3 Regular Guys Review: Augusto Reyes Nativo

Reyes is Spanish for Kings, which seems fitting when you look at the Reyes’ family resume in the tobacco business. A century and a half working directly with tobacco creates a positive sense of obligation, as trustee of a craft handed you by generations before. So it is with Augusto Reyes, who is known as a veritable king by industry insiders but less so by John Q. Smoker. Reyes has been crafting exceptional cigars in his factories for countless top brands, but only now, with his blend Nativo, has he put his name on the band.
Nativo, Spanish for native, is also well named as this cigar is a Dominican puro. The filler is a blend of Olor, Criollo 98, and Piloto Cubano. The binder on our Corona size Nativos is Olor and the wrapper is Criollo 98, which is evident by its trademark hue. Colm expected to feel some oiliness to the wrapper, but didn’t. Scott did detect some oil, which made him anticipate the richer flavor when lit. Corona Chris thought the wrapper was actually a bit fragile. But, on the whole this was a well constructed cigar. The cap cut and held exactly as it should.
Once lit, the draw was optimal and scored high by everyone, having just enough even resistance. This stick produced plenty of mellow, cool smoke. Corona Chris thought the Nativo tasted rich and smooth, but noted that after the halfway point it began to lose some of its smoothness. Colm thought the A. Reyes Nativo tasted fantastic, and was medium to full in body. Corona Chris and Scott both thought that this tasty cigar was a lot closer to the low end of medium strength. The Nativo has plenty of structure though and is satisfyingly balanced. Our Nativos burned well and turned into dense, light gray ash. The finish was short and clean.
Overall, Colm thought that this was a great smoke and a bit stronger than he expected. He immediately requested more samples for further testing. Corona Chris enjoyed the aroma of Nativo and thought it’d be a solid choice for a late-morning through afternoon smoke. Scott enjoyed this Dominican puro’s consistency as he had smoked quite a number of them previously and each was predictably satisfying. Almost without a doubt, you have already smoked a cigar that was made by Augusto Reyes. Now, it’s time to really give his craftsmanship a shot by smoking this first cigar to have his name on it.

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3 Regular Guys Review: La Gloria Cubana Churchill Natural

La Gloria Cubana is great brand by Ernesto Perez-Carillo. Actually, it was started by his father and Ernesto went out into the world earning his living as a jazz musician –sound eerily similar to Avo Uvezian? After a while Ernesto decided that maybe the cigar business and his family’s tradition in it was really something that he should embrace. He returned home to Miami, learned the business from his father and then took it even further under his own direction.

Also similar to Avo Uvezian, Ernesto’s compositions of tobacco are pretty enticing. Lend me your ear because we got to smoke the La Gloria Cubana Churchill in Natural wrapper. We’ve had this stick for a few weeks laying up in each of our humidors on our desks –a nice thing about working for a cigar company is that having your own personal humidor on your desk doesn’t really set you apart and sometimes you can glean some nice quality free sticks to stock it up with. Despite our initial doubts that Colm would even still have his cigar –given his penchant for gifting away anything lacking an Arturo Fuente band- he was able to locate his and the couple of weeks nestled up next to cedar could have only been a good thing for this cigar.

Now, first off, we were all a little reluctant to smoke this cigar as we do like La Gloria quite a lot (Scott most out of all three of us), but we do certainly prefer Ernesto’s Serie R creations and Maduro makes it even better. Also this was a Churchill that we smoked and those tend to take a bit of time. Our smoking breaks, whether on assignment or purely personal, can easily stretch to the burn time of a robusto, but a Churchill is a bit of a stretch. However, for a fair assessment, you’ve gotta give the stick some length to show it’s whole personality. So, being the devoted bloggers for you that we are, we 3 Regular Guys smoked almost the whole thing.

This cigar has a very smooth wrapper that has almost imperceptible veins running through it. It has a very deep double cap that cut nicely and held up great. Dave of course is of the opinion that a good cap is only half of the equation and a good cutter, like our slew of Xikars we pack with us, is necessary to execute it properly. Pre-light the wrapper smells like leather. The filler however did tip us off as smelling a little bit like young tobacco that could use a little more time to age up.

The cigars all lit quite nicely. The draw was pretty good, but Scott thought it was a bit firm even for a Churchill. The downside of it was the stick didn’t produce all that much smoke. They burned pretty evenly and yielded a nice light gray/white ash.

Right out of the gate these sticks didn’t wow us. It was a little disorganized and started out somewhat peppery and bitter. Fortunately this was a brief phase for it and once it burned past about half-inch it smoothed out a lot and gained a pleasant toasty taste. The smoke had a nice creamy note to it, but it was a bit subtle to pick up on due to the low volume of smoke it produced.

Once this big Churchill found it’s direction it was a nice smoke. It certainly stayed cool and had a short to medium finish that was notably dry. This La Gloria stayed very consistent. It did not come across as being complex however in its defense it was definitely balanced. This is a good stick for the Natural smoker and also a pretty nice entry point for the novice. We would probably recommend a shorter length and a bigger ring to try to max out the smoke a bit so you can get a better feel for the flavors of this tobacco.

This cigar is a very good candidate for a daily cigar. It’s not quite exemplary enough to set itself out there as a special occasion cigar. There was a little bit of an unpleasant aftertaste, but we were smoking these alongside bottles of Florida’s finest –spring water. Substitute in a nice single-malt or a dunkel weise and you’d never notice. Give this stick a try, it’s worth it!

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