El Centurion – My Father Cigars

Initial Thoughts

Some of you may notice the name El Centurion as a previously released cigar from the My Father Cigar clan. They originally released this back in 2007. It was a limited release smoke that only came out in 2,550 boxes. So not too many cigars were released back then. However, this cigar has a new blend, and new look to go along with it. It’s being released as part of a 10 year anniversary to celebrate Jose “Pepin” Garcia. Other than that, there’s not much that I know about this stick. I didn’t get to experience it the first time around back in 2007, but apparently everyone that did is really excited that it’s back. So let’s hop to it and see what all the excitement is about.

Looks

The first thing I notice about this El Centurion is the band. It’s big, bold, and reddish-orange. It has a giant C in the middle like it’s being labeled the captain of the team. El Capitan might have been a good name for this cigar as well, or maybe not, what do I know. There are quite a few colors going on in the band. Lots of gold trimming and swirls. The center is focused with a nice orange-red gradient behind that C. Above that you see the entire name ‘El Centurion’. On the tabs of the band you different gold medallions that are too small to determine what they actually are, and on one side the name My Father Cigars is printed. It’s a beautiful band, but it’s a little large, but hey it made me pick it up and buy it didn’t it?

The wrapper on this cigar is absolutely beautiful! It has a ton of tooth on it and it almost has a nice velvety feel to it. Which makes it easy to hold. It’s a robusto (5″x50) so it’s not a huge size, which I’m thankful for. The wrapper is a nice dark brown, just a few shades away from being a maduro. There are a couple of long veins that run the course of the wrapper, so we’ll see if those cause any burn issues along the way.

Function

The triple cap on the head of this El Centurion is very noticeable. There are three very distinct lines around the cap that swirl up towards the final cap placement. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a cap with such defined lines before. I performed the pinch test up and down the barrel and there was plenty of bounce back which I was excited about. I love when a cigar has a nice amount of sponginess to it because I know it is probably packed perfectly and I shouldn’t have any draw issues. I’ve typically found that I have draw issues when the cigar is packed so tight that you can barely pinch it. Now that’s not always the case, but for me it’s more often than not.

I went ahead and cut off that beautiful triple cap on the head because I wanted to test the dry draw. I took a few puffs to see how easily the air was flowing through the barrel. It was flowing too well because all of a sudden a gust of air hit the back of my throat and made me start coughing. I wasn’t exactly ready for it and it took me by surprise. Just as I suspected this cigar had a great draw, maybe a little too great, but hey I’ll take that over a stiff draw any day of the week! Let’s light it up and get to smoking this thing!

Smoking

Now that all the pre-game festivities are over it’s time to dive into the real meat of this cigar. I jumped right in and began toasting the foot of the cigar. I got it nice and black before I put it to my mouth to begin puffing on it. Needless to say, this cigar took off quickly. With the easy draw I was able to pull the flame right in without any issues and we were off to the races.

This El Centurion just came out of the gate ready to burn. The burn line was perfectly straight all the way around forming a nice little lip curl at the end and leaving behind it a beautiful ash. The longest I was able to hold the ash was a little over an inch. I began knocking the ash more often because got mad because there was too many dropped ashes on the front porch and she had to sweep them all off. Yeah, that’s my bad, so I made sure they all made it into my actual ash tray this time. The first third smoked perfectly, great draw, tons of smoke production and the burn was incredible. My favorite part is looking at all the tooth left behind on the ash though. There’s something really intriguing about that to me. I love that the ash held together so well. It never wavered it was standing very stoic on the end. Never flaring or flaking it held on tight until I gently tapped it into the tray. I couldn’t be more pleased with how this cigar smoked.

The second and final thirds were exactly the same. It smoked how a cigar should smoke, to where you don’t even have to pay attention to it because it’s burning perfectly. You can sit and enjoy the cigar without having to struggle to enjoy it. Now that we know it smoked great, let’s talk about some flavors!