Cigar Reviews
Warped La Relatos
I took last week off due to a tooth extraction, more to come too, but I braved the 106 degrees heat today to bring you a review of the Warped La Relatos paired with a can of Oskar Blues Barrel Aged Ten Fidy.
The Good Stuff:
La Relatos is one of Warped’s brand owner Kyle Gellis’s original blends that he created over 10 years ago. Translated to “The Stories”, La Relatos is created at the Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A. (TABSA) factory in Nicaragua utilizing an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and Nicaraguan Corojo 99′ and Criollo 98′ fillers and is offered in a single 6 x 38 format running $9.30 a stick and comes packaged in large cabinets of 50. I got mine over from our good friends at Fox Cigar bar in Arizona who have them in stock now, and offer free shipping on all orders, no minimum.
- Size: 6 x 38
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
- Binder: Nicaraguan
- Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo 99′ and Criollo 98′
- Body: Full
- Strength: Medium/Full
- Price: $9.30
- Pairing: Oskar Blues Barrel Aged Ten Fidy (Imperial Stout 12.9% ABV)
Prelight:
The Warped La Gelatos starts out with a very consistent, milky brown wrapper with only a bit of a lighter, orange shade near the cap of the cigar. The wrapper itself is coated with thick oils, small veins, and some slight natural webbing with no tooth as it’s laid seamlessly over itself. The cigar’s thin, long body feel very light in weight, as the wrapper feels very thin and delicate leading up to the cigar’s round, triple-wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with a beautifully elegant purple and silver band with the “La Relatos” crest embossed across the front.
The wrapper on the La Relatos gives off some sweet cedar and spice aromas while the foot of the cigar is more natural, earthy, and spicy. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar Double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces some bold vanilla, spice, and musk flavors.
First Third:
Right off the bat the La Relatos greeted me with with a good amount of black pepper which only lasted the first few puffs leaving me with a good amount of cedar and vanilla over spice and musk. The draw is a bit tight but has slowly been opening up as I smoke through the first third. The building is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a tightly compacted trail of bright white ash which held on for about a half an inch before falling into my ashtray.
Second Third:
Into the second third of the La Relatos and the flavors have began to balance out. The main flavors are still vanilla and cedar with notes of spice, musk, and an awesome creamed coffee that made it’s way into the mix. The retrohale really brings out the cedar and spice making everything nice and I find myself doing it quite often. The burnline is still pretty even and the draw has completely opened up and is now smoking like a champ. I close out the second third with no signs of nicotine yet.
Finish:
Into the final third of the La Relatos and not a whole lot has changed since the second, and that’s a good thing. The flavor profile is still lead by cedar and vanilla with a nice balanced mixture of spice, musk, coffee, and earthiness backing it up. It took me almost an hour and a half to take this cigar down to the nub and I loved every second of it. I close out the La Relatos with no harshness, nor extended heat (outside of the blistering sun) and only a very slight nicotine kick.
Overview:
I have been a huge fan of Warped from the first time I smoked their cigars. Add La Relatos to the quickly growing list of fantastic releases they have put out. The flavor profile is incredible, the smoking experience is brilliant, and the price point is affordable.While the profile isn’t too complex, it didn’t need to be. I can’t see myself buying 50 of these, but I would certainly split a box of these to keep a good amount on hand and add to my regular rotation. Huge props to Kyle for choosing this format too as it’s one of my favorite sizes.
** NOTE: I smoked quite a few of these cigars from various boxes. I experienced draw issues in a few (which all opened up after a bit of smoking time), and no issues with others. Just worth mentioning as I had draw issues on more than just one out of the handful I smoked.
Pairing:
Brewed at the famous Oskar Blues brewery in Colorado the Barrel Aged version of their incredible Ten Fidy stout comes in at a whopping 12.9% ABV. This imperial stout leads with heavy notes of vanilla, toffee, roasted malt, oak, and just a light barrel kick with a very heavy mouthfeel before finishing with even more vanilla, brown sugar, toffee, and barrel. This is dangerously easy to drink considering the ABV. The flavors in the beer matched up well with flavors in the Los Relatos while adding a bunch of sweetness to the experience pushing it to the next level.
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