Wed 1 Mar 2006
As you can see the Flor de Copan Belicoso is quite a nice looking cigar. It comes wrapped in its own cedar strip held neatly in place by two bands at either extreme. Remove the cedar and you will see a very clean, light wrapper, with no blemishes or imperfections. It feels solid and thick. With this much attention to detail, one would think to be holding a winner. The fact that there is nothing on the nose of the pre-lit cigar, though, stirs up doubt.
A quick clip and light later, the doubt quickly materializes. The aroma of the cigar is very muted, almost no taste whatever to reward the smoker. There is also very little smoke in comparison to other similar cigars, and considering the large gauge.
I thought I’d give it more time before settling down my opinion of this one. So, on I went, first third, second third, and still just a very faint scent and flavor of a woody nature, but very flat, and lacking any merit worth mentioning. The one redeeming feature of the cigar is its easy combustion and the even hassle free burn. The ash is also above average.
Finally, well into the last third, as in a huge effort to put out some flavor the cigar yields some dry notes of cedar and maybe a tiny bit of spice, but by now I was already dreaming about the Cuban Crafters Robusto I was going to have after this.
A cigar that fails to get your attention throughout, the Flor de Copan Belicoso simply doesn’t deliver. It’s not that I am disappointed with the light-bodied smoke; the cigar simply has no appreciable character I would ever imagine anyone would enjoy. Why a tabaclera would spend so much attention to detail for a cigar that isn’t worth the cedar strip it’s wrapped in is beyond me.
Oh well… CCR Robusto here I come…
July 19th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
What an excellent review–unless, of course, you just purchased a box of Flor de Copan. I have smoked several of the figurados, which I purchase from a large on-line cigar store, and came to the same conclusions about this brand: pretty cigar, unremarkable character. I would describe the taste as bland and unremarkable, perhaps slightly charred. Seems like I remember getting a headache smoking them. These cigars would make a nice prop in a gangster movie. They are testament to the fact that you cannot judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a belicoso by its wrapper.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I had the same experience with the first cigar I bought while traveling since I had no cigars left. It was not until two months later, after having humidified them for that long, that I had the next few. And they were at that point completely different cigars. They were fantastic with all the flavor the manufacturers promised.
Almost all cigars should be humidified first. I don’t believe in the idea that the day a cigar is bought it is ready to be smoked. I only do that if I have no other cigars humidified. Normally I put them right in the humidor and leave them alone.
Flor de Copan is a cigar that benefits greatly form time in the humidor.