Dapper Siempre Rosado Corona

Earlier this year, I was browsing SmallBatchCigar.com and ran across something that looked new: the Dapper Siempre Rosado Corona. As it turns out, that blend is new, though you probably won’t see it at your local shop until next year.

Dapper Cigar Co. chose to launch its new Siempre Rosado line in a single size at the California-based retailer. It’s more or less doing the same thing with another new line, Desvalido, though that line is expected to be released in full by the end of this month.

Siempre Rosado is a follow up to the Siempre Sun Grown, which was released in 2018. The new line uses an Ecuadorian habano rosado wrapper over a cofradia binder from Jalapa, Nicaragua. There are four tobaccos for the filler: the aforementioned cofradia, another Nicaraguan tobacco, Connecticut broadleaf and another varietal of tobacco from America.

Ian Reith, Dapper’s founder, worked with Small Batch to develop the blend, which he said “is the best blend I have ever created.” In particular, he told halfwheel that the idea was to deliver a stronger cigar than the original Siempre Sun Grown.

It launched in August at Small Batch in a 5 5/8 x 46 corona gorda size that is priced at around $11.36 per cigar for a five-pack, though boxes of 20 are $221.

Small Batch is the exclusive home for this size, but the company plans on offering three more sizes to retailers nationwide.

• Siempre Rosado Robusto (5 x 50)
• Siempre Rosado Toro (6 1/8 x 52)
• Siempre Rosado Churchill (7 x 48)

The announced plan was to release them at TPE 2021, which was scheduled for January. After the cigars were announced, TPE pushed back its show to May.

• Cigar Reviewed: Dapper Siempre Rosado Corona
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Nicaraguan American Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Rosado)
• Binder: Nicaragua (Cofradia and Jalapa)
• Filler: Nicaragua & U.S.A.
• Length: 5 5/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Vitola: Corona Gorda
• MSRP: $11.05 (Box of 20, $221)
• Release Date: August 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

While I really like the classic aspect of the main parts of the band, the black accents aren’t my favorite. I’m sure it would look fine on other cigars, but the wrapper is so dark here that they get lost in the shuffle. It’s not the darkest wrapper I’ve ever seen, but it’s also very dark for something that is going to be advertised as a rosado. The aroma from the wrapper is medium-full with earthiness, raisins, leather and some acidic. The foot is much sweeter, which at times makes me think it’s sweeter. I don’t think it’s actually sweeter; rather, without the acidity it’s not as pungent. There are raisins, leather, oak and a bit of cinnamon. Cold draws are a bit tight, but have a medium-full flavor with leather, earthiness, white pepper and some sort of funky flavor I can’t really place.

It starts with toastiness, earthiness, oak, some brown rice and a touch of sweetness. About a half-inch in, I think most of those flavors are around, but I’m picking up something that reminds me of green bell peppers. Another half-inch later and I realize that it’s not green pepper, rather, it’s tar. None of the three samples have any visible tar, but the flavor is unmistakable. Fortunately, the finish avoids any of the tar flavors and instead has hickory on top of cedar, peanuts and a touch of black pepper. Retrohales are substantially more intense with cinnamon, white pepper, earth and leather. Unfortunately, some of the retrohales are dominated by the tar sensation which makes me want to avoid them. Flavor is medium-full—though the retrohale is full—body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus. The draw is a bit tight, though not plugged, and the ash seems a bit more fragile than normal.

Fortunately, the tar flavor recedes quite a bit in the main flavor profile. What’s left isn’t the most of unique of profiles, as there is earthiness on top of leather, white pepper and a bit of sweetness. Everything seems to have a bit of an edge to it, something I think is unrelated to the tar. The finish tastes like stuffing my mouth full of peanut shells along with some earthiness and black pepper. Retroahels are dominated by tar and as such, I don’t take more than a half dozen in the second third. One or two per sample don’t have any tar, but the vast majority are dominated by the tar flavor and it’s just not something I need to taste more of. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-full. The draw remains tight on all three cigars and touch-ups are needed on two cigars to help with smoke production. 

The tar flavor seems to ramp up somewhere near the latter parts of the second third or early parts of the final third. The good news is that it’s not the main flavor during the last part of the Dapper Siempre Rosado Corona. The bad news is that it is still there. Earth is the predominant flavor, but there’s some also some fish sauce and white cracker flavor. The finish starts with a great sugary sweetness but then the tar rears its ugly head. In addition, there’s a bit of a sweet roasted nut mixture. Retrohales add even more of the sugar flavor along with some earth. Unfortunately, some of those retrohales also have the tar flavor along with a weird rubbery sensation. Flavor remains full, body is medium-full and strength is a bit all over the place. On two samples it’s on the stronger end of medium-full, on the other cigar it’s very full and—combined with the tar note—is making me feel ill.

Final Notes

• For those concerned with my health, I had a piece of candy—an Atomic Fireball—and some water and felt pretty good 15 minutes later. There were no trips to a trash can other than to dispose of the Fireball’s wrapper.
• Needless to say, this was not my favorite cigar to review. It was easier than the Perez-Carrillo Encore 10th Anniversary—a cigar whose nicotine levels made feel much worse—but the flavor on the E.P. Carrillo was much better.
• Scoring this cigar is another challenge. I try to take the approach of evaluating a combination of the mode, median and mean experiences throughout the total number of puffs, not necessarily scoring a cigar for its highest and lowest points. Because the tar wasn’t present on more than half the puffs, the cigar scored a lot higher than my lasting impressions probably are. If I was to score this based on what the “big takeaway” was, I suspect the score would be 20-30 points lower, as the big takeaway was tar.
• For those wondering, I’m not scoring each individual puff. I just try not to evaluate a cigar based on its five best or worst puffs.
• I didn’t see any signs of tar on the cap of the cigars, though that might have been due to the dark color of the wrapper.
• I recut two of the cigars, which helped a bit but didn’t get rid of the problem of the tight draw.
• While I don’t think this is why Dapper is doing it, one major upside to the soft launch approach is that it allows for Dapper to try to figure out if things like this are limited to my experiences or more widespread in nature before the cigars go out to more retailers.
• A 5 5/8 x 46 vitola is a corona gorda, not a corona.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 30 minutes.