Review: STUDIO TOBAC Cain Daytona Maduro Figurado

Last week Brooks reviewed the first cigar in the new STUDIO TOBAC sampler from the 2012 World Tour. This week I will continue the series with the Cain Daytona Maduro Figurado. Here’s what he said about the tour and the sampler:

On April 5, 2012, STUDIO TOBAC launched their 2012 World Tour at Tampa Humidor in Tampa, Florida, which has one of only three Oliva Lounges in the USA. The Tour is meant to introduce people to the STUDIO TOBAC brand and the events include rolling from Bryan “The Show” Scholle, the Ambassador of STUDIO TOBAC, and exclusive samplers offered as a promotional item that can only be acquired by buying boxes of Oliva products at the events.

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Each sampler comes with six different cigars, five of which are prototypes. Here are what the sampler boxes that the ST-002 come in look like:

Included in each are (left to right):

• NUb 460 USA Tobacco
• Cain F Maduro Robusto
• STUDIO TOBAC Prototype Connecticut ST-EFG01
• Cain Daytona Maduro Figurado
• STUDIO TOBAC Prototype Habano Toro ST-002
• Cain Daytona Lancero

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The Cain Daytona has five regular production vitolas and to date three limited edition releases:

Regular Releases:

• Corona — 6 x 46
• Double Toro — 6 x 60
• No. 4 — 5 x 43
• Robusto — 5 x 50
• Torpedo — 6 x 54

Limited Releases:

• Short Robusto — 4 1/2 x 50*
• Lancero — 7 x 38
• Maduro Figurado — 6 5/8 x 60*

*The Short Robusto and Maduro Figurado have never been offered for sale.

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Now you know the background, so let’s get to the review.

• Cigar Reviewed: STUDIO TOBAC Cain Daytona Maduro Figurado
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Oliva de Nicaragua S.A.
• Wrapper: San Andrés Maduro
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Jalapa Valley Ligero
• Size: 6 5/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 60
• Vitola: Figurado
• MSRP: n/a
• Release Date: April 5, 2012
• Number of Cigars Released: n/a
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 1

The Cain Daytona Maduro Figurado is beautiful looking. The San Andrés Maduro wrapper is a dark roasted coffee brown with no veins to speak of and is seamlessly applied. Off the wrapper is a specific and singular barnyard smell. The predraw brings a very distinct milk chocolate note that is strong enough to overpower any other notes that might be there. While the draw is a little tight, it’s ok because I’m expecting that with the Figurado shape and virtually closed foot.

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The first third begins with draws bring highly concentrated wrapper flavors to the forefront including earthy chocolate notes along with sweet tobacco and cedar. Getting around the Figurado bulge with just a little help from my lighter, I’m getting only minor chocolate notes with a citrus overtone that blends nicely together. The draw is still a little tight even after getting past the bulge and so the smoke production is on the light side. The burn is quite even after the cigar settled in and doesn’t required any further touch ups.

As with all Oliva and STUDIO TOBAC products the construction is impeccable through the second and the ash held on all the way until I rolled it off after the initial third. The Figurado’s flavor transitions into a more fruity profile with dried apricots and hints of vanilla floating around but no flavors that stick out and dominate my palate. The cedar notes carry over and are still in the background, but the rest of the flavors from the first third have all but disappeared.

The final third of the Cain Daytona Maduro builds in strength, but as with the rest of the Daytona line not overwhelmingly so. The fruity overtone has faded but the cedar still lingers in the background. An overall woodsy and leather profile dominate the cigar at this point finishing it out on a bold note. The slightly grey ash is still holding strong at ridiculous lengths with me only having  to ash it twice the entire time. Towards the end it has started to burn hot, which in turn drowned out most of the remaining flavors.

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Final Notes:

• Oliva’s Serie V line features a Figurado of the exact same size as the Cain Daytona Maduro.
• Just like the 2011 World Tour, you can only get these samplers at events by buying a box. Having said that, you can get as many samplers as you buy boxes, so if you’re planning on stocking up on Oliva products just wait for the event to roll through town so you can get all the free stuff that comes with those purchases. You can find a calendar with the World Tour stops here.
• Like the 2011 sampler, this year’s sampler has four new blends and one previously released cigar. If they continue to follow last year’s example and put one of these into limited retail production, the Figurado would be a great choice. Previously Oliva has stated the Cain Daytona Lancero would only be sold once.
• With Nicaraguan Ligero making up much of this cigar, there was a distinct lack of peppery kick that one might have expected.
• Since these samplers were only released for the first time a month ago, I’m curious how long ago these were actually rolled. The cigar smoked a little like it was still slightly wet, likely because the filler couldn’t breathe as much with an essentially closed foot.
• Final smoking time was just under two hours.

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The Bottom Line: The Cain Daytona line has been a favorite pairing of mine with my morning coffee. They have a nice medium strength cigar, yet are still flavorful enough to not be overpowered by the coffee. The Maduro wrapper takes the blend to a different place giving it a bit more body, some bolder and darker flavors and still keeping it at a medium strength cigar. The Figurado had fantastic development and stayed interesting for the duration of the smoke, developing from a sweet earthy profile, to a fruity profile and finishing off woodsy. Honestly my only issues with the cigar would be the apparent fresh rolled dampness that might have been cause for the minor smoke production and borderline tight but still very reasonable draw. The two or three draws I was taking to get enough smoke going definitely caused the cigar to heat up towards the end. I think with six to 12 months of rest these could really blossom into an amazing cigar. For now however while I wouldn’t say run out and buy a box (if they were even available in such form), they are very close to box-worthy and a cigar I absolutely enjoyed overall.

Final Score: 87