Ashton Heritage Puro Sol Robusto

5.5 x 50

Wrapper: Cameroon

Binder: Dominican Republic

Filler: Dominican Republic.

The Ashton Heritage Puro Sol is touted as a joint venture between the Fuente family and Richard Meerapfel, the savior of Cameroon leaf. When the French abandoned their tobacco industry in Cameroon, Meerapfel took over and saved this magnificent sweet leaf from extinction. As a lover of Cameroon wrappers, I have much gratitude for his efforts. Sadly, he passed away in late 2003. He hand picked the wrapper leaf for the first Heritage Puro Sol cigars, and the highly respected Fuente family is responsible for the blend.

This robusto is a nicely spiced medium bodied smoke that exhibits what is so great about Cameroon wrapper leaf. It’s slightly sweet and extremely aromatic. It makes you want to sniff the foot of the cigar as it smolders. Lovely kitchen spices abound, as if you were in a kitchen around the holidays with the smell of ginger and cinnamon and nutmeg in the air. The spices eventually give way to a mild leather flavor on the finish.

There is almost no bite to this cigar, and I would recommend it to those who normally smoke only mild cigars. The relative mildness of this cigar is somewhat surprising given the fact that it is all sun-grown leaf. The Ashton Virgin Sun Grown is a very powerful cigar, far heavier than this sweet guy.

The Puro Sol is smooth, tasty, and among the best products of the Fuente family. (I prefer these to the Hemingways, if that says anything.) If they weren’t quite so expensive (7 to 10 dollars) I’d smoke these all day long.

Smoke one for Richard Meerapfel, a true cigar star.