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| Jaxx LT by La Sirena – Toro |
Last month, La Sirena Cigars underwent a major expansion of its portfolio cigars when it acquired Old School Cigars. Old School Cigars was founded seven years ago by Danny Ditkowich and the Holman family – owners of Tobacco Plaza in Great Neck, New York. It is Ditkowich’s daughter Arielle, who is the President and Founder of La Sirena Cigars. Bringing in the Old School Cigars line was not just a family affair, but it was a strategic move for La Sirena. In addition to increasing its portfolio, it also allowed them to fill in some gaps. One notable gap was to introduce a Connecticut Shade offering into the La Sirena portfolio. The Jaxx LT by La Sirena fits this bill perfectly. Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to smoke the Jaxx LT. I found this to be a solid Connecticut Shade offering – and one that could really strengthen La Sirena as a whole.
At the time of the acquisition, Old School Cigars had three main offerings: Stixx (a maduro), Jaxx (a Habano Oscuro), and Jaxx LT (a Connecticut Shade). These cigars are still currently branded as Old School Cigars, but once inventory is sold, they will be rebranded as La Sirena cigars. In terms of the three offerings, there is no doubt Jaxx LT was viewed as the most strategic. In fact, Max Mogil, Vice President of Sales and Marketing was quoted when the acquisition of Old School Cigars was made as saying, “La Sirena continues to gain momentum since our independence in January. Arielle realized we needed to produce a mild, yet full flavored cigar to even out our portfolio. We liked the Jaxx LT so much, we made an offer to buy the company.”
Each of the Old School Cigars is made at a different factory and in a different country. Stixx is made at the Quesada factory in the Dominican Republic, Jaxx is made at the Tavicusa S.A. (Rocky Patel) factory in Nicaragua, and Jaxx LT is made at Plasencia in Honduras.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the Jaxx LT and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
The Jaxx LT is a three country multi-national blend:
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan
Vitolas Available
The Jaxx LT is made in three sizes:
Robusto: 5 x 50
Toro: 6 x 52
Gran Toro: 6 x 60
Appearance
For this cigar experience, I smoked the Jaxx LT in the Toro size. The Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper of the Jaxx LT has a smooth and silky look to it. The wrapper itself has a golden brown color with some light oil. There are a few visible veins and a few visible wrapper seams, but none of this takes away from the smoothness of the wrapper.
There are two bands on the Jaxx LT. The primary band has a silver, blue, and red color scheme to it.The text “JAXX” sits in large silver font on a blue circle that has almost a “spotlight pattern” to it. On the top end of the red circular trim is the text “OLD SCHOOL” and on the lower end is the text “CIGARS” – both in silver font. There is blue trim to the left and right side of the band that has a gradient pattern to a red color. On the left side of the band are some maroon colored jacks (game pieces) on an ivory colored circle surrounded by a silver cog. On the right side is a deck of cards in maroon – also on an ivory circle surrounded by a silver cog. To the far right is a blue and silver shield representing Old School Cigars. The remainder of the band has silver trim.>
There is also a footer band. This is primarily blue in color, but to the left and right it gradients to red. There is a silver “LT” in modern font sitting on a light blue “spotlight” circle.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
As I normally do, I went with a straight cut to start things off. After clipping the cap, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw for the Jaxx LT provided a mix of sweet tobacco cream, hay, and some pepper. Overall I was quite pleased with the pre-light draw experience of this cigar. At this point, I removed the footer band, lit up the cigar, and awaited what the smoking phase would have in store.
Flavor Profile
The start to the Jaxx LT provided some notes of grass, cream, and black pepper to start. The pepper had a little bit of a bite to it on the tongue. The grass and cream notes moved to the forefront while the pepper receded to a background note. The pepper was also joined by some natural tobacco flavors which provided the right amount of sweetness. Meanwhile I detected both the cream and pepper on the retro-hale.
The second third saw the grass notes remain primary. The cream and natural tobacco flavors floated between being a primary and secondary flavor. The pepper notes were a close background note.
In the last third, the flavor profile remained the same. The pepper did increase slightly – making its way closer to the forefront. While the spice increased, it did not overwhelm the blend – and it remained smooth. This is the way the flavor profile remained until the end. The resulting nub was outstanding – cool in temperature and firm to the touch.
Burn and Draw
The burn performed very nicely for the Jaxx LT. For the most part this was a low maintenance effort to keep the burn straight. The resulting ash was not overly firm, but it was not an ash prone to flaking or flowering. The ash had a nice salt and pepper color to it. The burn rate and burn temperature were both idea.
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| Burn of the Jaxx LT by La Sirena |
The draw was outstanding to this cigar. It was more of an open draw, but it was not loose either. This made for some nice smoke production from this cigar.
Strength and Body
The Jaxx LT starts out in the mild to medium range in terms of its strength. By the last third, there is a bit of a kick as it transitioned to medium strength. As for the body, this cigar remainsd in the medium range from start to finish. Overall, when comparing strength versus body had a slight advantage over strength.
Final Thoughts
I believe that La Sirena’s strategy of bringing in a solid Ecuadorian Connecticut blend pays off here. I found the Jazz LT to be a solid Ecuadorian Connecticut shade offering. It provided nice flavors and had some very good construction. Over the past few years, many Ecuadorian Connecticut blends have tried to push to have more in the way of strength and body. While I don’t think the Jazz LT is groundbreaking here, it still is going to have more in the way of strength and body than Connecticut Shade blends of the past. I found this to be a nice cigar that is good any time of the day – and one that either a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this is a nice cigar worth keeping a 5 pack around.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Mild to Medium (1st 2/3), Medium (Last third)
Body: Medium
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 3.0 – The Fiver
Score: 89
References
News: La Sirena Cigars Acquires Old School Cigars
Feature Story: A Look at Old School Cigars by La Sirena
Price: n/a
Source: Sample Provided by Manufacturer(*)
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Stogie Geeks Extra: Arielle Ditkowich of La Sirena Cigars
Stogie Feed: n/a
