Plasencia Ehtëfal

By Tony Casas | January 2, 2023

Taking full advantage of a nice break in the weather today I venture out back with a Plasencia Ehtëfal and a can of Pinthouse Pizza’s Autobahn imperial stout beer.

The Good Stuff:

The Plasencia Ehtëfal was released alongside this year’s World Cup in Qatar. Yes, I am late to the game. But it’s better late than never? Right? Ehtëfal translates to “Celebration” in Arabic although the company does note that this cigar is not a World Cup cigar. Whatever the celebration is, I am excited to see what this cigar has to offer. The blend features an organic sun grown wrapper from the Jalapan region in Nicaragua, and binder / fillers that are aged 10 years from the Plasencia farms in Nicaragua and Honduras. The cigar is offered in a single 6 x 54 toro format which comes packaged in boxes if 10, with only 5,000 boxes produced the cigar runs an astonishing $65 per stick. Let’s see if it can live up to that price tag. We purchased ours over from our friends at Cuenca Cigars who still have both boxes and singles in stock right now.

• Size: 6 x 54
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan / Honduran
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price: $65
• Pairing: Pinthouse Pizza Autobahn (Imperial Stout 10.5% ABV)

Prelight:

The Plasencia Ehtëfal starts out with an absolutely stunning, medium-brown/orange wrapper which is extremely consistent in color. The wrapper’s texture is very smooth and absolutely covered in thick oils. The wrapper feels normally dense while the cigar is packed very tightly and extremely heavy. The cigar showcases some very mild veining as the body leads up to the cigar’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar features two main bands and a third foot bad all of which are bright green, gold, and the foot band caries a bit of red. The first one carries the Plasencia logo and crest with the words “Edicion Especial Qatar 22” in the front. The small secondary band simply carries multiple Plasencia crests while the foot of band has the word “Ehtëfal” printed in the front.

The wrapper on the Plasencia Ehtëfal gives off a very bold floral arrangement of scents over natural tobacco while the foot of the cigar is much more oak and earth focused in terms of aroma. The cap cut clean and easily with my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces lots of floral and earthy flavors with a soft soapy hint.

First Third:

The Plasencia Ehtëfal starts out with some mild black pepper over notes of floral, musk, oak, walnut, and spice. As I continue to smoke on the cigar becomes much more woodsy-focused with a great berry note that keeps popping in and out. This flavor profile is fantastic right off the bat. The draw is fantastic even with how tightly the cigar is packed. Each puff kicks out massive clouds of thick white smoke which take forever to dissipate while the cigar releases a ton of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of very tightly compacted white ash which held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Plasencia Ehtëfal and a really awesome and bold vanilla flavor has taken really taken hold of the flavor profile backed by bold coffee, floral, musk, and oak over light notes of berry and walnut. This profile is just so good. The retrohale really bring the spice and berry out of the experience. The cigar is burning absolutely brilliant and I close out the second third with only a very minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Everything just kinda comes together for the Plasencia Ehtëfal into the final third. The flavors are more balanced, yet still very complex with bolder notes of walnut, vanilla, coffee, and musk over lighter flavors of oak, berry, and floral. It took me two hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I loved every second of it. I exrpeinced no hardness nor extended heat. The cigar burned liked a dream from start to finish with no extra attention needed from my torch. I close out the cigar with a normal level of nicotine.

Overview:

The Plasencia Ehtëfal is such a fantastic cigar. The flavor profile is just incredible and offers not only bold, interesting flavors but also so much complexity without making is an overly-cerebral experience. The cigar performed liked a dream from start to finish. This is a great cigar. Is it $65 good? I’m not sure. I don’t know that I’d pay $65 for very many cigars to keep in rotation so take from that wha you will. If you want to try something very premium, very good, and very unique then this is worth a go.

Pairing:

Pinthouse Pizza’s Autobahn is a 10.5% imperial stout aged in Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrels, and infused with Houndstooth/Tweed Foxtrot Coffee, blueberries, maple syrup, and vanilla bean. The beer leads with sweet malt, creamed coffee, honey, toffee, maple, and a very light blueberry with a very, very heavy mouthfeel before finishing with even more toffee and maple, light coffee, and a great vanilla finish with an awesome oak aftertaste. The coffee, berry, vanilla, and oak all paired beautifully with the flavors found in the Plasencia Ehtëfal while the cigar really held it’s own due to it’s bold body again a beer that could easily overpower almost any other cigar. What a wonderful pairing.