Balmoral Puro Nicaragua Rothschild Masivo (Single Loose Cigar)

• Length: 127mm
• Gauge: 55
• Strength: Medium to Full
• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Jalapa
• Binder: Nicaraguan Jalapa
• Filler: Nicaraguan Ometepe, Estelí & Condega
• Handrolled Cigars

Balmoral Puro Nicaragua Rothschild Masivo

Balmoral has spent much of its modern history making clever blends from tobaccos grown in several different countries. With the Puro Nicaragua, they decided to stay put.

And Nicaragua gives a blender quite enough to work with.

The Balmoral Puro Nicaragua Rothschild Masivo is made entirely from Nicaraguan tobacco, but importantly, not all from the same patch of earth. Balmoral has drawn on four of Nicaragua's principal tobacco-growing regions, using each for a different part of the blend.

Both the wrapper and binder come from Jalapa, up near the Honduran border. Jalapa's higher elevations and particular growing conditions are associated with tobacco of greater sweetness and finesse than some of Nicaragua's heavier leaf. Inside, Balmoral combines three different filler tobaccos: Ometepe, Estelí and Condega.

That's a rather good tour of Nicaragua for something only five inches long.

The Rothschild Masivo measures 5" with a substantial 55 ring gauge, so this is a short, thick cigar with a great deal of tobacco packed into its modest length. It isn't box-pressed, retaining the traditional round parejo form seen in the photograph.

The smoking character is medium to medium-full, with plenty of richness but not simply brute strength. Coffee and roasted flavours tend to lead, joined by nuts, earth and natural sweetness, with wood and black pepper developing as the cigar progresses. Specialist reviews have also picked up cocoa, bread and darker chocolate notes as the blend develops.

Its broad ring gauge gives those different filler leaves room to work together. Expect plenty of smoke and around an hour to 70 minutes from a Rothschild Masivo, depending on pace.

Even the rather splendid bands have some thought behind them. The blue, black and gold artwork is a deliberate tribute to Nicaragua itself. Elements of the design reference the country's volcanic soils, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the rising sun and the National Artisan Market in Masaya.

The photograph shows just how striking they are: a large blue-and-gold Puro Nicaragua main band accompanied by a matching Puro Rothschild Masivo foot band. The box carries the same artwork and holds 20 cigars.

It is an interesting direction for Balmoral. Rather than using an exotic wrapper to provide the headline, they've taken four very different Nicaraguan growing regions and asked the tobacco to explain itself.

Jalapa on the outside; Ometepe, Estelí and Condega inside. That's most of the geography lesson taken care of. The remaining hour can be spent smoking it.