Cheap Smoke: Marca Fina Dominican Churchill

Overall Score

1 review for Cheap Smoke: Marca Fina Dominican Churchill

  1. Tomáš

    Marca Fina Dominican Churchill

    Origin : Dominican Republic
    Format : Churchill
    Size : 7 x 50
    Wrapper : Dominican Republic
    Filler : Dominican Republic
    Binder : Dominican Republic
    Hand-Made
    Price : € 2.30 / each

    This review is submitted by Tomáš and is participating in our “Share your cheap smoke!” contest. To get a chance to win a box of cigars, you can submit yours here.

    From the official website:

    Marca Fina is the name of cigars produced under the general management of Federación de Tabaqueros America Central (FTAC), a cooperation between independent tobacco farmers in Central America and the Caribbean. These small family businesses from the poorest rural areas of Central America have been cultivating high-class tobaccos on their plantations for decades and sell their harvest to international tobacco corporations on the tobacco markets at generally very low prices. F.T.A.C. supports these families in manufacturing a part of their annual harvest into high class cigars themselves and selling them directly. For the tobacco farmers this does not only mean significantly higher prices for their hard labour but also price stability and a guaranteed usage of their annual production. This represents an important step towards improved living conditions in countries without social security and health insurance.

    One day when I was thinking about cheap but still good smokes I found Marca Fina‘s site with good looking cigars for friendly prices. But mainly I was very interested in its „social policy“ of tobacco farmers in the Central America and the Caribbean. Marca Fina offers you a range of longfiller cigars from Panama, Dominican Republic and Honduras. Each country has a separate selection of sizes. After good feelings about this „policy“ I have found information about free shipping within Europe for orders over 25 €. First one was a package with Panama Coronitas and few Panatelas, also from Panama. It was good but my expectations were rather higher. However I was convinced that Marca Fina do not offer trash cigars and I made another order. I ordered their Panama Robusto Maduro and Churchills from Dominican Republic. And the second cigar was definitely the right choice…

    First Look : [rating:2/5]
    Marca Fina´s Dominican Republic Churchill at the glance looks fine with natural matte wrapper colour, good weight balance and very mild and spicy aroma. When I look closer there are few greenish spots and long visible veins. But still smooth surface to the touch.

    Construction : [rating:2/5]
    As I said before this churchill has a good weight balance but the stick is still too light. The draw is very good, during smoking I was required to correct the burn from one side because it was uneven. The ash is unsteady, grey with some small craks and it falls down after 3 cm. The wrapper is very very thin and you can very easily damage this cigar while transporting it in a pocket cigar case or with careless cutting.

    Flavor : [rating:3/5]
    1/3: After lighting up this cigar there is a very straight spicy taste but it goes away after a few minutes. When the burn calms down there are notes of coffee beans and cocoa.
    2/3: In the second third, its aroma and taste is more mild and sweeter. The draw is better with white and heavy smoke. I tasted many tones of chocolate, berry fruits and an elegant aroma of leather.
    3/3: The last third is the best in my opinion thanks to very sweet nutty flavors. This cigar ends very straight and from the great nutty taste comes a harsh taste, almost burning my tongue. The magic of this cigar is in the very light and slow smoking because it is easy to destroy all the taste and aroma with quick and strong draws.

    Overall Rating : [rating:4/5]
    I can forgive a very thin wrapper with greenish spots and sometimes uneven burn; I think this Marca Fina Churchills from Dominican Republic are really great cigars which offer many flavors for a very good price. Just sit down and relax with this cheapy for about 80 minutes or more. You can discover that a non-commercial side of cigar tobacco industry can also make fine cigars for affordable prices.

    Helpful?
    0 0
    • kenox

      Smoked my first churchill from the pack and found it bland. I hope the others are not as disappointing. I will let them age and see. What I really want to know is what was the sample they sent? I really want to buy a load of those guys. They rock!

    • kenox

      Ordered the churchill pack and it came with two extra pantella size sticks. Very nice spice. I want to say lots of cinnamon. I could not help from exhaling through my nose. I can’t wait to dig into the churchill’s. I wonder what the other one was?

    • JV

      I have tried these cigars as well and have to say that I do like them. They might not be like some of the upper level cigars but they also don’t carry that price tag either. I think these are great cigars for the money and am looking forward to seeing them more here in the U.S. I highly recommend giving these cigars a try! Also, you could try out the Colombian cigars being brought in by Route 45 Cigars as they have blends with similar flavor profiles and aroma.

    • Tomáš

      Hello! Yes, in my opinion there is very good value in these cigars. Flavor with three stars and overall with four stars it is only for great price/flavors ratio after spending 5 months in my humidor 🙂

    • Rick

      I’d have to agree with Tim S. I think the overall rating is because of the price and the flavors you got for that price. It actually sounds like a nice flavor profile so if you can overlook any construction issues I think I can accept the overall rating given the price point of the cigar.

    • Avatar photo

      Inspector

      I found it interesting too. There must be some good value in this cigar! 🙂

    • Tim S.

      The higest category was 3 stars for flavor, how did the cigar rate 4 stars overall, because of the value?

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Cigar Region Dominican Republic
Filler Dominican
Wrapper Dominican Republic
Binder Dominican Republic
Length 7
Ring Gauge 50
Vitola Churchill
Construction Hand Made