Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco

I bought a five pack of these on a whim from one of my usual retailers. I did not know much about the Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco at the time but I have since become somewhat more knowledgeable in a pretty brief amount of time. This line of cigars commemorates the 45th Anniversary for Joya de Nicaragua and celebrates their lineage of being a premier cigar manufacturer for all of those years. These smokes were first released in 2013 and have since been re-released on almost an annual basis. Limited releases are not Joya's bag baby and they could not help themselves from releasing it over and over since 2013. They are not difficult to source from any shop or retailer that regularly carries Joya de Nicaragua smokes. 

The Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco can be found in four different vitolas: Double Robusto, Torpedo, Petite Corona, and a Toro with the sample for this review being the later. The Petite Corona can run from around $7 USD per stick and the Torpedo, being the most expensive runs around $10.50 USD per stick. The middle price range for the Double Robusto and Toro sizes runs about $9 USD.

These cigars are Nicaraguan puros that feature a wrapper from the Jalapa region of the country. Is it me or has this been a theme of recent reviews? I have not intended it to be that way but whatever. The Joya Cuatro Cinco features tobacco that has been aged for five years. The package is bound by a black band with silver accents.

Wrapper: Nicaragua

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Nicaragua

Length: 6 1/4"

Ring Gauge: 50

Size: Toro

The Smoke: I enjoyed this cigar early morning on a Saturday along with a nice Americano. The glamour shot above was taken mere moments before cutting the cigar with my Xikar V-cut (also pictured). The Jalapa region wrapper provides deep brown color, is oily to the touch, and has some veins. The cigar feels solid in my hand and has some sponginess to it when squeezed. The construction feels good but there is a small cut to the wrapper near the head, probably from my mishandling. 

The cold draw of the cigar is very good. The flavor on cold draw is leather, earth, and cedar. Lighting the cigar came quick and there was a bright red cherry with each draw. The light cigar continues with solid leather and wood notes. Espresso and nut are also mixed in the first quarter of the smoke. The smoke progresses quickly. Spice and pepper join about mid-smoke. The cigar has sweetness that appears, disappears, then reappears from beginning to end almost like a perfect mathematical sine curve. 

The body of the smoke is medium to full bodied. At no point did I feel over powered by Nicotine and the amount of flavors felt perfect for an early morning smoke with a nice espresso based cup of joe.

The burn rate is more or less even for the life of the smoke, which just so happens to be about an hour. The cigar burns faster than others of similar size but I took no issue with it as I typically do not have time to sit on my rear and chug on a cigar for hours on end. The construction also remained relatively intact and the cut in the wrapper never became an issue. 

I enjoyed this cigar immensely. I have more than happy to have picked up a 5 pack. I think if my humidor was less full I probably would have liked more to light up but I certainly would not put these in the "must have a box category."

The Score:  Buy a 10 pack