 |
| Add caption |
The Placeres Reserva is one of several lines of cigars made by Compania Hondurena de Tabacos (CHT) in Honduras. Along with the Miro and Tabacalera Zapata, the Placeres Reserva is distributed by Kuuts LLC in the United States. About a year ago, Kuuts LLC was launched to bring these three lines into the U.S. market. These lines were previously aimed at the European market and the recent introduction into the U.S. market has gained some momentum. While I had been smoking the Miro line and have been enjoying it, recently I turned my attention to the Placeres Reserva line. The name “placeres” translates to “pleasures” and that has been exactly my experience with this cigar. This is a winner out of CHT.
The CHT factory is located in the Danli region of Honduras. According to the company web-site, Kuuts positions themselves as having the advantage of owning and operating their own factory. The factory has 98 pairs of rollers and has the capacity to produce over 6 million cigars per year – which translates to a potential capacity over 16348 cigars per day or about 167 cigars per roller per day. The recent expansion into the U.S. market.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the Placeres Reserva and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
Placeres Reserva features a multi-national blend:
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Costa Rican
Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran
Vitolas Available
There are five vitolas for the Placeres Reserva. Each size is a box-pressed vitola. The cigars are packaged twenty per box.
Marevas: 5 x 42
Estrellas: 5 x 50
Belicoso: 5 1/2 x 52
Colosos: 6 x 54
Toro Grande: 6 x 60
Appearance
For this cigar experience I smoked the Colosos – which is a box-pressed toro size. The Placeres Reserva Colosos has a nice colorado red color with some chocolate brown mixed in. Upon closer examination there is some darker marbling than can be seen on the wrapper. There is a slight amount of oil on the surface on the wrapper. There are some visible wrapper seams, but overall the wrapper is void of veins. The box-press itself is well-packed with no soft spots.
I found the band to the cigar to be quite intricate. The band features the text “PLACERES” in white text with gold trim on a dark maroon gradient style background. Below that text is “Reserva” in a classic white cursive font – also with gold trim. There is a large amount of gold adornments on the band. Below the gold adornments there is some more maroon gradient background. On the left side of that background is the text “tripa larga” in white cursive font and on the right side is the text “long filler” also in white cursive font. The top and bottom of the band have a trim that starts out in mustard yellow and moves to more light brown in a gradient style going left to right. On the bottom trim is the text “HAND MADE IN HONDURAS – HECHO A MANO EN HONDURAS” in small black font arranged in a ticker tape style.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
The preparation stage for my Placeres Reserva started similar to most cigars I assess – namely with a straight cut. Once the cap was removed, it was on to the pre-light draw ritual. The dry draw provided notes of cedar sweetness. I also detected a slight pepper bite, a little leather, and a touch of chocolate on the pre-light draw. Overall I found the pre-light draw to this cigar to be excellent. At this point, I was ready to light up this cigar and see what the overall experience would deliver.
Flavor Profile
The Placeres Reserva started out with some black pepper, a very sweet cedar note and some background chocolate notes. The pepper is something I could also detect on the retro-hale, but I did not find it to be overpowering. As the cigar moved through the early stages, the chocolate notes increased.
By the middle of the first third, the chocolate notes became the primary flavor. The pepper was a close secondary while the cedar sweetness was also not too far away from the forefront. By the start of the second third, the chocolate was still a primary note, but both the cedar and pepper notes were on par as a secondary note.
The remainder of the smoking experience of the Placeres Reserva saw the chocolate, pepper, and cedar sweetness in terms of which note/notes were primary. The Placeres Reserva was flavorful right until the end. I particularly liked how the cedar sweetness hung in there from start to finish. The resulting nub was excellent – cool in temperature and firm to the touch.
Burn and Draw
From its appearance the Placeres Reserva appears to be a well-made cigar – and from the attributes of burn an draw it reflects this excellent construction. The burn line remained straight from start to finish – requiring minimal touch-ups. The resulting ash was white in color and mostly firm. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.
 |
| Burn of the Placeres Reserva |
The draw was excellent. While it generated a decent amount of smoke, I didn’t find it loose. While it had a firm box-press, I didn’t find it tight.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, the Placeres Reserva is not going to be a cigar that is overpowering. I assessed this cigar as being medium strength. When Kuuts LLC launched last year, they described the Placeres Reserva as a “medium to 3/4 body” cigar. I agree with that assessment and that translates to a medium to full-bodied smoke in my book. I didn’t see a lot of variances in the strength and body throughout the smoking experience. In terms of strength versus body, I found with the Placeres Reserva that the body had the edge throughout the whole smoking experience.
Final Thoughts
From its wrapper to its banding, the Placeres Reserva is a visually appearing cigar. When it comes to the total experience of this cigar – it delivers. This has been a cigar that has been growing on me. I’ve found this to be a very consistent cigar each time I smoke it. It delivers excellent flavor and has solid construction. Finally I found the 6 x 54 box-press toro format to work extremely well with this blend. This is the kind of cigar I’d recommend to either the novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this is a cigar definitely worthy of a box split in my book.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 3.5 – Box Split
Score: 91
References
Price: ~$7.20
Source: Purchased, Also additional cigars provided by Kuuts (*)
Stogie Geeks Podcast: n/a
Stogie Feed: n/a
* The cigars for this assessment was given to Cigar Coop by Kuuts. Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but this does not influence the review.
I smoked the corona size and found it to be good with notes of leather and cedar. Construction and burn were good. Not complex. Perhaps a little one dimensional. Started out very nice but found myself losing interest after the first third.