Re-Visiting an Old JR Classic- The Belinda Cigar
For this blog, I’m going to do something completely different and take you down memory lane to talk about a cigar that I was enjoying while some of you young herfer’s were still teething. The stick in reference is the Belinda. If some of you have never heard of it, I can understand why, because with all of the thousands of top quality super premium brands that preceded it, it became somewhat overlooked by the modern smoker. However, these tasty and very affordable smokes still reside in our inventory, and still have a loyal following- especially among “Old Farts” like myself, and loyal JR customers.
Belinda Cigars are the resurrection of a famous old Cuban brand founded in the 1890’s. Three decades ago, the cigar was re-launched by the renowned Estelo Padrón at his factory in Honduras where it is still in production today. For many years, it was one of our top selling Honduran’s, due to its exceptional quality and very reasonable price. Belinda is crafted using an aged blend of Honduran long-leaf fillers, a Honduran binder, and a mild Connecticut Broadleaf/Ecuador Sumatra wrapper.
Recently, I decided to re-visit this stick and fire up my favorite size, the Belinda Exquisito, a 6 x 50 Toro snugly housed inside a cedar sleeve. During pre-light inspection, I noticed that this baby was loaded with plume, telling me that this stick was sleeping in our warehouse for quite some time. The cedar aroma derived from resting in the sleeve, mixed with the musty, yet pleasant bouquet of aged tobacco had me very eager to light her up. The Exquisito was on the lighter side of medium in strength, and still had the rich, nutty flavor profile I remembered all so well. It burned slowly, retained the core flavors right down to the nub, and finished with a very satisfying creaminess. I will admit that good old Belinda was not nearly as complex as many of the fine super premium cigar brands on the market today, but it still found it very enjoyable and will most likely be returning for more.
If you are looking for a new smoke- that’s actually old …”does that make any sense”? Then I suggest you order a box of the affordable Belinda Cigars.
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