The Bauza cigars are manufactured by tabacalera Fuente in the Dominican Republic. The Fuente company uses a blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan filler, with a Dominican binder and an Ecuadorian wrapper leaf.

This specimen is not a great looking cigar and yet, it still has some pleasing features. It has a smooth wrapper leaf whose straw color has been dulled a bit with age. Even after nearly 21 months in my humidor, the fragrant aroma of wet hay is still discernible. Gentle squeezing gives me a slightly soft touch, but nothing alarming.

I clipped the cigar with my cigar scissors by Laguiole and set it to light with a Blazer PT 4000 pencil torch. I really love this torch because I can point the cigar foot straight at me and hold the torch like a pencil as I light the cigar. This gives me a perfect view of the foot of the cigar while I’m lighting it and I have found that I really get perfect lights almost every time.

The draw and burn over the first inch was excellent and the medium gray ash held on tenaciously until I tapped off at the one-inch mark. The flavors were grassy and somewhat bitter over the first inch.

Though it lost its bitterness during the second inch, it still didn’t display much character other than a slight vegetal taste. At just past the halfway mark, I did experience some sweet hay flavors, but this didn’t last long and the cigar finished with sharp acetone notes.

My recommendation on these cigars is to smoke them young. It’s not a half bad cigar in its youth, but nothing to write home about either.

Aging Potential Score: D = we believe these cigars have limited aging potential and recommend that you smoke them within the first year

~Doc