Fausto Up Down 10/50

• Cigar Reviewed: Fausto Up Down 10/50
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: My Father Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador Habano Maduro
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size:  6 3/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 43
• Vitola: Lonsdale
• MSRP: $10.50 (Boxes of 20, $210.00)
• Date Released: October 3, 2013
• Number of Cigars Released: 200 Boxes of 20 Cigars (4,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 2

The dark brown wrapper is uniform in color save for a few slightly lighter spots near the larger veins. The Fausto Up Down 10/50’s capa has a formidable vein structure but a fairly smooth texture and a faint sheen. It’s well-rolled with uniform firmness from head to toe and the cap sits nicely on top with clean seams a centered application. There is a tremendous aroma coming off the foot: cool and beefy, it has a bit of pepper and a note that reminds me of beef bouillon cubes, something my grandmother often used in her cooking. Air moves without restriction in the cold draw, offering much a much drier and somewhat thinner flavor than the pre-light aroma provided that shows more notes of tree bark and wood with a trace amount of pepper.

A chili pepper spice coats the front half of the tongue as soon as the first bit of smoke hits it and the cigar wastes no time opening itself up. There is a sneaky sweetness that seems to jump out of nowhere in the first 20 puffs, coating the spice and giving it a new frame while still allowing it to do its thing. There’s also a coolness to the smoke – almost like when people talk about cool mint, except I’m not picking up the mint at the moment. The ash starts as a brilliant bright white before graying just slightly as it cools and the burn line is sharp and even in the early goings. After the first clump of ash breaks off, the pepper picks up in spades and goes right after the nose before beginning a sharp-toothed bite into the tongue. It’s intense without being overpowering – the sensation that the pepper provides, not the strength, is the majority of the story here. The meaty notes picked up in the cold draw start to enter the equation and set the stage for an interesting flavor development.

Smoke billows off the Fausto Up Down 10/50 as it begins its second third, and the spice starts to increase its presence on the tongue as the meaty notes pick up a bit in the background. A chalky bite starts to emerge at the midpoint, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think this cigar was blended to go right after the middle of my tongue. The flavor and aroma shift again as the cigar starts its transition to its final third, with a fuller pepper note, a new note of earth and wood and a touch more bite on the tongue. There is no shortage of great aroma either, as the cigar offers up an incredibly rich note of marinated meat bound for the dehydrator to make jerky.

The final third of the Fausto Up Down 10/50 offers a continued building of pepper as the flavor begins to dry out just a bit. I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t felt much strength from the cigar up to this point, but it has more than made up for it with an abundance of flavor. The rich jerky note stays consistent in the smoke throughout this portion of the cigar, lending a very pleasing aromatic to the experience and one that might get overlooked if you’re smoking this in a crowded cigar lounge or on a windy day. The cigar can be smoked pretty much as far as you want to take it without worry of the heat adversely impacting the flavor. If anything, the only issue you’ll likely run into is the increasingly peppery smoke getting too close to your eyes.

Final Notes:

• As Brooks Whittington mentioned in his review of the Fausto FT153, the bands bear a striking resemblance to Dunhill Exclusivo bands from the 1960-1980s.
• One thing I’d never noticed on the Fausto bands was the cross in the middle. Johnson told me that there’s no real meaning behind it, other than that the bands they were based on had a clover in the middle, and while he was in the Dominican Republic working on the band, he kept seeing that cross outside pharmacies. He thought the clover was a bit strange for the project so the switch was made.
• Per Google Translate, fausto is Spanish for splendor. It’s also been translated as lucky in other reviews.
• My halfwheel colleagues and I have often said how much we’d like to try certain cigars in smaller ring gauges, and it’s something we’ve been called out on more than once.
• This is the second cigar where producing it in smaller ring gauges had been a concern of the manufacturer before it was found to be possible. The other? The Headley Grange Drumstick Lancero from Crowned Heads.
• I dryboxed the second cigar for about 18 hours prior to smoking it, and it seemed to help with some slight burn issues in the second half of the cigar. While it wasn’t a huge problem in the first cigar I smoked, it was noticeable.
• The cigars were purchased from Up Down and stored at the halfwheel offices for over a week before I got them, even then, dryboxing seemed like a good idea.
• Final smoking time is about two hours.
• You can order these directly from Up Down Cigar via their website or by calling 800–587-3696. Up Down is currently offering a 20% discount on the box price, bringing the cost down to $168.00. Be sure to tell them halfwheel sent you.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.