El Primer Mundo Epifania

The El Primer Mundo Epifania was the second cigar released in Primer Mundo Cigars’ Little Havana Series.  Primer Mundo Cigars is a boutique cigar company founded by Sean Williams – a rising star in the cigar industry.   For his blends, Williams has been teaming up some some of the top factories in the world to produce his cigars.  For the Little Havana Series, Williams has been working with the team at El Titan de Bronze in Miami, Florida.   I’ve recently smoking the Epifania and I found this to be not only an impressive cigar experience, but a very unique one.

The Epifania was released in 2011.  The name Epifania is Spanish for “Epiphany”.  As we mentioned this was the second release in Primer Mundo’s Little Havana Series joining the Liga Miami (released in 2010) and the limited edition Clase Reserva (released in 2012 and was our #18 Cigar of the Year).  In general the Little Havana Series is more of a small batch, ultra-boutique series.  

Without further adieu, let’s take a closer look at the El Primer Mundo Epifania and see what this cigar delivers.

Blend Profile

The blend profile for the Epifania is a multi-national blend with tobaccos from three countries.  The country origins for each of the components do parallel the Liga Miami, but Epifania is a different blend.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan

Vitolas Available

At this time, the Epifania is only available in a toro size measuring 6 x 52.

The cigars are rolled entubado style.  This is a method of rolling cigars that comes from Cuba which involves a “tubing” process – namely taking each filler leaf and rolling it into a tube instead of folding the leafs.  After the filler leaves are tubed, a binder is applied.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian wrapper to the Epifania has a medium brown color with a slight rosado shade to it. The particular cigar I smoked for this assessment had some plume on it.  There was a slight amount of oil to the wrapper, yet there was a coarseness to it.  There are some visible veins and wrapper seams.   The aroma from the wrapper of the cigar had a nice sweet barnyard scent.

There are two bands to the Epifania. The first band is the classic El Primer Mundo globe design featuring a purple, silver, black, and white color scheme.  The “globe” design is in black and white.  The text “EL PRIMER” sits above the globe in silver text on a black ribbon.  Below the globe is the text “MUNDO” – also in silver font on a black ribbon.  Below the “MUNDO “text” is the text “LITTLE HAVANA” in black font on a silver backgroiund.   There are silver medallions that surround the globe to the left and right.  The remainder of the band has a purple background and silver trim.
There is a secondary band just below the primary one.  This band is silver with the text “Epifania” in purple cursive.
On a side note, the El Primer Mundo globe band is one of my personal favorites on a cigar.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

For my smoking experience with the Epifania, I went with my typical choice of a straight cut to remove the cap.  Once the cap was clipped, I proceeded with the pre-light draw ritual.  The cold draw yielded a nice combination of wood, citrus, floral, and spice.  I found these flavors to be on the milder side, but they still made for a very nice pre-light draw.  At this point I was ready to fire up my Epifania and see what the cigar experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

There is quite a bit going on with the El Primer Mundo Epifania.  It definitely qualifies as a complex smoke from a flavor standpoint.  There was some variations from smoke to smoke, but overall I’ve tried to capture the general points.  This is also a cigar that to fully appreciate it, you need to make sure you retro-hale as there is quite a bit going on there as well.

The start to the Epifania yielded notes of wood and pepper.  At the same time the early retro-hale produced some floral notes.  As the Epifania moved through the first five percent, the flavor profile was a mix of pepper, natural tobacco, caramel, and some citrus.  At the same time, the retro-hale evolved to more of a floral spice.  The caramel and citrus gave this cigar a nice sweetness.  At times the caramel notes did move into the forefront as a primary note.

By the midway point of the first third, an interesting flavor emerged – a bread note.  The bread note combined very nicely with the natural tobacco and pepper in the forefront.  It was complemented nicely by the caramel and citrus sweetness.   It gave this cigar a very interesting intangible quality that is hard to describe – but it seemed to work for the flavors.

By the halfway point of the Epifania, the bread notes moved into control with the pepper.  The natural tobacco notes moved into the background.  The caramel notes surfaced as a background note from time to time. By this point, I found that the citrus notes had dissipated.  Meanwhile, the retro-hale changed up again – this time becoming more of a classic pepper flavor.

The last third of the cigar has more of a bready and peppery feel to it.   There definitely was some spice at the end of the cigar.  The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

The construction to the Epifania is absolutely stellar – and this is reflected in the burn and draw. Keeping the burn line straight required virtually no maintenance as it required minimal touch-ups. The resulting ash was a tight with a nice white color. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Razor sharp burn of the El Primer Mundo Epifania

The draw was also outstanding.  It had a touch of resistance to it making it ideal in my book.  This made the Epifania a joy to smoke.

Strength and Body

There was also quite a bit going on when it came to the attributes of strength and body.   The Epifania has some nice kick to it.  It starts off medium to full strength and by the second half, it progresses to a full strength.  As for the flavors, they actually start out on the medium-bodied side – and remain like that for the first half.  By the second half, the body then rapidly increases in depth – going to medium to full-bodied, and then to full-bodied by the end of the second third.

As far as the balance of this cigar goes, the first half is going to be a smoke where the strength has an edge over body.  At the same time, it doesn’t overwhelm the flavors.  By the second half, the balance is much closer between the two attributes.

Final Thoughts

The more I explore the Primer Mundo cigar portfolio, the more I am impressed.  Namely, it seems like that each of the blends are bringing their own unique attributes to the table.  The Epifania is definitely a cigar with a lot going on in terms of complexity and flavor.   The 6 x 52 toro also seemed ideal for this particular blend.  This is a cigar I would definitely recommend to a seasoned cigar enthusiast.  If a novice cigar enthusiast wants to try something a little stronger and with nice complexity, I would recommend this as well.  As for myself, this is definitely a cigar I look forward to smoking again.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium to Full (1st Half), Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium (1st Half) – progresses to Full by end of second third.
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 92

Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from the Pipe and Pint in Greensboro, North Carolina.