flor de Selva Egoista / No.15 Maduro Quick Draw

Maya Selva, named after it’s owner has been a prominent cigar company in Europe for some time now and has recently turned its attention to bringing their cigars into the American market. Maya Selva currently carries 3 core lines, the Nicaraguan Cumpay, the value-priced Villa Zamorano, and the Flor De Selva which was originally released in France in 1995. I’ve had the pleasure of smoked all of the cigars offered by Maya Selva and have been quite pleased with each blend and their unique characteristics. While impeding into the U.S. Market Maya Selva also hooked up with a familiar name in the cigar industry. Gabriel Alvarez, who once served as the Operations Manager for Kuutz LLC is now the Director of Sales for Maya Selva. Gabriel is great people and has been a long time supporter of Casas Fumando. Alright, enough talking let’s go ahead and introduce Maya Selva’s Flor de Selva.

Flor De Selva Egoista

Wrapper: Honduran Ecuadorian Connecticut from Talanga
Binder: Habano Jamastran
Filler: Viso Tojes/Ligero Jamastran
Size: 3.5 x 50
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full

Prelight:

The Maya Selva Flor del Selva Egoista is a stubby little bullet-shaped cigar. The wrapper is a fairly consistent light brown with a nice orange hue to it. the wrapper showcases some darker webbing as well as some smaller, soft veins leading up to it’s snobby, round, triple cap. The wrapper of the cigar feels very thin with some slight tooth and a decent amount of oils. The Flor De Selva is very, very hard and firm to the touch. Seriously, this thing feels like a rock and is almost as heave as one too. The cigar is polished off with a beautiful, elegant white and brown band with the Flor De Selva crest along with a red and black foot band with “Maya Selva” scripted in white across it.

Flavor Profile:

Yeah, be ready for this one, as the first time I lit this sucker up I sure as hell wasn’t. Looks can often be deceiving and that’s the case with the Flor de Selva Egoista. Right off the bat you are smacked in the face with a huge, huge pepper blast that I didn’t expect. After the pepper settles down a bit the cigar shows off some great cedar flavors wrapped around cashew, pine, and lots of natural tobacco. The more I smoke this cigar the more I pick up some saltiness and mossy flavors buried in there. The cigar finishes nice and bold which isn’t usually the case in Ecuadorian shade cigars.

Draw/Burn:

The burn was razor thin and dead even the from start to finish. I never once had I correct or relight the cigar. I was also impress with how long the little Egoista burned for clocking in at a little over an hour. The draw was perfect. Each little puff produced a decent amount of thick smoke which didn’t linger for very long at all. I was curious as to how the draw would turn out considering how tight the cigar was packed, but it performed beautifully from start to finish.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed the Flor de Selva Egoista a lot more than I thought I would. If you have read this blog for any amount of time you’d know that I’m not big on Connecticut wrapper cigars

Flor De Selva No.15 Maduro

Wrapper: Natural Maduro from Jamastrán, Honduras
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Habano Jamastran/Ligero Azacualpa
Size: 3.5 x 50
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full

Prelight:

The Maya Selva Flor de Selva Maduro No.15 has an absolutely beautiful wrapper. The wrapper is a deep, dark brown with lots of lighter/darker/reddish spots scattered throughout. The wrapper has some beautiful natural tobacco webbing and only the smaller of veins. The body of the cigar leads up to an extremely sharp, torpedo style cap. The wrapper on the Flor de Selva Maduro is very oily with some slight tooth and a dense texture. The cigar is pretty well packed, but not as tight as the Egoista was, nor is it as heavy. The cigar carries the same white band as well, along with a black and red foot band with “No 15” printed on it.

Flavor Profile:

The Flor De Selva Maduro starts out with some nice pepper, lots of sweetness, and lots of cocoa. As I smoke on the pepper begins to drop out and is replaced by some great spice and an almost gingerbread-like flavor. The cocoa stays consistent throughout the entire experience while the sweetness comes in waves. Halfway through the cigar I started to pick up some nice raisin and espresso which lasted through the rest of the experience. I really enjoyed the flavor profile while most of the combinations remained consistent with natural maduro cigars, there were some really unique flavors that kept me on my toes.

Draw/Burn:

The Flor de Selva Maduro carried a pretty thick and pretty choppy burn line for most of the experience with some larger waves towards the end. I had to relight once towards the end, but after all was said and done the burn wasn’t really menacing. Mata Fina always seems to burn a bit crazy but in my opinion the great, bold flavors they carry are well worth the trade off. The draw was great from start to finish kicking out lots, and lots of thick white smoke.

Final Thoughts:

This is a seriously good cigar. The deep flavors, complex profile, and unique characteristics makes it a great cigar to have in your regular rotation for those time when you are craving something a little different. While I had some slight issues with the burn, it wasn’t anything that ever really turned me off of the cigar, and as I stated before the flavor trade off was well worth it.