Cigar of the Week: E.P. Carrillo Edicion Limitada 2011 Dark Rituals (Review)

Wrapper: Oscuro Maduro
Filler: Nicaraguan
Binder: Ecuadorian Sumatra

This week we are featuring the E.P. Carrillo Edition Limitada 2011. This cigar is known as the Dark Ritual. We chose to feature this cigar because it is one of the best, and often unknown, cigars we carry.

Appearance:
This cigar features a very dark brown, marbled, oscuro maduro wrapper that is visually appealing. There is an oily shine that covers the entire cigar and give is a very smooth feel. There are also no veins throughout the entire wrapper. If you look at the foot of this cigar, you can see just how tightly bunched the tobacco is. Also, the pre-light smell of this cigar reveals some very sweet notes.

Construction:
The cigar is solid from the flush triple-layer cap all the way down to the tightly bunched foot. The cut was very clean and revealed the tight back up towards the cap as well. From the point that I lit this cigar, until I put it down, the burn patter was perfect. The ash was very strong and almost white. The ash could have easily have held on for over two inches at a time. And what we here find to be very important, the draw was easy all the way through.

Flavor:
Once we lit this cigar up we noticed a very sweet and spicy start. There were prominent notes of pepper and chocolate. By about an inch of the way into this cigar, the pepper seemed to mellow out. This gave way to some new creamy flavors. The earth tones seemed to pick up and we all seemed to get an oak and pepper flavor that stuck around.

Once we got into the second third of the cigar, the pepper seemed to kick back up. There were some faint coffee flavor the emerged, that actually had a little bit of kick thanks to the pepper. When we got down to about the halfway mark, there seemed to be some cinnamon notes that peeked out which replaced a little bit of the pepper.

The last couple inches allowed the earth tones to take over. There was still a good amount of pepper and coffee, but the cinnamon flavor was stronger than both of them. The finish was great, full of flavor, and highly enjoyable to us all.

Conclusion:
If you are in the mood for a full-bodied and full-flavored cigar, this one might just be for you. We are down to our last box, and they are going fast. So hurry down to our shop and pick one up.

Thanks for reading,

The Xhale Lounge Crew