Jose Pepin Garcia is one of most well known master rollers and blenders in the cigar industry. He is responsible for some of the best cigars currently on the market, such as Tatuaje and Padilla Miami 8&11. The Don Pepin Garcia Blue Labels are medium to full bodied Nicaraguan Puros with a Corojo wrapper. I picked up a Generoso, a 6×50 Toro.
Blue Labels are spice bombs and not for the faint of heart. Even before lighting this cigar you can taste the spice oozing out of it. The wrapper has a nice oily sheen, but is a bit veiny. Two of the six cigars I smoke were a bit soft and one did split the wrapper while I was smoking, but they were never unsmokeable. I also had a bit of an issue with the burn. I had to touch these cigars up more the once to keep a nice even burn.
This cigar is a smack in the face when it comes to flavor. It hits with a blast of Black Peppercorn right on the first draw. The spice did mellow out and more complex adding a nice hardwood smokey flavor that was a bit sweeter. All six of the cigars I smoked were very consistent in flavor and not a one of them was a disappointment in taste.
You can’t go wrong with these cigars, but they do run a bit on the fuller side of medium so be prepared. My only concern is with the construction, a couple of the cigars were a bit soft and the one did split on me. Even with those problems I’m going to continue to keep a few of these in my humidor and will consider purchasing a box of them down the road. Rating 7.5 out of 10.
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Anyone who’s been to my site knows I’m a huge Don Pepin fan. I love these blue label cigars. I am concerned though. All the ones I’ve smoked were bought several months ago and lately I have heard comments similar to yours expressing concern about quality control and construction. The ones I’ve smoked have all been firm with nice straight burns. I hope with his rapid expansion that we aren’t seeing a decline in quality control from him. I just hope that this is just an aberration, the the frequency in which I am hearing these concerns has me worried.
I really hope the Blues I smoke in the future do not have these issues also, because if the construction improves these cigars would be a 9 out of 10 instead of a 7.5.
Jack, I think you and I talked about this.. I had the same damn thing happen to me and it was a real shame because I do love the flavor of these cigars, but both of them fell apart.
I’m going to watch the box on the shelf in my local B&M and when they restock it I’ll try another to see if we have any improvement.
Just picked up one of these today… can’t wait to fire it up and try it out meself!
Oh man you are in for it now! These are one of my favorite cigars. The few I had around the time I wrote this review I had some problems with the wrapper cracking, but since then I’ve had absolutely no issues.
So I finally smoked this one (it was a torpedo) on Sunday night outside in the 17 degree weather while cooking in the hottub, and I was really surprised at the spice it threw off.
It was almost too spicy at first, but after a bit it did indeed mellow out in to a wonderful smoke. The after taste wasn’t as bad as some others either.
I’d definitely smoke this one again.
I just got through smoking a Don Pepin Blue and was amazed at all the pepper and cream at the end. A great strong smoking experience.
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