REVIEW: Lou Rodriguez MF

I'll be straight up. Until my business partner Mario got back from the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival a few weeks ago, I had never heard of Lou Rodriguez cigars. I try to read as much as possible and talk to as many people as possible about cigars, but I'm sure more than a handful of cigar brands slip through the cracks of my knowledge. This was the case with Lou Rodriguez.

In the past few weeks I have tried several of the blends from this company and have found them to be quite a nice little surprise. Then Mario and I received a package in the mail of a limited edition stick from Lou called the Lou Rodriguez MF.

A quote from Lou Rodriguez about the MF:
Dan great speaking with you tonight. Just wanted to give you a little bit of info about what you were smoking tonight. It is the Lou Rodriguez MF (MF for Matafina). It is also been referred to as our secret cigar since we do not advertise this on our website or brochures. It is tobacco which I have set aside from long term aging from Nicaragua along with a Brazilian Matafina wrapper. We only rolled 2000 of which 1500 are for sale to exclusive retailers only. Each with a dated box to show the vintage. 

It was nice to talk to you also Lou. Now, on to the review.

Specifics
Vitola: Box-pressed torpedo
Length: 6
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Brazilian Matafina
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $?
Smoking Location: House of Cigar
Beverage: Water

Pre-Light 

First thing I noticed when holding my Lou Rodriguez MF was how nicely box pressed the cigar was. I'm not normally not a big fan of box pressed cigars, but for this vitola it seemed to work well. The second thing that really stood out was the elegant band design. I know who designed this band and I am a fan of his work. This is another good example of it. The cigar's wrapper had a medium brown color with some simple veins that were not too distracting form the over all look. The pre-lit aroma made my nose tingle and smelled like a barnyard. I used V-cut on this cigar (another thing I don't normally do) and the draw on the cigar was excellent. The flavor I got from the unlit cigar was a strong cedar taste. 

First Third   

Lighting up my Lou Rodriguez MF was very simple and and the draw pulled large amounts of smoke right from the beginning. Like I said above, I don't normally do V-cuts, but the draw it created on this cigar was so nice that I might do more of them in the future. The most prominent flavor I was picking up from this stick was not on the front of the profile but on the finish and that was a nice cinnamon note. If you've read any of my reviews before you will know that I love this flavor in cigars. What I did taste on the front of each draw was some slight cedar, but it was mostly muted and had just a creamy smoke taste. The cigar settled in right in the medium range. A good start.

Second Third  

The second third of my Lou Rodriguez MF was pretty much a clone of the first third. I was still tasting a lot of cinnamon on the finish of the cigar and the front, mostly smoky cedar. If anything did change I would say that the flavors maybe got a little richer and deeper. That's an odd way to describe things, but for my fellow experienced cigar smokers, you will know what I mean. The construction was top notch and the ash held solid until I knocked it into the ashtray. The strength again was right in the medium range. 

Final Third and Final Thoughts 

I'm not sure what happened in the final third of my Lou Rodriguez, but it came out of left field. The flavor profile that I had been enjoying completely changed up. Gone was the smoky cedar-y flavor. Now on the front of each puff I was greeted with a white pepper spice mixing with some bitter cocoa. It was almost like I had a different cigar. It was so drastically different that I was wondering about my sanity. The finish still had some cinnamon flavor, but that also was mixing with the pepper from the front which added some more enjoyment. Another thing that really changed was the strength of the cigar. For the first two thirds this stick was a solid medium, in the last third we were well into the full range. Nothing overpowering, but I could feel it for sure. The draw was still dead on and the burn never needed any touch-ups.

My final thoughts on the Lou Rodriguez MF? This was a solid average cigar up until the final third where it really took off into something above average. The additional flavors in the final third added some complexity and really kept me interested in finishing the stick. The strength really sneaks up on you at the end also so be careful not to hoover it down.

Would I buy it again I have no idea how much these cost, but if the price was right, I'd pick up a few to smoke and a few to share.

Would I buy a box? Since it's a small box count of ten, I could see me grabbing a box. But again, a lot depends on the price.

Dan