Casa Cuevas La Mandarria Oscuro

At the Total Product Expo (TPE) 2024, Casa Cuevas Cigars introduced a new offering under its La Mandarria line, the La Mandarria Oscuro. This would be the second blend by Casa Cuevas under La Mandarria. For Casa Cuevas Cigars, the La Mandarria line is a true lemons to lemonade story. La Mandarria translates to “The Sledgehammer.” The inspiration for La Mandarria came from the devastating effects of a robbery that occurred in the company’s warehouse earlier in 2019. Later that year, Casa Cuevas released the first La Mandarria, a Habano blend, as a limited edition offering. A year later, La Mandarria became a regular production offering.

When the original La Mandarria was announced, Casa Cuevas explained in a press release that it was “smashing through adversity,” thus the connection to the sledgehammer.

Back in early February 2019, Casa Cuevas Cigars’ Miami Headquarters were broken into and completely wiped out. Using sledgehammers to break through their warehouse wall, thieves got away with over 25,000 cigars, including half the inventory of their Limited Edition Flacos; a line they were unable to replace because the numbered boxes were shipped from the factory out of sequence and there was no way of knowing which particular boxes were stolen.

Following the robbery, the Cuevas Group was overwhelmed with an overabundance of love and support from manufacturers as well as consumers. Many even offered to create crowdfunding accounts in order to help the Cuevas Group recuperate some of the costs associated with their loss. Although thankful and humbled, the Cuevas Group did not accept any of these offers and knew they would come out stronger and better from this unfortunate event.

Without further ado, let’s turn our attention to the La Mandarria Oscuro and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Casa Cuevas La Mandarria Oscuro | Cigar Review

PERFORMANCE

Blend and Origin

For the La Mandarria Oscuro, a San Andres wrapper was used over a Habano binder. The Habano leaf serves as a link to the original La Mandarria, which used that leaf as the wrapper. The remainder of the blend consists of Dominican, Nicaraguan, and U.S. tobaccos from Pennsylvania. Production comes from the Cuevas family’s Las Lavas factory in the Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: San Andrés Maduro
Binder: Habano
Filler: Dominican, Pennsylvania, Nicaraguan
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Factory: Tabacalera Las Lavas S.R.L.

Vitolas Offered

Like the original La Mandarria, the Oscuro is offered in one size – a 6 x 52 Toro. La Mandarria Oscuro is packaged in 20-count boxes.

Appearance (*)

The San Andres Maduro wrapper of the La Mandarria Oscuro was dark wood-colored. Upon closer examination, there was a slight amount of mottling on the wrapper. The wrapper had a thin sheen of oil on it. There were some visible veins, and any visible seams were on the thin side.

Like the original La Mandarria, the Oscuro has a spiral pigtail on the head and about 3/4″ of rough cut toward the footer, exposing the binder.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw (*)

Rather than pulling off the pigtail of the cap of the La Mandarria Oscuro, I used a straight cut to remove the cap and pigtail simultaneously. With the cap removed, it was on to the pre-light draw. The cold draw delivered a mix of coffee and cedar. This was a simple but quite satisfying pre-light draw. With the pre-light draw complete, it was time to toast up La Mandarria Oscuro and see what the smoking phase would do.

Tasting Notes

The La Mandarria Oscuro opened up with cedar and white pepper notes, but coffee notes quickly emerged. The coffee notes took over during the rough cut section. The coffee notes morphed into mocha as the cigar burned into the wrapper area. Mocha is a term I use to describe chocolate and coffee joined at the hip. At the same time, the cigar developed an underlying creaminess. The mocha notes became primary, with the pepper, cedar, and cream secondary. Meanwhile, there was an additional layer of white pepper on the retro-hale.

During the second third of the La Mandarria Oscuro, the mocha notes remained grounded in the forefront. Around the midway point, the coffee component of the mocha started to increase in intensity. Meanwhile, there was a slight increase in the pepper on both the tongue and retro-hale.

By the final third, the coffee component eclipsed the chocolate component in the mocha note, remaining the primary note. The pepper had a slight edge in terms of the prominence of the secondary notes. There were also notes of cedar and touches of cream. This is how the La Mandarria Oscuro came to a close. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

The performance of the burn of the La Mandarria Oscuro was excellent. Of note, the cigar burned very smoothly from the rough cut section to the wrapper. The cigar also maintained a straight burn path with minimal touch-ups. There was some occasional waviness along the burn line, but this didn’t prove to be problematic. The resulting ash was skewed toward the firm side, but occasional flaking occurred. This was an ash with a salt and pepper color. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both maintained ideal levels.

Burn of the Casa Cuevas La Mandarria Oscuro

Draw

Overall, La Mandarria Oscuro delivered an excellent draw. This cigar had a touch of resistance to it, which I like. At the same time, it was a low-maintenance cigar from which to derive flavor.

Strength and Body

There was some boldness with La Mandarria Oscuro. The cigar opened with medium strength and medium to full-bodied flavors. Both attributes increased in intensity throughout the smoking experience. By the second half, the cigar was at medium strength, and toward the end, the flavors were just short of full-bodied.

In terms of strength versus body, the body held the edge for the duration of the smoking experience.

BANDING AND PACKAGING NOTES (*)

La Mandarria Oscuro uses the Casa Cuevas black band as the primary band—the same band found on the Casa Cuevas Maduro line. The secondary band is similar to the original La Mandarria, which also has a sledgehammer on it. The cigars are packaged in cabinet-style boxes. The whole packaging and design scheme isn’t overly complex but works well.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

While it’s fair to say I’ve had more complex cigars from Casa Cuevas, when it comes to the flavor department – La Mandarria Oscuro is a home run. This is a cigar that held my interest level from start to finish. It also had just enough kick in terms of strength and body to satisfy me. It’s also worth noting the construction of this cigar was fantastic. This is a cigar I would recommend to an experienced cigar enthusiast, but it’s certainly one I’d recommend to a novice who is looking to graduate in terms of trying a bold cigar. It’s also worth noting the $12.48 price point isn’t bad in today’s market. It makes this 20-count box garner box-worthy consideration in my book. Coming in at 90 points, it earns a Cigar Coop Standard of Excellence designation.

Summary

Key Flavors: Mocha (Chocolate & Coffee), Cedar, Cream, Pepper
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium Minus
Strength: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Very Good