2 Regular Guys Review: Perdomo Lot 23 Belicoso Natural

Filler; binder; wrapper. Every premium cigar is made from a blend of tobaccos. Although the Cuban revolution caused significant personal tragedy the ensuing diaspora actually served as a tremendous boon for the cigar industry. Now makers select the finest tobaccos from across the globe, though mostly from Central America, and blend them together to create their personal vision of the perfect cigar.

Cigar tobaccos, like wine grapes, acquire a tremendous amount of their character from the local soil and microclimate (terroir in wine terms). Therefore by selecting from this broad array of available tobacco you can fine tune and dial in your blend to achieve the exact balance you’re after. Varying the filler leaves or selecting a certain binder or wrapper inches you toward that goal.

So it naturally follows that creating the optimal cigar becomes increasingly more difficult if you set out to make a puro in which all of the tobacco leaves are from the same country. A few makers out there even craft an entire cigar from tobaccos grown not just in the same country but also in the same region or valley. The Perdomos, Nick Sr. and Nick Jr., apparently decided why not limit themselves even further and still make a great cigar. They did just that with the introduction of the Perdomo Lot 23. This cigar is composed of filler and binder tobacco grown exclusively on “Lot 23” on one of Tabacalera Perdomo’s farms supervised by Gonzalo Puentes near Estelí, Nicaragua. The wrapper is an Ecuadorian Connecticut-shade wrapper but aside from that single leaf, every other leaf in the rest of the cigar is from tobacco plants grown within eyesight of each other.

Corona Chris gave us 2 Regular Guys the Perdomo Lot 23 Belicoso. This was a great looking cigar 5 ¾” x 54 with a distinctively pointy tip. The Ecuadorian Connecticut-shade wrapper had an even parchment color. It did not have much of any oily appearance and really looked subdued. The wrapper leaf itself did have some spice when touched to your lips. The cigar was certainly enticing and appeared beautifully constructed except the filler seemed to not be packed very firmly.

Cutting the lengthy cap was easy and clean. Colm cut a little further down the cap than Scott which soon presented itself as a slight problem. Due to the lightly packed filler this cigar draws super easy –almost like a straw if you cut a smidge too deep as Colm did. Scott also commented on the draw being very easy but was redeemed by his much shallower cut so the taper of the belicoso gave some slight resistance to enhance the draw quality. Do not overcut! Cut it shallow and take more off if needed. Either way we were eager to taste this cigar rolled from a very small corner of the tobacco fields of Estelí.

Out of the gate this mostly Nic cigar started to show its pedigree. The start was strong and had a good amount of spice. Definitely pleasant but cause to perhaps be wary depending on what was to follow. After the first ¾” this cigar began to showcase its medium body smoke, mellow yet deceptive strength, and smoothed out quite a bit. Scott and Colm both noted the medium length and surprisingly light finish on the palate.

Smoking it further the cigar kept a medium body, produced copious amounts of smoke and was modest and balanced in strength. Both of us did notice that while the finish was still short to medium in length and light the aftertaste began to linger a little more. That was not a problem as it gave some complexity to the overall cigar.

The aroma had just the vaguest hint of ammonia and otherwise just had a toasty cedar wood nose to it. The cigar continued to remain balanced and the strength returned in the final third with the smoke becoming a little fuller bodied. Though balanced throughout, at least this time we didn’t catch a lot of complexity.

All in all we thought this was a great project cigar. High praise goes out to Nick Perdomo Jr. on this one. They set out to make a unique concept cigar and they did. We found a few things that we think could be tweaked, like the easy draw and the risk of over smoking this cigar making it quite hot, but on the whole this was a very pleasant smoke. Oh, and not to forget, we loved the band too. With its ink drawing of a tobacco field in the Nicaraguan landscape and a drying barn in the foreground it seemed to have a classical elegance to it. Are the two regular guys ready to never stray outside of Lot 23? Nope. Would we smoke this trademark stogie again? You bet!


Click Here To Order The Perdomo Lot 23 Belicoso Natural!