Warped Cigars – Casa Fernandez Futuro

By Tony Casas | February 8, 2016

After living in 20 degree weather for the last week, El Paso has shot back up into the 70s where it belongs. Taking advantage of the weather I decided to spend my time this weekend out back with a Warped Cigars Futuro and a bottle of Sierra Nevada’s Barrel-Aged Narwhal.

The Good Stuff:

The Futuro is a cigar created by Warped Cigars in collaboration with Casa Fernandez with one goal in mind: to create a cigar unlike anything either of the two manufacturers have ever created in the past.  Kyle Gellis of Warped Cigars and Max Fernandez of Casa Fernandez have been working together at the Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A (TABSA) for a while now, but this is the first blend that they jointly blended together. The blend utilizes 100% Aganorsa leaf from the Casa Fernandez Aganorsa farms. The tobacco used in the blend comes straight from the TABSA vault which contains their most prized material. The blend features a Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper,  Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 Binder and Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 and Corojo ’99 fillers. The Warped Futuro comes in only two sizes which fit the creators’ own personal preference: the 109 (6 x 52) and the Suprema (5.6 x 46) which range run $9.25 and $8.75 respectively and both sizes come packaged in boxes of 20. This particular cigar was a gift from a good friend Jason while he was over last week celebrating some time with Jeremy while he was in town.

Size: 6 x 52
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo ’99
Binder: Nicaraguan Criollo ’98
Filler: Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 / Nicaraguan Corojo ’99
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $9.25
Pairing: Sierra Nevada Barrel-Aged Narwhal 2015 (Imperial Stout 12.9% ABV)

Prelight:

The Warped Cigar Futuro starts out with a gorgeous, insanely consistent, medium brown wrapper. The color is as close to exact throughout the entire cigar as you can get. The texture of the wrapper is some slight tooth and a little roughness, lots of oil, with an overall silky feeling to the touch. The wrapper leaf is laid seamlessly and there are only some very minor veins running thought the cigar’s body which leads up to a nubby almost half-belicoso style cap. The Futuro feels real dense, and tightly packed with tobacco while the wrapper is decently dense with only a bit of softness around the foot of the cigar. The cigar is then polished off with a gorgeous, modern-old-timey style gold, royal blue, and red band which carries the “Futuro 2015” crest on the front, with the creators’ “KG” and “MF” initials on each side.

The wrapper gives off almost no aroma outside of a slight tobacco while the foot carries a lot of sweetness, spice, and earthiness. The cap cut very clean and easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces some great sweet cedar, oak, spice, and gingerbread style flavors.

First Third:

Lighting the Futuro was cake using my Dupont single flame butane torch. The Futuro starts out with only some very light, extremely mild pepper which faded after the first puff or two. The main flavor profile leads with a great sweet cedar, cinnamon, gingerbread, soft tobacco, with a great oaky aftertaste. I absolutely love the flavor profile thats developing here. Each tiny puff kicks out a massive cloud of thick white smoke while the Futuro gives off a decent amount of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin, and dead even leaving behind a tightly compacted trail of white and medium gray ash which held on for a little over an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

As I smoke into the second third of the Futuro the pepper that disappeared in the first third has started to work it’s way, subtly, back into the flavor profile. The profile still leads with really sweet cedar, cinnamon and spice, tobacco, and just a pinch of cocoa. The retrohale really showcases the cedar as well as the spice. The burn line is still dead even and razor thin. I close out the second third with absolutely nothing in the nicotine department.

Finish:

So far the only complain I have about the Futuro is the amount of sap build up it’s been producing. A bit of clip, and slowing down my smoking speed has cleared that right up. The flavor profile is much the same, and I am totally ok with that. The Futuro leads with strong, sweet, cedar backed by cocoa, spice, cinnamon, and some really nice brown sugar. It took me about 2 hours to take this cigar down to the nub and I experience absolutely no harshness, or heat buildup, however I do recommend taking your time with it as the sap does tend to seep in when you rush through it. The burn line was solid all the way through and I never once had to reach for my torch to relight or touch the cigar up. I close out the cigar feeling almost zilch in terms of nicotine.

Overview:

This was my introduction to Warped cigars and if the Futuro is any indication as to how solid their blends are, it won’t be my last. The cigar’s flavor profile is incredible, the smoking experience was near perfect outside of the sap which was probably my fault to begin with, and the price point is more than reasonable. This is a box worthy cigar for sure and really can’t wait to try out some of their other offerings.

Pairing:

Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal is a beer that finds it’s way into my rotation every year. This year, I was able to score a few bottles of their Barrel-Aged variant. Brewed at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in California, this Imperial Stout rocks a modest 12.9% ABV. The Narwhal leads with great milk chocolate, malt, oak, and sweetness with a heavy mouthfeel before finishing very sweet with chocolate, espresso, oak, and more malt with a great amount of bourbon. This was a great pairing. This cigar has sweet bourbon pairing written all over it, but since I’m not a bourbon guy a barrel aged beer is my closest bet.