Los Blancos Nine

Lucky Number Nine

The Nine is the latest offering from Los Blancos cigars.  It’s a full-bodied cigar featuring a Habano Oscuro wrapper and a triple ligero filler.  The Nine is offered in several vitolas including a robusto, churchill, belicoso and lancero.

I recently had the opportunity to meet David Blanco at an event where he was launching the Nine and was able to speak with him quite a bit about it’s origins.  David is very enthusiastic about this cigar; he refers to it as his “masterpiece”.  He explained that he wanted to add a full-flavored, full-bodied cigar to the Los Blancos offerings and he finally created that cigar with the help of Jose Torres.  Naming the cigar Nine seemed to be predestined; this was the ninth blend they sampled and it is being being released in the company’s ninth year of business.  I asked David if he had any other blends before this one that he thought were good enough to be “the one” and he said they almost went with the third blend, he felt it was an excellent cigar but still didn’t quite catch him as exactly what he was looking for at the time.   He did share with me that we may see blend #3 released at a later date.  I picked up a few of the robusto size cigars, however David mentioned that the lancero is the best of the sizes and some others at the event echoed that.

The Stats

Los Blancos Nine
Wrapper:  Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder:  Nicaraguan
Filler:  Nicaraguan Triple Ligero
Size: Robusto – 5″ x 50 RG
Price: ~$8.50 (I don’t recall my exact price)
Beverage: Black coffee

The Smoke

This is a fantastic looking, very dark brown cigar with a couple of small veins on the wrapper.  It feels slightly dry to the touch, with a slight toothiness and has a gorgeous sheen.  The cigar is overall very firm; however one of the cigars I smoked did have a slightly softer spot in the middle.  The cap cut easily and the pre light draw was quite open with a slight flavor of sweet tobacco.  I toasted the foot with a soft flame lighter and a couple puffs and this lit evenly and quickly.

First Third: The cigar offered up a generous amount of smoke easily with each draw.  Predominant flavors here were oil and leather backed by sweet tobacco.  The flavors are very deep and rich, but never overpowering.  This is very full-flavored with a great smoothness to it.  The burn was straight however the ash flaked some after about the first inch but held tight after that.

Second Third: As I moved into the second third the flavors of oil and leather were joined by deep espresso, this continues to be a very rich cigar and is showing its complexity here.  I did have some minor burn issues (right where I noted the soft spot) but a quick touch up and the cigar corrected nicely.

Final Third: As I get into the final third of the Nine I can start to feel the power of this cigar.  I never became queasy but felt quite relaxed and a little light in the head, the perfect amount of kick here to know that you’re smoking a full-bodied stick.  The excellent flavors continued and I was able to take this to the nub without any bitterness or harshness.

Final Thoughts: I really love this cigar.  David has good reason to be proud of the Nine.  It burns well, tastes fantastic and gives you just enough punch to know that it means business.  I’ve smoked 3 in the last week, have promised one to a friend, and now I need to get some more.  In my opinion, Los Blancos has a real winner with the Nine.

The Short Version

- Great construction
- Burns well but required minor touch-ups
- Deep and rich oil, leather and espresso
- Full-bodied with a decent kick
- I’ve smoked three of these in a week and will get more of them