Introduction
For the second month in a row an Alec Bradley cigar has been awarded our Cigar Of The Month. This time around it is the award winning Tempus Natural blend in a corona format named the Genesis. Before we get in depth let’s hear what Alec Bradley’s founder Alan Rubin had to say about this blend:
“A great tobacco man once told me – listen to the tobacco, it will tell you when it is ready. When I tried a special estate grown premium tobacco from Trojes, Honduras, it spoke to me, and I listened. The Trojes tobacco delivered flavours and complexities I had never experienced before.”
Origins
The Tempus Natural features tobacco from both Honduras and Nicaragua. A special wrapper leaf is grown in the Trojes region of Honduras, an area with a long tobacco growing history starting out with Nicaraguan settlers entering the region to grow tobacco crops.
At that time this was an illicit activity and the farmers would bundle, store and hide the tobacco in the run up to its transportation in what were known as “Trojas”. This is how the area eventually became to be known as “Trojes”.
Tobacco grown in this part of Honduras has a very distinct flavour profile and in choosing this local to source the wrapper leaf, Alan Rubin created a cigar completely unique to any others in his expansive catalogue.
Award Winning Character
After his first experience with the Trojes tobacco Alan Rubin stated:
“The taste was incredible and the blending process began. Tempus is Latin for time – and it took time to learn, grow, blend and age.”
And so he set about finding the correct complementary tobaccos to create a unique yet palatable full bodied cigar. After years of testing, sampling and reworking of the blend, he finally settled on a combination of Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. These tobaccos are perfectly in balance and impart a bold, flavourful smoke that resonates with the advanced cigar smoker.
Up until this point all the innovative blends he had taken to market over the previous 11 years had been commercial failures despite their quality. The Tempus would end up being the brand’s saving grace.
Once these cigars hit the market positive responses flooded in and shortly after Cigar Aficionado would go on to rate the Centuria vitola of the Tempus Natural 94/100. This landed it in their 2008 Top 25 Cigars list and raised awareness amongst the cigar community and as a result the blend would see high popularity. This marked a turning point and from here on out Alec Bradley would go on to celebrate success after success, eventually becoming one of the best known New World brands globally.
Flavour Profile
As you can expect this cigar has an abundance of flavour owing to its region specific wrapper and multinational filler. Honduran tobacco has always been favoured by those with a more robust palate, those seeking intensity and spice whilst the Nicaraguan tobacco is far more tempered, boasting rich and smooth flavours. When combined correctly as in this case the resulting cigar can take one through an array of tones.
When smoking the Tempus Natural Genesis you can expect to encounter the warming, familial tobacco tones attributed to New World cigars, smooth smoke with a boastful thick consistency. There is definitely a spicy kick with a peppery presence and woody, cedar notes owing to the Honduran filler but this harmonises with the transient flavours of cinnamon, cocoa and baked goods from the Nicaraguan tobacco.
A sure shot to impress those with a background in cigar smoking, though not recommendable for beginners.
Aesthetics
The Tempus Natural Genesis is a truly gorgeous cigar that is accentuated by all the aesthetic trappings one would expect from a cigar of such quality. A regal, gold emblazoned band bears the signature A.B font and crown with the word TEMPUS beneath in a classic Old English font. It is fair to say there are very few brands that can compete with Alec Bradley’s cigar band game.
Now onto the cigar itself. The first thing one will notice about the Trojes wrapper is that it is a dark brown, verging on being the colour of milk chocolate. A pleasant glossy sheen can be seen atop the textured wrapper leaf that feels great when in the fingers.
As with the rest of Alec Bradley’s range this cigar is rolled not too tight and not too loose, being designed to smoke with ease. The Genesis should smoke from anywhere between 30 – 90 minutes, depending on the smoker.
