La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Staff Review
Today I’m revisiting Mi Amor, a pivotal cigar from the historic Cuban-legacy brand, La Aroma de Cuba, which is blended and produced by the Garcia family in Nicaragua. Mi Amor has become a staple in premium brick-and-mortar stores and one of the most acclaimed Nicaraguan cigars since its debut over fifteen years ago. Cigar Aficionado ranked it as the ‘#2 Cigar of the Year’ in 2011. The blend has appeared in the publication’s annual ‘Top 25’ five times. Following years of impressive ratings and status as a leading Nicaraguan blend, let’s revisit this iconic cigar in a 7-by-50 Churchill to see how it performs and resonates.
La Aroma de Cuba is blended with a toothsome San Andrés wrapper and vintage Nicaraguan long-filler tobaccos, all of which are triple-fermented and aged for at least five years. José ‘Pepin’ Garcia and Jaime Garcia, the legendary father-and-son cigarmakers behind My Father Cigars, are industry pioneers for their use of San Andrés wrappers. They continually work with San Andrés tobacco to create award-winning cigars with impeccable balance.
The ancient Mesoamerican Olmecs cultivated tobacco in the San Andrés Valley in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Modern cigarmakers have been harvesting San Andrés tobacco for their blends since the 1830s, and the plants are stalk-cut, similar to Connecticut Broadleaf crops.
La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor cigars are handcrafted in Estelí, Nicaragua, in five box-pressed sizes, plus a thick 6-by-60 Valentino, rolled in a round format. The cigars come in 25-count, blue-and-white boxes with elegant blue bands depicting a Victorian woman, derived from the brand’s original 1800s-era artwork, when the cigar was made in Cuba. When I crack the lid on a full box, a row of uniform Churchills glistens with an attractive sheen, making it tough to pick just one cigar.
Deep aromas of chocolate and pepper provide a sweet, enticing preview when I slip an oily Churchill from its cellophane sleeve. The wrapper displays a network of subtle veins from head to foot, in a cigar that passes my pinch test with flying colors. The Garcias are well known for making cigars of superior consistency, due to their high standards for blending and handcrafting the world’s finest tobaccos. After clipping the cigar’s Cuban-style triple cap with my guillotine cutter, Mi Amor offers approachable notes of malted chocolate, coffee bean, and wood in the cold draw.
An undercurrent of black pepper mingles with frothy intonations of espresso and almond after toasting the foot and tasting the cigar’s exceptional draw in the first minutes. The Churchill exhibits meticulous construction, offering abundant streams of creamy, white smoke that I can easily push through my nose, enhancing the underlying spice. This well-rounded smoke appeals to a wide range of cigar lovers, from beginners to seasoned connoisseurs, thanks to its versatile taste. Almond and dark cocoa complement hints of coconut right up until I gently peel the band off to savor the nub. Mi Amor offers a dependable core of black pepper that coincides with its remarkably sweet taste.
It’s not surprising that critics and aficionados express such fondness for La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor. The flavor and aroma contribute to its top-notch performance throughout the final moments. You can pair Mi Amor with vintage bourbon or a gourmet coffee for an equally satisfying experience. And its pristine white-and-gray ash stays intact until I’m prepared to tap it off over my ashtray. Choosing your favorite size is the only challenge left to resolve.
La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor hovers around $10 per cigar, making it a phenomenal value and worthy of a full-box purchase. If you’re versed in this popular smoke and looking for comparable profiles to enjoy, consider La Aroma de Cuba Noblesse and La Aroma de Cuba Reserva, both of which feature a stronger Oscuro version of the beloved San Andrés wrapper. In the meantime, order more Mi Amor for your humidor.
