Tweet
When I first discovered the forum (probably about 2 months before actively joining) I had not the faintest idea about possible “economic” sources for cigars available on-line, so back then I was quite interested in finding some cheap and decent sticks I could buy in the UK. I found quite a few good reviews on Chinchalero cigars so one of my first buys included a few different vitolas of the brand.
Although these are not as sexy
as other sticks that usually get reviewed here, I thought I’d put my impressions together here hoping they might be useful to other fellow newbies who might be interested in this brand. There is a general discussion thread on these here 
, but given this is more of a review I thought it would be better to start a new thread in the right section. If the mods think it would be better to merge these please do and sorry for the duplication.
I’m not going to go in a lot of detail for each, so a little general information. I tried all the vitolas Chinchalero makes except the Novillo and Novillo torpedo, which I couldn’t find as singles; these are a bit different than the rest in that they are Nicaraguan puros and are the same format as the NUB 466 (normal shape or torpedo).
Back to the stogies I tried. The tobacco in all of the vitolas below is Ecuador shade grown wrapper (as you can see from the pic below, quite a bit darker than what you would define as Connecticut wrapper), and Honduran/Nicaraguan filler; the only site with any info on the binder (DonCigarro) says it is Sumatra. The strength is to my taste mild/medium and the flavour that is common to all of them is a toasty/woody note with just a little zing. Burn and construction are generally OK, although the wrappers are almost never perfect.
(Torpedito, Picadillo and Esportivo)
Quoting and completely butchering
one of the best Spaghetti Western titles I have split the notes in the Good, the Mmeh? And the Ugly to
The Good
PERLA 38x4
The 2 I had stood out from the bunch. The flavour keeps on the notes I mentioned but on top of that there are floral notes (faint to start, stronger near the nub), some leather from halfway and coffee in the last 3rd. The burn was great and one of the two (which had the ugliest of wrappers) gave a pretty impressive ash considering I was smoking outside with quite a strong breeze (sorry for the crappy image, but that's the best I could get with the mobile).
COLITA 30x 5 1/4
The one I smoked was a bit like the Perla but not as good; no floral notes and the leather and coffee are a lot weaker. Slightly more spicy. The pictures I have seen for these show they have a pigtail but mine didn’t
.
The Mmeh?
ESPORTIVO 40x5
Both the esportivos I had looked great with perfect wrappers and nice caps, but the looks didn’t translate in an equally impressive smoke. Flavourise one was better than the other, but both were less defined than the sticks above (some sweetness at the start a bit of leather at the end), more rugged and had the tendency to go hot if puffed more often than once a minute.
TORPEDITO 36x5
Again, great looks but only OK smoke. I had the feeling these were slightly less packed than the rest. The Torpedito I smoked was really the odd one out compared to the other Chinchaleros. A lot more spicy and leathery than the rest and definitely up a notch in the body scale. A bit too rough for my taste but I could imagine others would appreciate these.
The Ugly
PICADILLO 52x4
This cigar really ticked me off. It looks good, burns fine and produces quite a bit of smoke but the flavour drove me nuts; I could see that there was good stuff there (again toasty/sweet spice/some coffee), but that was covered by a lingering burnt note throughout the stick. It made me think of one of those school reports where you read “the pupil could be a good student if he worked harder and concentrated more”. I only smoked one, so possibly they’re not all like that (reading what celsis thinks of these maybe this was a bad one).
CHICOS 30x4
Again, I only had one of these so maybe I got a bad stick, but I never smoked anything that dried my mouth up so much. A mouthful of sawdust might have been better.
All in all, I think you can find some pretty good smokes in the Chinchalero range, even more so considering the price in comparison to other cigars in the UK. Sure, if you look at prices elsewhere
you can find more interesting smokes at similar prices. What keeps me from buying a box, apart the minor detail of having an almost full humi , is that I am not convinced about the consistency of these sticks. Still, I was quite impressed by the tiny Perlas, and I’d probably go for these if I had to pick one.
Although these are not as sexy
as other sticks that usually get reviewed here, I thought I’d put my impressions together here hoping they might be useful to other fellow newbies who might be interested in this brand. There is a general discussion thread on these here , but given this is more of a review I thought it would be better to start a new thread in the right section. If the mods think it would be better to merge these please do and sorry for the duplication.I’m not going to go in a lot of detail for each, so a little general information. I tried all the vitolas Chinchalero makes except the Novillo and Novillo torpedo, which I couldn’t find as singles; these are a bit different than the rest in that they are Nicaraguan puros and are the same format as the NUB 466 (normal shape or torpedo).
Back to the stogies I tried. The tobacco in all of the vitolas below is Ecuador shade grown wrapper (as you can see from the pic below, quite a bit darker than what you would define as Connecticut wrapper), and Honduran/Nicaraguan filler; the only site with any info on the binder (DonCigarro) says it is Sumatra. The strength is to my taste mild/medium and the flavour that is common to all of them is a toasty/woody note with just a little zing. Burn and construction are generally OK, although the wrappers are almost never perfect.
(Torpedito, Picadillo and Esportivo)
Quoting and completely butchering
one of the best Spaghetti Western titles I have split the notes in the Good, the Mmeh? And the Ugly to The Good
PERLA 38x4
The 2 I had stood out from the bunch. The flavour keeps on the notes I mentioned but on top of that there are floral notes (faint to start, stronger near the nub), some leather from halfway and coffee in the last 3rd. The burn was great and one of the two (which had the ugliest of wrappers) gave a pretty impressive ash considering I was smoking outside with quite a strong breeze (sorry for the crappy image, but that's the best I could get with the mobile).
COLITA 30x 5 1/4
The one I smoked was a bit like the Perla but not as good; no floral notes and the leather and coffee are a lot weaker. Slightly more spicy. The pictures I have seen for these show they have a pigtail but mine didn’t
.The Mmeh?
ESPORTIVO 40x5
Both the esportivos I had looked great with perfect wrappers and nice caps, but the looks didn’t translate in an equally impressive smoke. Flavourise one was better than the other, but both were less defined than the sticks above (some sweetness at the start a bit of leather at the end), more rugged and had the tendency to go hot if puffed more often than once a minute.
TORPEDITO 36x5
Again, great looks but only OK smoke. I had the feeling these were slightly less packed than the rest. The Torpedito I smoked was really the odd one out compared to the other Chinchaleros. A lot more spicy and leathery than the rest and definitely up a notch in the body scale. A bit too rough for my taste but I could imagine others would appreciate these.
The Ugly
PICADILLO 52x4
This cigar really ticked me off. It looks good, burns fine and produces quite a bit of smoke but the flavour drove me nuts; I could see that there was good stuff there (again toasty/sweet spice/some coffee), but that was covered by a lingering burnt note throughout the stick. It made me think of one of those school reports where you read “the pupil could be a good student if he worked harder and concentrated more”. I only smoked one, so possibly they’re not all like that (reading what celsis thinks of these maybe this was a bad one).
CHICOS 30x4
Again, I only had one of these so maybe I got a bad stick, but I never smoked anything that dried my mouth up so much. A mouthful of sawdust might have been better.
All in all, I think you can find some pretty good smokes in the Chinchalero range, even more so considering the price in comparison to other cigars in the UK. Sure, if you look at prices elsewhere
you can find more interesting smokes at similar prices. What keeps me from buying a box, apart the minor detail of having an almost full humi , is that I am not convinced about the consistency of these sticks. Still, I was quite impressed by the tiny Perlas, and I’d probably go for these if I had to pick one.
"Come in here, dear Boy, have a cigar" ....Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) 
Comment