Ashton La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Marquis Tubo

Distributed by Ashton, blended by the infamous Jose 'Don' Pepin Garcia, the Mi Amor is quite a beautiful and complex cigar. I was fortunate enough to catch a Mi Amor tasting event at the Manassas, VA Dominion Tobacco store last week. There, they had some almonds (to cleanse the palate), dark 75% chocolate, and coconut shavings along with a shot of some damn fine spiced rum. We sampled a cigar with those pairings and it was wonderful. They had a special of 20% off any purchase of the Mi Amors (singles or a box) and $10 off with our ticket. Hell, I was thinking of buying a box for around $150......but then thought a 5 pack of each size would suffice. I even got a free 'unreleased' marquis tubo for free.  It DOES have the red ribbon band around the bottom, so it looks like the la aroma de cuba edicion especial (LAdCEE).  But I assure you it's the Mi Amor, just the non released one (the rep didn't say why it wasn't going to be released).  So all in all, $50 for the even and 7 cigars (one of them I smoked at the tasting). Not a bad deal!

When I pulled this 5.5 x 5 cigar out of the tube at the event, it looked a little mangy and crooked. I almost asked if I could have another to replace it, but didn't think it'd be a big deal. The wrapper is a beeeautiful dark chocolate brown, glistening with oils. There is one big vein running the length of the cigar however. Pre-light aroma is nice, typical tobacco and fresh "barnyard" aroma that most good cigars should have. I'm pairing it with a glass of 2009 Coastline Cabernet Sav.

Upon lighting, you get the typical DPG ('Don' Pepin Garcia) blast of spice. Lots of leather and a very nice hint of mocha. Lots of white-gray smoke.

About a 1/3rd into the cigar, leather flavors remain and the mocha kicks it up a little. The spice settles down just a bit. The flavors really linger as I roll my tongue around my palate. Tasty. The ash is white-n-black peppered ash. Burn so far is razor sharp.

1/2 way though all the flavors and spice remains, but the mocha picks up just a tad. Very flavorful I'm really enjoying this cigar at this point, the PML cigar I reviewed previously had a lot of mocha flavor, this not as much but is very well balanced.

The last 1/3rd of the cigar, the leather and spice begins to pick up and the mocha begins to settle down.

This was a wonderful, complex cigar. They were released early September 2010, so with some rest these should be a little more complex. The vitola I had at the tasting event was a little more complex (the Magnifico vitola) than this one. All in all, a very very tasty cigar! If you're a fan of DPG or Ashton cigars, this one will for sure win you over.