Cigar Review: Sancho Panza Valiente Natural

Hi all, so we had First Friday here the other day in beautiful Downtown Fort Collins, when I felt that something was missing, so I popped into Al's News and grabbed a Sancho Panza Valiente Natural from their small humidor. Sancho Panza for me has been a long time favorite simply because they are a cheap, reliable cigar. I typically keep a box or so of the Double Maduro in my humidor and use as my staple cigar, so my expectations were higher than with a blind critique. Sancho Panza, owned and made by El Rey del Mundo, was to have started from German business man Emilio Ohmstedt in 1848. In 1882, Spanish business man Antonio Allones took over the company, which translated into English means King of the World, and brought it to its world-wide prestige. El Rey del Mundo and Sancho Panza, were once regarded as the most expensive and highly prestigious cigars until tastes started turning towards more stronger cigars. Today they are still enjoyed for their lighter, complex flavors.

A few notes on construction, the cigar itself looked very smooth, with an even brown wrapper with a hint of red, and the leaf only showed a little bit of its vein. It had a firm feel without being too hard, while still feeling supple to the fingertips. The cap came off very easy during cutting and not a lot of debris afterward. It had a fairly nice draw, a bit hard, but not hard enough to really have a negative effect on the smoking experience. Through its burn it had a nice zebra striped ash that was able to cling for almost half the stick, and remained a fairly even burn most of the way through the smoke, only once it got past the halfway mark did it really need a touch up light to even it back out.

Starting on the flavor, upon lighting the cigar it had a bit of a bite, just enough to tease the back of my tongue. It started with a distinct coffee flavor, a hint of wood and a bit of cashew and pepper as well. Getting to the midway point of the cigar was enjoyable, the coffee flavor got sweetened a bit and creamier, almost as if it started black, then someone had added cream and sugar. The wood had gone away and the cashew was JUST noticeable. The last third of the cigar, the coffee started to go away and was replaced with more of a peppered, nutty flavor. The smoke throughout this was nice, billowed and smooth. Overall this cigar lived up to my expectations that I have come to appreciate from those folks at Sancho Panza. I paired this up with an organic, fair trade coffee I had discovered that same night in a store called Ten Thousand Villages.