My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos

By Tony Casas | September 12, 2022

I feel like I haven’t left my backyard in a month. Will temperatures falling I find it way to comfortable to spend all day out back with a great drink and cigar. This week I feature the new My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos Paired with a bottle of The Bruery Terreux’s Graciano wine-hybrid fruited sour beer.

The Good Stuff:

By now everyone knows of and has likely smoke a My Father Le Bijou. This was one of my favorite cigars when it first came out and I smoked it for years, but I can’t say I smoked too many recently. That all changed when My Father dropped the 100 Anos a few weeks ago which celebrates what would be the 100th birth of Don Pepin Garcia’s father, Jose Garcia Alayon. the 1922 name moniker is also Jose’s birth year. Created at the My Father Cigars factory in Nicaragua, the My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos contains tobacco from the Garcia families San Rafael, Las Quebradas and San Jose farms. The blend is a tweaked version of the original Le Bijou featuring a special Habano wrapper leaf that the company calls “Oscuro Oscuro” or “Habnao My Father”. The cigar is offered in only two sizes: Corona Especial (6 1/2 x 44) and a Corona Extra (soft-box-pressed 5 1/2 x 48). Each size comes packaged in boxes of 22 with only 1922 boxes being produced running $13 per cigar. I purchased mine over from Cuenca Cigars who has them in stock now in boxes as well as singles.

• Size: 5 1/2 x 48
• Wrapper: Oscuro Oscuro – Habano My Father
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Full
• Strength: Full
• Price: $13
• Pairing: Bruery Terreux Graciano (Wild Ale 12.2% ABV)

Prelight:

The My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos start with a deep, dark, consistent brown wrapper. The wrapper’s texture is very toothy and very oily as it glistens under light. The wrapper itself feels very thick and durable while the cigar as a whole is packed nicely, has a good weight to it, and carries no soft spots that I could find. The wrapper is laid beautifully over itself while the larger veins and tobacco webbing lead up to the cigar’s triple-wrapped pigtail capped. I love the soft-box pressing on this cigar. It makes it very comfortable in the hand. The My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos carries the same intricate bands found on the standard Le Bijou 1922 only with an additional orange ribbon around the foot with “100 ANOS” printed across the front.

The wrapper on the My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos gives off deep cedar and raisin aromas while the foot of the cigar is very sharp with spice, earthiness, and natural tobacco. The cap cut clean with a little extra effort from my Xikar XO double bladed cuter. The cold draw produces mostly musky cedar, earthiness, and strong pepper flavors.

First Third:

The My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos start out with a bang nailing me with a pretty potent blast of cayenne pepper which sent my lips and tongue on fire for a few seconds before starting to step back. After a few more draws the pepper fades away and I am left with a powerful dose of cedar, espresso, and dry dark chocolate over lighter notes of earthiness, musk, and pecan with a subtle cinnamon aftertaste. This cigar started out with a bang in both body and straight. The draw is perfect as each little puff kicks out the desired amount of thick, gray smoke which really takes some time to dissipate while the cigar releases the expected amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of perfectly compacted white ash which held on for almost an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos and the dry mixture of flavors are still hitting with loads of dark chocolate, cedar, and espresso over earthiness, musk and pecan with a great dry cherry flavor that has snuck its way in. The retrohale brings in a ton of the pepper and spice I picked up at the start so I don’t find myself doing it too often. The cigar is still burning like a dream and I actually feel a decent little nicotine kick closing out the second third.

Finish:

Into the final third of the My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos and this is where the cigar really shines. That mild cinnamon I picked up throughout the experience has really taken off and is now the leading flavor backed by dry dark chocolate, black cherry and espresso with lighter notes of cinnamon and earthiness. This is such a great profile. I took me two hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I loved every second. I experienced no harshness nor any extended heat. No burnishes at all either. It’s mainly the hella nicotine kick that the cigar left me with which urged me to slow down my pace and take my time with it.

Overview:

The My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos makes me remember why I loved the Le Bijou blend so much. While the cigar caries much of the same flavors and experience I feel the 100 Anos version has a bit more oomph to it in both body and strength. The complexities are still there, the flavors are fantastic and really keep me on my toes, and with such a long burn time on this cigar the price point is completely worth it. If you are a fan of the Le Bijou 1922 or any My Father cigars in general then this is totally worth picking up before they are no longer available.

Pairing:

Sticking with the beer-wine hybrids, The Bruery Terreux’s Graciano is another hybrid still-beer which leans much more heavily on the sour, fruity, dry side. The 12.2% Sour ale is brewed with Graciano grapes and then aged in French Oak puncheons. The beer lead with notes of dry grape, tannis, stone fruit, tartness, and even a tiny bit of funk with a very light and refreshing mouthfeel before finishing with more tartness, grape, black cherry and a really well balanced funk. This beer is a perfect balance of dryness, tartness, and funk which doesn’t leave behind any residual acidic flavors or burn. I found the fruit flavors to be very refreshing and bold. The fruit and sourness really helped bring a different experience to the My Father Le Bijou 1922 100 Anos by adding completely different flavors to the experience. They slotted in perfectly with the dry earthiness and musk that the cigar had to offer.