La Pluma Cigars is rolled out of Nicaragua and blended by Jonathan Maccia of former O.K. Cigars that was based in Soho, New York. The Principia is one of three regular production lines from La Pluma and the company recently celebrated their first year anniversary on June 2nd. Jonathan Maccia provided samples for this review of the Principia.
Cigar: La Pluma Cigars Principia
Blend Specifics:
Vitola: Soft Box-pressed Robusto 5”x50
Wrapper: San Andres Maduro
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Appearance and Construction: The La Pluma Principia has a dark chocolate wrapper with a very slight reddish tint. Very minimal veins and very smooth, satin texture. Dense, even packing and a dense even sponginess. Construction looks good and is topped off with a double cap.
Smoke and Flavor Characteristics:
Cold Aromas: The wrapper gives off leather and chocolate and slight wood. The foot shows leather, a spicy-sweetness like the cinnamon flavored candies “Red Hots” and a touch of caramel. The cold draw is perfect on the tension; the notes are leather, wood and tobacco.
First Third: Right off, lots of leather set atop a thick creamy backdrop. Not much spice detected, though the cream is almost milk thick and has a milk-like flavor. So far, it’s leather, through and through with a slight caramel sweetness. The smoke is thick and the aroma is also leather dominant. The burn line isn’t razor sharp but isn’t far off the mark, either. The ash is a salt and pepper gray with a nice ring formations. The ash fell off as one solid chunk at 1”. The body is medium to full, the flavor is full, and the strength is medium to full. The retrohale shows a hint of dry wood, as well.
Second Third: Leather dominates well into the second. There’s also a cookie sweetness on the retrohale now, as well. Still very creamy and thick, the finish is long lasting and a bit of white pepper comes into the fold but it’s very soft and adds a bit of diversity to the mouth feel. The wood is starting to take more hold on the palate, as well as cinnamon spice and black pepper slowly building as the burn carries on. Very subtle in the roll-in, which makes for nice dynamics. The body is full, the flavor is full and the strength is medium to full. Still extremely smooth on the draw, even with the ramping up of pepper and spice notes.
Final Third: Removing the band is fairly easy. The pepper is sitting will in the back of the mouth and lasting through the finish. Working its way through the third, the smoke is still rich, creamy and thick, lots of cream still on the profile as well. Leather still dominates the palate and a fairly cool smoke toward the end, still. The profile is holding at full in body, full in flavor, medium to full to full in strength, but moving up to full in strength.
Final Thoughts: The La Pluma Principia is surprisingly complex, even if it has one main note that defines most of this cigar; there are many subtle and hidden notes that lay underneath. Lots of nuance and great interplay between these notes. Consistent burn and smoke production, and steady and subtle progressions make for an extremely interesting smoke. As the cigar progresses, I find many similarities between this and the Puro Authentico produced by Man O’ War, in terms of that firecracker characteristic. This cigar has a medium to small format but packs lots of flavor and body and can be quite fooling to the eye. The main notes are leather and a milky cream that dominate the core with minor notes of white to black pepper, cinnamon spice, wood, caramel and cookie sweetness. Another thing I found interesting but didn’t include it in any of the sections because it wasn’t like a note that stood out, but rather a mood-inducing sort of thing, is this cigar also has an herbal / floral / perfume-y kind of characteristic to it that I find pleasant and amusing. The profile stands at full body, full flavor and medium to full to full strength.
Smoking time was 1 hour and 30 minutes
Grade: A