Cigar Review: La Colmena Amado No. 36 by Warped Cigars

La Colmena Amado No. 36 by Warped Cigars

Just prior to the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show, Warped Cigars announced a new line of cigars called La Colmena. This is a line that comes out of Little Havana’s El Titan de Bronze and features an Ecuadorian DeFlorada wrapper. When La Colmena was announced, Warped Cigars was a pretty much an unknown in the cigar industry.  In less than nine months, the company has established a name for itself and its cigars have caught the attention of some of the biggest retailers in the country. Today we take a look at a third marca in this line called the La Colmena Amado No. 36. This is a panatela offering – and one of the thinnest in the whole Warped Cigars’ catalog. Overall, the La Colmena line has been rock-solid and the Amado No. 36 does justice to showcasing the panatela size as this is another outstanding release.

Warped Cigars was founded by Kyle Gellis.  While the company has been around for quite sometime, it was last year when Gellis hit the ground running.  Gellis currently utilizes two factories for his offerings. He leverages El Titan de Bronze for his (more) limited production offerings with La Colmena, El Oso, and Don Reynaldo.  He uses the Casa Fernandez factory in Esteli Nicaragua for the Flor del Valle  and soon to be released La Hacienda lines.

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look the La Colmena Amado No. 36 and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The wrapper on the La Colmena line is an Ecuadorian DeFlorada leaf.  Companies such as MBombay and Chinnock Cellars have worked with this wrapper.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian DeFlorada
Binder: Ecuadorian
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican
Country of Origin: United States (El Titan de Bronze)

Vitolas Available

As mentioned thereare three vitolas in the La Colmena line.  Each vitola is rolled by a level 9 toreador who has specific responsibilities for rolling an assigned size. We include all of the sizes and the rollers below.

Amado No. 36: 6 x 36 by Raf
Amado No. 44: 5 1/2 x 44 by Reynaldo
Unico Especial: 5 x 48 by Jose Santiesteban (Belicoso)

La Colmena Unico Especial (Top), La Colmena Amado No. 44 (Bottom)

The Unico Especial was a blend that was an offering to attendees of the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show. It uses the same tobacco components, but features a slightly different blend.  Recently, there also was a limited edition offering under the La Colmena line called “Black Honey, but that cigar uses a different wrapper (Habano Ecuador Oscuro).

The La Colmena line is packaged in boxes of ten – although the Unico Especial is packaged in a commemorative cedar-lined tin.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian DeFlorada of the La Colmena Amado No.36 has a light brown color with a honey colored tint to it. There was a light coating of oil on the wrapper. This is very smooth for a thin ring gauge  There are some visible thin veins and thin wrapper seams. The Amado No. 36 has a traditional covered foot. There is a small pig-tail on the cap.

The band has an olive green, gold, and white color scheme. At the center of the band is a modern gold colored stripe pattern that represents a beehive shape (the name La Colmena translates to “The Beehive”). This logo sits on an olive background with a white circular trim to it. The front of the band has a gold octagon shape to it. There is a thick olive stripe protruding to the left and right of the octagon. On the left side is the text “WARPED” in white font. On the right side is the text “LA COLMENA” in white font. The remainder of the band has white and gold trim.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do with pig-tail cigars, I opted to place a straight cut into the cap of the La Colmena Amado No. 36 as opposed to pulling the tail off. Once the cap was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw. While there was a covered foot, I still was able to get some flavors from the dry draw. I found the profile of the dry draw to be similar to the other vitolas. On this dry draw I detected notes of wood, subtle cream note as well as a subtle combination of cedar and herb notes. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of the Amado No. 36 to be satisfactory. At this point I was ready to light up the La Colmena Amado No. 36 and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The best way to describe La Colmena Amado No. 36 is that it has many of the core qualities found across the vitolas in the La Colmena line, yet it brings its own story to the table.

I found the start of the Amado No. 36 to have a combination of spices and cream.  The spices were a mix of black pepper, cedar, and herbal spices.  During the first third, I found the cedar and cream notes to emerge in the forefront while pepper and herbs were more secondary notes.  I also detected some fruit sweetness in the background.  Meanwhile the retro-hale delivered a combination of black pepper and herbal spice.

The second third was similar to the first third. The difference is the herbal spice now joined the cedar notes in the forefront while the cream joined the fruit and pepper in the background. By the midway point there were some additional flavor nuances in the background – namely, I detected a nut flavor and a slight honey note. This honey note was short-lived and would dissipate by the start of the last third.

During the last third, the cedar and herb notes still held on as primary notes. The fruit and nut notes were secondary while the cream was more distant. This was the way the flavor profile held until the end. The resulting nub was cool in temperature, but soft the touch.

Burn and Draw

Construction-wise, I have found the La Colmena line to rock solid.  I have found the DeFlorada wrapper to be a little on the fragile side, so it does involve careful handling.  However when it comes to burn and draw, the La Colmena line has performed quite well and the Amado No. 36 vitola is no exception

For the most part, I found the La Colmena Amado No. 36 to burn on a relatively straight path. There was a very slight amount of jaggedness on the burn line itself, but this was easily remedied with a touch-up. The resulting ash was mostly white with some darker speckling in it. The ash itself was not overly tight, yet it was not a loose, flaky ash.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the La Colmena Amado No. 36

I found the draw of the Amado No. 36 to be similar to the Amado No. 44. The draw was not too tight nor too loose. Like the Amado No.44, the No. 36 produced an ample amount of smoke.

Strength and Body

For both the strength and body attributes, I found the Amado No. 36 to be in the wheel-house of the other vitolas. The Amado No. 36 is going to deliver a medium strength cigar from start to finish.  As for the body, I did find the Amado No. 36 started out a little more dialed back than the other vitolas. This cigar starts out medium-bodied, but by the second half, it had progressed to the medium to full range the other vitolas delivered.  As for strength versus body, like the other vitolas the body has the edge with the No. 36.

Final Thoughts

When the La Colmena Unico Special offering was announced, it was positioned as an offering that had more in the way of fruit and cream in its flavor profile. I agree with this positioning and it was one reason why the Unico Especial ended up finishing as the Cigar Coop #28 Cigar for 2014. The Amado No. 36 vitola is going to go the other extreme – and is going to offer less in the way of these flavors. However it still delivers nice notes of cedar, herbs, and nut that keep true to the La Colmena profile. I still liked the way this blend performed in the panatela format. This is a cigar I would recommend to either the novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. While I’d still probably keep more of the Unico Especial and Amado No. 44 offerings in my humidor, the Amado No. 36 still has a place in it as well.  This is a cigar I’d easily smoke again – and it’s worthy of a box split.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Finish: Good
Assessment: 3.5 – Box Split
Score: 91

References