Initial Thoughts
This Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto is a very unique looking cigar. I came across these cigars because the company is based in Nashville and one of the sales reps reached out to me wanted me to try the cigars. I’m always up for trying out new local stuff and seeing what it has to offer. An interesting thing about this cigar is that Bellaterra has a contest called the “Black and Tan Big Ash” where the goal is to try and hold the ash down to the maduro part of the cigar. For me I didn’t make it that far, but I was also moving around a lot taking pictures and everything like that. Oh well, maybe next time!
Looks
So why is the Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto called a black and tan? Well it’s fairly obvious once you look at the cigar. The cigar consists of two different colored wrappers. A Nicaraguan maduro wrapper that starts where the band is and goes up towards the foot of the cigar. The rest of the wrapper is a nice tan Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. Both wrappers are flawless and beautiful. The maduro is a nice deep rich looking wrapper, where the Connecticut is a nice tan and incredibly smooth.
The band on this cigar is almost a black and tan version as well. The outer part of the band consists of a very dark reddish brown brand that almost fades into the maduro tip of the cigar. The center of the band is a lighter brown that is very close to the same color as the Connecticut wrapper. On each end of the band there is a horseshoe as well, this is on every Bellaterra product that I’ve seen. I tried to look on their website to find some reasoning behind it, but was unable to locate anything. So we’re just going to have to believe it’s a superstitious thing, maybe?
The rest of this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto looks incredible. The head has beautiful cap on it, I honestly can’t see if it’s a triple cap or not because the maduro tip is so dark. The foot is nice and open and packed full of ‘backer (tobacco for you non-rednecks). Overall a great looking cigar, I’m ready to get into the pre-game of this cigar and see what’s going on!
Function
Feeling up and down the barrel of this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto it feels very firm and packed to the gills with tobacco. Not a single soft spot in the filler. There are not any noticeable veins running up and down the barrel. So preliminary tests show that this cigar should be awesome when smoking!
Time to decapitate it and test the cold draw. The draw is fairly open, not incredibly tight which is perfect. I do prefer a little resistance to my draw. That way I’m not choking on a ton of smoke. There’s nothing that ruins a good cigar faster than a bad draw. That’s one thing that always worries me about new boutique cigars, I’m always worried about their construction and where they were made. If they’re made in a sub par factory, chances are the smoking experience is going to be sub par even if the flavors are incredible. So far this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto is getting great marks!
Smoking
Lets put this stick to fire and see what happens! … I bet it burns, just saying, I’m no scientist, but I have a feeling it lights right up. So as I’m sitting out in my garage about to light this thing up I look down at my heater and think to myself… Could I light this with my propane heater? Well the obvious answer was to try it, but the intelligent answer was to not even think about it again. So for once in my life I took the intelligent path and decided not to light this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto with my propane heater. Can you imagine the taste you get from the propane on this cigar? Not to mention the fact that I would probably burn my face off.
So I stuck to my Xikar Stratosphere to toast the foot. This is a little larger ring gauge than I’ve been smoking lately so I wanted to make sure and give it a proper toasting so it would burn evenly. Plus, I wanted to try and hold the ash all the way down to the maduro tip. So I had to give myself all the advantages I could right?
The first third started out great on this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto. A nice even burn holding an ash for a good inch to inch and a half. The burn line was fairly straight nothing to worry about thus far.
The second third started out pretty good, but I did have to recut the head of the stick. I think I was slobbering on it too much and the open part started to close and was making it a tough draw for me. So I snipped the head again to open it up and it burned perfectly the rest of the way through the cigar. This has happened on more than this occasion with other cigars. Maybe I’m not cutting enough off initially with my capped back cutter, but at the same time I don’t to remove so much that the draw is completely wide open. It’s a chess game between me and these cigars! Ok, not really, but it is a little bit of trial and error though! Enough about all this, how in the hell does it taste?
Flavor
Well as you might expect I got quite a few different notes from this cigar. On the initial dry draw I picked up a lot of sweetness especially on my lips, but that mainly comes from the maduro tip of the wrapper. It’s a nice sweetness that I was actually expecting and quite enjoyed.
During the first third I got a bit a spice on the lips which comes predominately from the Nicaraguan tobacco in the filler. I also picked up some slight hay notes, which are probably attributed to the Connecticut wrapper. Not a ton of dominant flavors, in the first third, just a nice balanced creamy smoker so far.
In the second third the Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto picked up some steam. The spice really kicked up in the retrohale and offered some notes of dark coffee and earth. I’m still getting that sweetness on my lips from the maduro, it’s not overpowering, it’s a nice compliment to the rest of the smoke blends rather with the other flavors.
The final third was more of the same. The spice died down some on the retrohale, but similar flavors were still there. I picked up spice, a slight hay note, and the sweetness from maduro wrapper. I would say this was a fairly complex cigar, but it was blended incredibly well. Personally I would call it a Medium body cigar in regards to strength and Full bodied in terms of flavor. There is a lot going on with this cigar.
Would I Buy It Again?
I would buy this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto again. I want to participate in the Big Ash challenge and try to smoke it down to the maduro tip.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
For me it’s not, I’m not a huge fan of this vitola, it’s a little on the large size for me.
Would I Buy a Box?
Depends on the price. It would be interesting to see how these age and if the maduro wrapper intensifies some or stays sweet.
Conclusion
I think this Bellaterra Black & Tan Double Robusto is a great cigar. It’s kind of right there in the middle of strength and flavor. I think it’s a great introduction for new cigar smokers to start stepping out and trying some fuller bodied smokes. It offers quite a few different flavors and it’s at a good price point as well. So by all means go out and try to find some! If you can’t find them they do sell them by the boxes on Bellaterra’s website.
