Plasencia Cosecha 149 Staff Review
I’m smoking a 5-by-52 Robusto from Plasencia called La Vega in the company’s popular Cosecha 149 blend. Cosecha means “harvest” in Spanish. Plasencia Cosecha 149 is part of a series named for the number of consecutive years the Plasencia family has been planting and growing tobacco, 149 in this case. That’s an impressive stat. Don Eduardo Plasencia was the first Plasencia to grow tobacco in Cuba in 1865, and the family has been farming tobacco throughout Central America over several generations.
Today, the Plasencias are among the largest growers of premium tobacco in Nicaragua and Honduras, and they’ve been making cigars for dozens of other brands you’ve had before, like Rocky Patel and Alec Bradley. The Plasencia brand came out in 2016. Nestor Plasencia Jr. is the face of the company. He runs the operation with his father, Nestor Sr., and his brothers, Gustavo and José Luis. The cigars they make under their own brand name are blended from their oldest and best tobaccos.
For Cosecha 149, the cigar is handmade in Honduras entirely from Honduran tobaccos. A dark brown wrapper shimmers over a hearty blend of tobaccos grown in Olancho, the Jamastran Valley, and Talanga. A lot of Honduran cigars fall into the budget category, but Cosecha 149 doesn’t really qualify as a budget smoke, starting at $14 apiece. The Plasencias want to elevate the reputation of Honduran tobaccos with their Cosecha series. Cosecha 149 cigars are packaged in black boxes of 10, and each cigar is enrobed in a black-and-white band with shiny copper accents.
La Vega is a Robusto with a slightly box-pressed shape. The wrapper looks oily and offers up a ton of spice in the raw aroma as well as the cold taste after slicing the cap off and testing the draw. Lots of leather and a bit of fruit come through around the edges. Plasencia Cosecha 149 is sweet, floral, leathery, and peppery to start with.
Upon firing up the cigar, an immediate blast of pepper invades my senses on the palate and in the beak, especially in the retrohale. I pick up lingering notes of leather with some bean-like vegetal flavor. A robust finish of black coffee comes into play at the end of the first few minutes.
I’m actually a hot pepper fanatic. I can handle a Carolina Reaper or two, and I’ve chomped down plenty of peppers that tip the Scoville Scale. But that’s when I’m in the mood to battle the blunt force trauma of an ultra-hot pepper. When it comes to the cigars I smoke, I expect a spicy blend to offer up a balance of different tasting notes. Cosecha 149 is a bit abrasive, and it has provoked a sneezing fit.
After my nostrils calm down, Cosecha 149 steadily intensifies with notes of minerals and earth. This cigar dries my palate out too. You’ll want to stay hydrated while you’re smoking it. Despite its hefty flavor and sharp aroma, the draw is flawless, even though the cigar seems packed a bit tight. It burns slow from beginning to end, and the spice never really eases up.
Once I’ve got the bands off and I’m powering my way through the nub, Plasencia Cosecha 149 finishes with a big blast of red and black pepper with hints of black coffee. I think this is a decent smoke if you enjoy spicy cigars. But I’m docking a point or two for the price point. I bet Plasencia Cosecha 149 will age nicely in my humidor, so I’ll be curious to try another one after a few months of rest.
