Pre-light Experience

Seth: The Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection is a nice looking perfecto. The cigar is rolled well, and it has a nice cap and foot. Lovely tapering. The cigar sports a wrapper that shows some Claro and light Colorado coloring, and it has this light brown hay coloring. It is silky in texture with soft aromas of tobacco, cedar and spices.
John: The Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection has a Colorado Shade-colored wrapper and is a double perfecto shape. The wrapper has a smooth and appealing appearance, and overall the cigar makes for a very attractive pre-light experience. The cap is well constructed, as is the perfecto foot. I weighed the cigar at 16.6 grams and measured the humidity at 58.4% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Aromas from the wrapper were all quite subdued, with sweet tobacco, clover and grass. Since the exposed foot is so small, I wasn’t able to pick up anything specific from it.
Jiunn: The Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection has a fragile and thin but uniform Colorado claro wrapper shade. Veins are almost non-existent, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the tapered head is well wrapped. Pre-light aromas give hay and barnyard.

Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection

First Third

Seth: The cigar begins with soft cedar, hay, cream and tobacco notes. There are some earthy aspects, and it is between mild and medium in strength and body.
John: The first third opens with a full-bodied combination of tannic wood, medium-strength baking spices and sweet tobacco, combining with sharp tannic wood on the finish. Through the retrohale, the baking spices are quite dominant at medium-full strength, approaching full strength. Not the experience I expected based on the wrapper hue. Roughly an inch into the review, the baking spices have fallen all the way back to light-plus strength and are lingering between each puff. The wood loses most of its sharpness, and the flavors are starting to find a nice balance here. Tannic wood defines the post draw as it continues toward the halfway point of the first third.
Jiunn: The first third has a slick, oily mouthfeel with flavors of tapered dried red pepper spice, minerals and mixed nuts. Retrohaling gives amped up nostril cleaning dried red pepper spice that’s a bit surprising, especially in reference to the mouth draw’s spice. Finish is pretty well rounded with lingering roasted nuts. Strength and body is medium.

Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection

Second Third

Seth: The second third continues to deliver cedar and hay notes while the earth becomes slightly more pronounced. I am getting tobacco notes as well, and there is a touch of sweetness and cinnamon spice. Still between mild and medium in strength and body.
John: The second third opens with sweet tobacco combining with different wood elements. One is tannic wood, while the other is spicy wood, and both carry through into the finish. As the second third settles in, an intense creaminess is present through the retrohale, balancing out the heavier wood components. The baking spices come roaring back as the second third continues toward the halfway point, sitting at medium-minus strength through the center of the profile, retrohale and post draw.
Jiunn: The second third’s profile is pretty similar but there’s more toastiness via bread and wood. The profile still has the same slick oiliness with dried red pepper spice, minerals and mixed nuts. Strength and body is still medium.

Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection

Final Third

Seth: The final third delivers those cedar, hay and tobacco notes from the first third. Cream present as well as the cigar finishes at a level between mild and medium.
John: Creamy wood takes the cigar into the last third, with enhanced medium-strength spices coming through with the wood in the center of the profile and then accented by tannins that intensify through the post draw. Some sharp bitterness joins the finish as the last third settles in. That bitterness continues to increase, along with some acrid notes on the post draw, throwing off the balance.
Jiunn: The final third is less complex and enjoyable as the minerals are most prevalent, decreasing the other flavors, especially the toastiness and softer mixed nuts. Strength and body finishes the same medium.

Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection

Burn

Seth: The cigar smoked perfectly from beginning to end.
John: As with every review, I lit the cigar with my Xikar Tactical single torch lighter. The burn started straight, becoming mildly uneven as it continued and eventually forming a canoe. I corrected the burn with a touch-up. The burn continued to be mildly uneven into the second third, and that continued into the final third, where I performed another touch-up.
Jiunn: Burn performance was great. Not the sharpest burn line but I never had to use my lighter past the initial light.

Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection

Draw

Seth: The draw is perfect from start to finish.
John: As with every review, I used my Colibri SV to make a V-cut. I measured the draw with the Cigar Medics draw machine at 36 inches of water. Subjectively, I found the draw to be one notch towards the resistant spectrum, which puts it in the ideal range between open and resistant.
Jiunn: The draw was also great, striking the ideal air flow and resistance.

Overall

Seth: The Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection was a decent smoke. It’s not that complex, and it doesn’t show much depth or transitioning, but it’s a fun cigar. It was a fun perfecto that had perfect construction and a flavor profile that was easy. If the construction was terrible, I would crap all over this cigar.
John: This was a cigar that looked considerably more approachable than it actually smoked. The Colorado Shade wrapper, smooth presentation and well-executed double perfecto shape created a very appealing pre-light experience, and I wasn’t expecting the level of intensity that arrived once the cigar was lit. The first third opened with tannic wood, sweet tobacco and surprisingly powerful baking spices, with the retrohale pushing those spices to medium-full and nearly full strength. It was an immediate contrast to the appearance of the cigar. Fortunately, that initial intensity settled down fairly quickly. About an inch in, the baking spices dropped to light-plus strength, the sharpness came out of the wood, and the profile began to find a much better balance. The sweet tobacco helped anchor the heavier wood components, making the latter portion of the first third the most enjoyable part of the cigar. The second third continued with sweet tobacco and multiple expressions of wood, while an intense creaminess through the retrohale provided some welcome contrast. The baking spices made another strong appearance, but this time at a more manageable medium-minus strength. There were some good components here, although the cigar was beginning to feel more focused on wood than anything else. The final third was where the experience deteriorated. Creamy wood and medium-strength spices initially provided a reasonable foundation, but tannins became increasingly prominent and sharp bitterness joined the finish. The addition of acrid notes to the post draw further disrupted the balance, leaving the final portion of the cigar noticeably less enjoyable than what came before it. Construction was adequate rather than exceptional. The draw was excellent, providing almost exactly the resistance I prefer, but the burn became progressively uneven and required two touch-ups. Neither issue made the cigar difficult to smoke, but the burn certainly wasn’t as impressive as the appearance of the cigar suggested it might be. Overall, the Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection was a cigar with an intriguing beginning and some genuinely enjoyable moments, particularly once the aggressive baking spices of the opening settled into place. The creaminess and sweet tobacco provided enough balance to keep the middle portion interesting, but the cigar never developed enough complexity to overcome its increasingly wood-heavy character. The sharp bitterness and acrid post-draw notes in the final third ultimately left a negative impression. There was enough here to make the first half worthwhile, but the declining balance through the final third brings the experience back to an Average overall rating. Total smoking time was 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Jiunn: Overall, the Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection is a good cigar, capturing a good amount of complexities to never bore the palate. The combination of spice, wood, natural sweet creaminess and a mouth coating oiliness worked really well. It’s not the typical profile that I gravitate towards but I respect and enjoyed the blend. My guesses are origin: Dominican, wrapper: Ecuador Connecticut shade and brand: Davidoff, Kelners, Eladio.

Seth Geise

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$2.35

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.55

Cost/Point

$2.43

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

6.82

Cost/Point

$1.98

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Green Room Selection