Editors Note: CW member, resident webhost and twitter-master BigJohn was gifted this cigar by Nish Patel at a cigar event August 20, 2014 in Woodstock, Georgia. The call was posted in our forums - forums.cigarweekly.com - for a volunteer to smoke and review the stick, since the words Super and Ligero in the same sentence scared the life out of BigJohn (medium to mild strength preference). CW member Jeff (GRTRX on the forums) Lackman rose to the challenge. One USPS flat-rate box and 48 hours later, the cigar was in his hands. Sorry for the lack of photos - it appears BigJohn forgot to take one, and Jeff just jumped right into the smoking of it. What transpired appears below.

Pre-light

The label, which was a simple one (obviously not a production label), stated "super ligero". The cigar was attractive as the cellophane was removed. It measured low to mid 40s in ring gauge and maybe 5 inches in length -- parejo. The wrapper leaf was dark, but not maduro -- perhaps a colorado. It appeared well veined, with quite fine veins actually. The cigar's aroma was simply wonderful, with deep, dark scents -- rather organic I would say, as in a deep, dark summer forest. The cigar felt firm, with no soft spots at all. It was unblemished and quite lovely.

Light

I lit the cigar with a soft flame butane lighter, and it lit easily, drawing close to perfectly. The burn was even, giving off copious quantities of white smoke. The initial flavors were delicious -- rather light, not mouth coating, but all in all quite good. The flavors tended to concentrate on the middle of the tongue, and were mostly of woody, earthy notes.

The smoke

The cigar held ash well, but not for any great lengths. The dark gray ash (somewhat reminiscent of old Cuban Bolivars) parted easily with no flaking. Flavors built through this phase. However, there seemed to be less spice than the name "super ligero" might suggest. This was perhaps due to the cigar's 'youth'. (I didn't know the exact amount of age or release date of the cigar.) By the end of the first inch, I was picking up some back of throat burn, and was not able to inhale any smoke.
 
Flavor development was there, but was muted (similar to my experience with other 'high ligero content' cigars). In this particular example, the depth of flavor disappointed a bit in the face of the strength. The power was there, but wasn't overwhelming or unpleasant at all. (Some super powerful cigars leave me feeling a bit green.) Some minor spice build-up emerged as I reach the midpoint, but the cigar itself was softening considerably -- the flavors building a bit, but not keeping pace with the growth of strength.

My sense was that the cigar displayed more power or strength than a significant change in flavor.

As this cigar journey ended, I became very aware my heart was beating harder than normal and that I was sweating. Even so, I had no sense that I'd been thrown to the ground and kicked by a tobacco mule.

Overall

This cigar started out by delivering a nice balance of power and flavors, but the flavor didn't seem to develop enough to keep pace with the power. The initial flavors, which leaned to the woody side of the flavour spectrum, seemed promising. But by midpoint, they quit building, and the back-half of the session was more about power than flavor.

Smokers who prefer a well-flavored but powerful (yet not overpowering) smoke will likely enjoy this stick.

As a matter of this reviewers personal preference, the cigar smokes very well and delivers on the "super ligero" promise. But I'd rather opt for a really solid maduro with deeper, darker flavors.

Rated on CW's 10 puff scale:

Prelight 8

Light 9

Draw 9

Construction 8

Flavor 7

Power 9

Overall 8.3