The tobaccos for the Vogel Green are grown in the Costa Rican Highlands of Puriscal. These genetically pure seeds were first grown at the San Juan y Martinez farm in the Pinar del Rio Provence of Cuba in 1950. The strain remains pure to this day, thanks to the efforts of John Vogel.

During construction of the cigar, the filler leaves are rolled into tiny straws; a process called the "entubado" method. This method eliminates certain burn and plug issues. Also incorporated is the "Dead Center Ligero" method, where the "tubed" ligero leaf is placed in the center of the filler bunch.

This cigar sports a medium brown maduro wrapper that displays some slightly darker mottling along the wrapper. It also exhibits some very light sheening along its otherwise opaque-looking and somewhat leathery exterior. Further inspection shows a small wire vein contained in the otherwise smooth textured exterior. The body is firm, but not hard in its construction.

The aroma from this cigar is faint, demonstrating light nutty notes from the foot and an almost undetectable scent of ammonia from the wrapper.

The draw on this cigar was almost perfect: firm, yet giving. It was as if it was teasing you into revealing its secrets, which it was going to do anyway when you got the bugger lit. Anyways, the pre-light draw provided very light notes of nuts and unsweetened cocoa.

Being careful not to char the delicate tobacco contained in this cigar, I slowly toasted the foot before taking a few short draws to coax an even coal. After letting the foot cool somewhat, I took my first full draw and was immediately met with the full flavor of dry cedar from the smoke. This wasn't a Spanish Cedar flavor that you might usually experience, but something more unique. My memory takes me back to grade school so long ago, and I remember the aroma of fresh pencil shavings. That was the unique flavor I was experiencing. After about inch, the cedar flavor disappeared and I was met with a more mellow wood nuance.

What became interesting in the first third of the cigar was not the mild woody characters, but the aftertaste. A short time after the smoke was expelled, and as the primary character dissipated, a short, tart citrus nuance could be sensed on the back of the palate, then became lightly sweet in its finish. This sweet nuance coaxed my salivary glands into mute applause.

By the halfway point, the cedar character came back into the picture, but with more earthy nuances. These characters seemed to dominate the second half of the cigar. It was full-flavored, but still retained a mild-medium balance in body.

I decided to quit when I was just within the 2-inch mark from the end. I've learned that this cigar does not smoke well when the fillers get too hot. I use this principle as a general rule for smoking this cigar. I recommend that you time your draws so as not to puff more than once a minute, or so. This will help maintain a cooler coal and will not overheat the delicate fillers.

I also should mention that when the smoke from this cigar is retrohaled, there is no nasal irritation, or detection of any spice. Thus, most of the flavor of this cigar is detected on the palate.

This cigar produced a charcoal colored ash that exhibited concentric rings within the ash structure. Maintaining a long ash had many perils, since it would fall off without provocation beyond 1-inch.

Some scalloping, or unevenness in the burn line also occurred. I found that purging this cigar at the halfway point burned off unwanted gases and accumulated tars; and it evened out the burn line by forcing the hot coal outward towards the unburnt wrapper.

This cigar seemed to keep this cigar smoker on the edge, waiting to see what was around the corner. Although the tobacco used is grown far from its native home, its Cuban heritage can still be tasted and enjoyed. It is unique and complex in its character, and takes a certain amount of patience and skill to smoke and enjoy. The hard part is finding these cigars, which are not carried widely in the United States and may be more difficult to attain as time goes by.

We'll rate this cigar again after three months.

~Blake