Perdomo Habano Connecticut Epicure
A not so mild Connecticut
The Cigar
Perdomo Cigars
Nicaragua
Epicure 6" X 54
Medium
Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Cuban-seed Nicaraguan filler and binder
14.5€ at Cigar World
110 mins
4.4/5
The Experience
Today was the last day of our short Easter vacations. It was a great day.
We went to have lunch on a really fun restaurant of what could be described as asian fusion.
Most Japanese restaurants in Lisbon are basically sushi joints. I'm not even aware of any Korean ones. This one doesn't even serve sushi, it's focused on ramen and other dishes, most of them I can't even pronounce. I got a fried chicken dish with a salad and a side of really spicy fermented cabbage called kimchi with a bowl of miso soup. Completely out of my comfort zone, it was really fun.
And to make it more interesting... it's a manga/anime themed place. I know, I can feel your eyes rolling. The walls are full of anime themed stuff, and there's a literal robot with a cat face serving dishes. The staff is all super nice and it's a really fun place to be at, if you can handle the whole anime thing.
I get it, it's not for everyone, but the wife insisted and we ended up loving it. It was a super fun experience, the staff was wonderful and and the food was great.
The weather wasn't great so we came back home to enjoy a nice matinee.
What better excuse to have my last vacation cigar?
The movie was one that was long overdue - John Wick 4. Anime restaurant and John Wick, super mature afternoon for a couple of almost forty. Don't knock it until you've tried it. As you may have guessed from my previous movie selections, I'm not a big action movie guy - but sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered.
One knows what to expect from a John Wick movie. Three hours of beautiful controlled chaos and choreographed fights, doused in impressive visuals, cool clothes and well timed quips. Style over substance, ostensibly and unapologetically. That's what you sign up for, and it delivers.
It didn't get boring or dull, although the fighting sequences, more often than not, got a bit too long for my patience. But that's fine, it gave me the opportunity to pay some attention to the wonderful cigar that I chose to accompany me through this festival of bullets and sword fights.
So far, I haven't been disappointed by a Perdomo cigar. But this one was something new - for the first time, it was not a maduro.
As I mentioned before, I need to expand my horizons beyond maduros, which to me, are too easy to love. Last time I tried a smoother smoke, it was the AJ Fernandez New World Cameroon and it was... fine. It didn't blow my mind. It was unimpressive compared to the Fuente - my current benchmark for less-than-full-bodied cigars.
This was a new vitola for me, but not really - what Perdomo calls an Epicure should really be called a Toro. In this case, Epicure means a six inch cigar with 54 ring gauge. A Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure is a 46. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
This one felt thick - much more than I would expect from 54 ring gauge. Looking back at my earlier experiences I realize that almost every cigar I had above 52 was box-pressed, which makes a world of difference. I find a boxed pressed 60 ring gauge (like the 20th Anniversary Gordo) perfectly manageable, but a non-box-pressed 54 already seems huge.
Presentation is on point. The wrapper is a flawless golden delicate Connecticut claro. The band is so over the top it's almost ridiculous. It's super detailed, all gold and brown with Perdomo Habano in big black text. It's ostentatious and made to turn heads. It's also one of the most beautiful and well made bands I've ever seen. The cigar also comes with a foot band in a similar gold theme, two lions and "Connecticut" written between them.
The cigar smelled good, with the signature Perdomo barnyard notes, but a lot more subdued compared with the maduro wrappers. The dry draw was perfect, as expected.
This cigar was interesting from the first puffs. A clear departure from the maduro flavor profiles I know from Perdomo, this has more in common with the wood and coffee I remember from Fuente. Interestingly enough, the mineral notes from the 20th Anniversary were there too, but a lot more subtle. And the Nicaraguan cacao is there, underneath. The finish is fleeting at first, without the bitter notes that typically linger with darker cigars. That changes further down, building up a more insisting finish as you keep smoking.
You will excuse me if I'm making this a bit of a comparison between this and maduro flavors, but that's what I know best and I'm now at a stage where I want to better understand lighter offers like Connecticuts. I had some interesting revelations.
In music production there's a concept called dynamic range. That's the difference in volume between the loudest parts of a track and quietest parts. A pop hit or heavy rock song will usually have a low dynamic range while a jazz recording will have a much higher dynamic range, displaying a larger difference between the quiet bits and the loud ones.
Milder cigars seem to have a lot more room for flavor dynamism - a broader dynamic range, if you will. Like hard rock, full-flavored cigars are a lot of fun as they bludgeon you with powerful flavors from start to finish. It's powerful, but there isn't a lot of range to it. Lighter cigars, with less potent flavors, leave more space to build up and change throughout the smoking session. Like a jazz performance, or progressive rock, there's less intensity but more room for nuance, surprise and evolution.
That is, for the good ones. When a mild/medium cigar isn't good, it's the worst. I recall my experience with the Flor de Copan Belicoso - A similarly sized 6" by 54 that tasted like hot air. Or the Flor de Las Antillas that similarly underwhelmed me with it's lack of anything interesting.
That is definitely not the case for the Habano Connecticut. The cacao notes come and go, varying between mild and intense. Spice starts strong, simmers down and comes back stronger towards end. It keeps you on your toes.
Perdomo knows how to make a good cigar. No corrections were needed on this two hour smoke. The draw was perfect. The wrapper was flawless.
As far as strength goes, it was an excellent experience. It didn't bludgeon me, but it was definitely present. It made itself felt progressively, and was relaxing and pleasant.
If you forgive me going on a little tangent, I have a few thoughts I wish to share about strength and Perdomo cigars.
In the cigar world, there's this convention that states that light wrapper cigars are supposed to be mild in flavor and strength, and that maduros should hit you hard on both fronts as well.
Some brands follow this convention - Perdomo unapologetically doesn't. I know they don't because I've heard Nick Perdomo several times saying he's not a fan of it. That a light wrapper shouldn't necessarily be weak and a maduro shouldn't necessarily hit you like a truck. I find that reasonable. The difference should be on flavor profile, not strength. I believe that the attempt at making Connecticuts meek and mild is often to blame for tasteless, below average cigars.
That does mean that Perdomo cigars may defy expectations. New smokers are often advised to stick to lighter wrappers like Connecticuts because they're supposed to be weaker... but this particular cigar is anything but week. Someone with no tolerance might get caught off-guard. I don't think Perdomo can really be blamed for that, they do not claim any of their cigars are mild. People just wrongly assume that from the light wrappers.
Personally, I like the way they do things. I do not enjoy cigars that are too mild on flavor, because honestly, they don't taste like anything to me. And I don't like cigars that are too weak either like I don't enjoy non-alcoholic beer.
I also do not agree with the widespread notion that Perdomo are very strong cigars. At least in my experience, Perdomo cigars are very balanced on strength. I think they get their fame from their stronger-than-expected light wrappers.
These are of course, opinions - and they're formed from my admittedly limited experience. Don't take any of what I say as a statement of fact.
Going back to this particular cigar, I had a wonderful time and only wished the smoke had lasted a little bit longer - the hallmark of a satisfying cigar. Smoked it to a little nub.
It's indeed the first time since the Fuente that I have truly enjoyed a cigar on the milder side. Again and again, Perdomo proves to be a reliable and competent manufacturer.
