Montecristo Espada Estoque cigars take what was light and manageable blade and turn it into a savage weapon that will cut your foes in half.
Yes, we’re still talking about cigars. “Espada” is Spanish for “sword” and puts us in a certain frame of mind.
This is the medium-full strength version of the Espada line. While the original Espada was a quick-slashing rapier, the Estoque is a heavier blade that does a bit more damage. Clearly, the blending team thought this one could use a stronger counterpart, and so we’ve now got this flaming “weapon of ash destruction!”
Montecristo Espada Estoque cigars were created by the same Groupo de Maestros that crafted the original blend. This is Altadis’s brain trust of tobacco men who guide key cigar lines in the company’s portfolio. This includes Montecristo, of course, but also H. Upmann, Henry Clay, Aging Room, Romeo y Julieta, and quite a few more. Legendary heritage companies, modern superstars, and everything in between.
Fortunately, the members of the Groupo de Maestros know cigars, as well as anyone, can, so we can keep enjoying blends like this.
The Espada series is made with all Nicaraguan tobacco, and so these puros have some heft competition. Today’s Nica blends are at the top of the heap. There’s no shortage of excellent stogies to compete with. Fortunately, the Maestros had the entire Plasencia library of the leaf at their disposal.
For the tobacco nerds out there, Montecristo Espada Estoque cigars feature a 2013 Habano-seed wrapper grown in Jalapa. This encircles a 2002 Corojo Seco binder, also from Jalapa. The filler blend includes 2009 corojo seco (from Estelí), 2013 criollo viso (from Ometepe), and 2013 criollo viso (from Condega).
The Maestros know what they like, so they had to assemble the exact leaf blend that would create the more full-powered smoke they wanted to create. At the end of the day, they struck true and buried the hilt to earn a 91-point rating from Cigar Aficionado. It’s not an overpowered spice bomb. Instead, there’s potency and balance. CA observed that “Light notes of wood and black tea become heavier with caramel, cocoa, and a warm toasty finish.”
Nice flavor and nice artful blending.
The whole sword theme goes back to the beginning for Montecristo. Its famous crossed-swords logo was inspired by the same thing that gave this company its name: Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. The cigar masters from this longstanding company continue to carve their way into our humidors, one enjoyable blend at a time.
Please browse our selection of Montecristo Espada Estoque cigars at your leisure.
Like the original, cognac seems proper here. When was the last time you had a sidecar? It’s easy to make with 1 1/2 ounces cognac, 3/4 ounce orange liqueur (like Cointreau), and 3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed.
