601 La Bomba Bunker Buster by Espinosa Cigars

The 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster is the eighth installment of South Florida retailer Smoke Inn’s MicroBlend Series. The concept has involved Smoke Inn teaming up with some of the biggest names in the cigar industry to produce a one time limited run exclusive to its shop. The Bunker Buster represents the first collaboration with Smoke Inn and Espinosa Cigars for the MicroBlend Series. With the Bunker Buster, this is a special offshoot of Espinosa’s 601 La Bomba line. The MicroBlend series has consistently generated high scores on this web-site. After I had an opportunity to sample the Bunker Buster, and once again, one of the MicroBlend cigars live up to the high level of excellence that has been a staple of this series.

Each of the 601 La Bomba releases has been named for a particular type of bomb, and the Bunker Buster is no exception.  The name Bunker Bunker refers to a bomb that is used to penetrate into deep mountainsides to destroy hidden bunkers.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster is an all-Nicaraguan puro:

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Claro
Binder: Nicaraguan Criollo
Filler: Nicaraguan

Vitolas Available

The 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster is available in one size – a 5 1/2 x 56 box-pressed figuardo. The Bunker Buster will retail for $8.95 per cigar of $89.95 for a box of ten. There are a total of 500 boxes of this cigar being produced.

Appearance

The Bunker Buster has a medium brown colored wrapper. There was a slight amount of oil on the surface. There are a couple of visible veins and visible wrapper seams, but overall I consider the wrapper to be on the smooth side. The box-press of well packed. The Bunker Buster’s perfecto shape features a pointed cap and open footer. There is more tapering of the perfecto by the cap.

This is the only entry in the La Bomba series to not use a footer band. The band is army green in the shape of an army insignia – featuring an army green background and black insignia stripes. The 601 La Bomba logo is on the upper center part of the band. This features the “601” with a bright gold colored bomb in the middle. There is a white ribbon with the text “LA BOMBA” in small black font. Below the logo is the text “BUNKER BUSTER” is a gold “stamped” font – arranged on an angle. On both the left and right side is an army green and black insignia arranged in landscape mode. The 601 logo (all in gold) is on the left with the text “S.I.M.B 2014” in gold font (meaning Smoke Inn MicroBlend Series) above it. On the right is a gold Espinosa logo with the text “ESPINOSA” in gold font above it.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Given this was a pointed cap on this perfecto, I went with my usual choice of a straight cut. Once the tip was removed it was on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw produced some flavors of natural tobacco, some pepper – complete with what I term a Nicaraguan “twang” to it. Overall while I didn’t find this to be the most complex dry draw, it was still enough to keep me interested in what was to come. At this point, I was ready to light up the Bunker Buster and see what the overall smoking phase would deliver.

Flavor Profile

The start to the 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster provided a mix of natural tobacco, nut, and assorted spices. The spice notes had a lot going on as they took on multi-dimensional qualities of cedar, asian, and herbal spice notes. The cedar and herbal spice could also be detected through the retro-hale. The spice notes became primary early on.

Around the ten percent mark, the natural tobacco flavors moved into the forefront. The mix of spices and nut flavors were secondary. I was also now picking up that Nicaraguan twang from the spice

As the Bunker Buster progressed, some earth flavors entered into the equation. The earth never totally displaced the natural tobacco flavors. The nut flavors did significantly diminish in the second half In the last third of the Bunker Buster, the spices kicked back up – but never overwhelmed the blend. Overall, I found the Bunker Buster to remain flavorful until the end. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall I found the Bunker Buster to perform well in terms of the construction attributes of burn and draw. Sometimes with artesian shaped cigars (like perfectos), I have had less than stellar results in terms of burn and draw. No such case with the Bunker Buster as it scores very nicely.

The burn line remained relatively straight from start to finish. There was a slight amount of jaggedness on the line. Overall I didn’t find this cigar required an abnormal amount of touch-ups. The resulting ash wasn’t overly tight, but it was firm enough where I didn’t have to worry about the ash falling off with the slightest motion. The ash had a silvery gray color with some dark spots. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the 601 Bunker Buster

The draw was outstanding too.  This was a low maintenance cigar to puff on to enjoy some of the nice flavors of this cigar.

Strength and Body

From a strength perspective, I found the Bunker Buster to be a notch lower than several of the other La Bomba cigars.  I assessed the Bunker Buster as falling just below the full strength threshold and landing on the upper end of medium to full strength.  As for the flavors, this was a full-bodied smoke – as both the flavors and retro-hale weighed heavy on the pallet.  Overall, I found the Bunker Buster to be to be a cigar where the body has a slight edge over the strength.

Final Thoughts

Overall there were a lot of nice qualities that were brought to the table with the 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster.  First up, the flavors were very nice on this cigar – especially some of the spices that were delivered.  Second, this was a great example of what I call an “artesian vitola” (i.e. box-press perfecto) firing on all cylinders.  Finally, I like the fact that the strength dialed back a bit on this one from the core La Bomba line.  The result is another excellent release of the MicroBlend Series.  I’d probably still recommend this cigar to someone more seasoned as it still is a “fuller” smoke overall.  As for myself, this cigar is definitely worth a fiver and it’s one I would smoke again.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: 3.0 – The Fiver
Score: 90

References

News: Smoke Inn MicroBlend 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster to Launch June 6th
Price: $8.95
Source: Samples provided by retailer (*)
Stogie Geeks Podcast: n/a
Stogie Feed: n/a

* Cigars for this assessment was provided by Smoke Inn. The samples were received in order to provide feedback.  Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but in no way does this influence this write-up.