And that’s how my attempts at purchasing the Bolívar Tesoro went at Cigar World in Düsseldorf, Germany. Eventually, I was allowed to buy a handful of singles of the since sold-out Edición Regional and, thus, today’s review.

The Tesoro is the latest German regional, the 13th by my count, and the second one to wear a secondary band that reads 5ta Avenida, the Spanish translation of the German distributor, as opposed to Alemania, the Spanish word for Germany.

As is often the case when it comes to Edición Regionals, it was a bit delayed. Technically, the 7 1/4 x 57 Salomone was part of the 2016 Edición Regional program, but it didn’t arrive until this February. It’s limited to 6,000 boxes of 10 cigars with pricing set at €22.50, which was $23.99 at the time of release.

Every six months or so, Brooks Whittington will go through a kick where he pays special attention to how much a cigar weighs. It’s not something I pay much attention to or mention regularly, but the Bolívar Tesoro feels noticeably light for its size. This big cigar would be beyond my comfort level in Parejo format but in the perfect size; I look forward to smoking it. There’s not much of the wrapper aroma-wise, but one cigar is stronger than the others with leather, some ammonia, and touches of vanilla ice cream. I forgo sticking the end of the perfecto up my nose like a four-year-old, but I get a much stronger floral flavor with some butterscotch ice cream. One sample, the same one that had a stronger wrapper aroma, was noticeably different with some woody flavors and Welch’s grape soda. The cold draws are largely similar: floral, some creaminess, a sweet, creamy orange, lime, and sawdust. Two of my cigars had slight cracks at the top of the cap due to transport, so I had to make slightly more aggressive cuts than normal, but even with that, the draw is extremely tight.

As is expected, there’s not a ton of smoke coming to the mouth once lit. If I engulfed the entire bottom of the cigar or cut it off, things would be different, but the small entranceway at the bottom doesn’t provide much room for air. The initial flavors are cedar, cream, pistachio, and coffee. One sample has some weird diesel aroma, and another has a highly sharp pepper in the back of the mouth. Fortunately, both of those irritations are short-lived, and despite all the differences up until this point, the cigars seemingly come together into a universal profile. The Tesoro has sweet cedar and oak on top of spearmint, caramel candy, and white pepper. It’s medium-full to full in flavor and medium-full everywhere else. There’s no denying the cigar shows signs of youth, but the flavors are smooth and detailed enough. Outside of a tight draw on one sample, construction is awesome, and at least on the two normal-drawing cigars, it’s burning a bit quicker than I would have expected.

The cedar base remains and shows no signs of letting up. It’s intertwined with a sweetness that reminds me of buttermilk more than anything else, not acute, but ever-present. Behind that are potato chips, pistachio, a generic citrus, and a pepper that reminds me of lemon pepper. I’m not sure how much the latter is because of the citrus mentioned above, but it’s softer than the pepper in the early parts of the Tesoro. Strength picks up a bit to medium-full, perhaps even hitting full, but starts to recede right before the final third. Two samples need touch-ups to help with the burn, which I suspect on one cigar has more to do with the draw.

Flavor-wise, the Bolívar Tesoro definitely lightens up, which is a welcome change. The cedar finally gives way, replaced by some charcoal tastiness and peanuts. Behind that are orange peel, espresso, and black pepper. For the first time in the cigar, there’s a distinct finish: burnt popcorn and black pepper. While flavor and strength are both medium-full, the body picks up to full. Construction is similar to the second third in just about every regard: a couple of touch-ups and one cigar with a bad draw.

Final Notes

• When I finished my final sample, I thought about smoking another large Bolívar Salomone, the Bolívar Armonía, 2008 Chinese exclusive. As you can see, that cigar is identical in terms of shape and size
• There are two notable differences between the cigars. One, the Chinese version costs $160, five times the price of the German. The Chinese version is also much more limited to 16,064 cigars than 60,000.
• I had never really thought about the possibility of duplicate Edición Regionals, but it’s definitely a thing. I asked Christoph Puszkar, the marketing director for 5th Avenue Products Trading GmbH, the German distributor, about the duplicate nature. He told me Habanos S.A. allows it but cannot be within two years of release.
• This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are some other examples of duplicate Edición Regionals:
• El Rey del Mundo (5 5/9 x 50)
  • • Vikingos (Baltic 2007)
  • Elegantes (Switzerland 2010)
• Juan López (4 x 50)
  • • Ideales (Austria 2011)
  • Chiado 1864 (Portugal 2014)
• Por Larrañaga (6 7/10 x 50)
  • • Magnificos (United Kingdom 2007)
  • Legendarios (Spain 2012)
• Ramón Allones (4 x 50)
  • • Petit Robusto (Israel 2011)
  • Special Selected Robusto Corto (Países Bajos 2013)
• Ramón Allones (4 1/3 x 52)
  • • Lusitanos (Portugal 2010)
  • Petit Allónes (Andorra 2013)
• Ramón Allones (5 1/2 x 52 pirámides)
  • • Especial de Allones (France 2008)
  • Belicosos (Germany 2010)
• Vegas Robaina (4 x 50)
  • • Petit Robusto (Portugal 2008)
  • Petit Robusto (France 2010)
• The two that stand out are the Tesoro and the Por Larrañaga Legendarios. Both of those cigars are examples of much more affordable versions of cigars that are highly sought-after.
• While I had to touch up the cigar a bit, it was never because the burn line needed to be more evenly; rather, sometimes the cigar just needed help from going out.
• There’s something beautiful about the thick ash forming on the bulbous head.
• These came out of a box with a box code of ETP SEP 16.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time ranged from two hours to 15 minutes to three hours.