Hear ye, hear ye... all you light, mild, mellow, and lowkey cigar smokers. Today is your day to get the skinny on what is easily one of the least intense Sumatran cigars on the market today: The ever-impressive No. 162 from Lovely Cigars.

Constructed out of a silky soft Ecuadorian-grown Sumatran wrapper, a secondary Sumatran binder, and all Nicaraguan long-fillers, this mild-medium smoke is more milk tea than traditional chai. At least when it comes to spice and black peppercorn grade intensity. 

Honey and vanilla heavy, but rather dry and crisp more times than naught, this smoke is just as effervescent as it is aromatic. From cinnamon graham cracker crunch and toasted toffee, to a floral finish and a retrohale that keeps on giving, this boutique blend is the ideal option for those seeking Sumatran flavor without all of the body or strength.

Tobacco Nerd Note: While not a resurrected Green Bay cigar brand per se, Lovely's No. 162 does pay tribute to the city's cigar heritage by honoring the union that represented the Bay City cigar rollers way back in the day: Local 162. 

[Buy 5-Pack]

Unlit Impressions 

Light hickory brown, and a little mottle in places, the wrapper on this smoke reminds me a little bit of a burlap sack. Thankfully, it does not smell a damn bit like said sack and yields a healthy amount of honey, roasted pecan pie, and vanilla instead once sniffed by my bulbous schnozz. Soft to the touch but still textured, the length of the cigar feels good until you reach the foot, at which point it begins to feel a touch underfilled. 

An inspection of the heel of this stick confirms that there is some missing leaf inside, which automatically causes me to whip out my red marker and start aggressively scribbling notes. But just as I was about to put pen to paper, I decided to take a quick sniff of this squishy end piece, and almost immediately put my pen down. Sweet and toasty toffee, gingerbread, more vanilla, a little bit of light cedar, and the faintest caress of dried apricots. Shit. Why does the damn thing have to be so underfilled? This is outstanding smelling.

A cut later, and the chewy side of the cigar is in my pie hole. Hmmm... More toffee, a touch of cinnamon sprinkled graham cracker, faint gingerbread notes, dry hay, orange zest, some cedar sawdust, and the last lick of vanilla in the bottom of the bowl. Blessed be. We might have a sleeper on our hands here folks.  

Initial Smoke

As the perfect draw provides a prolific amount of brown sugar and cinnamon-encrusted graham cracker eroticism to my olfactory senses, a tartness takes hold. It's light, lingering and oh-so Lovely, and makes me feel like somehow this Green Bay, Wisconsin-based boutique brand has smuggled some candied orange peel inside. With touches of light cedar setting things off after each exhale I reach down and give my burlap sack a gentle squeeze. You may be underfilled, but I think you are wonderful just the way you are.

1st Half   

Milk tea and the first signs of Sumatran spice come forth after the ten minute mark. A near-perfect draw produces a nice layer of smoke that tastes of fermented hay, farm-fresh soil, and a lingering trickle of toffee down the center. 

Retrohales are elongated and faintly sweet, with an intricate floral aromatic that doesn't want to back down. The finish, however, is short and mellow, and takes the very best from the flavors being tasted, and then encourages them to sparkle and fade. 

2nd Half 

Dry hay turns wet and fermented tasting after the midway, and with it comes a bit of wet wood and sappy cedar. The finish is still floral and finely adjusted though, and somehow it works with these two dank tastes up front.

Slightly bitter at times, but in a friendly black tea type of way, the cigar flavor profile of this smoke sends more toward the nostrils than it does to the palate as it combusts. Cinnamon spice and heat hit the further down the barrel burns, and with that you will likely find some stronger Sumatran spice notes. 

Somehow, strength and body stay somewhere on the lighter side of medium, even though flavor does its damndest to convince your subconscious otherwise. Could this be a conflict of interest? Or perhaps it is merely the ideal solution for someone wanting the best of both worlds. Let's move into parting puffs and see where this blend takes us, shall we?

Parting Puffs

Is that chicory root I taste, or are you just happy to please me? Either way, this taste in last few minutes mixes magnificently with those mixed teas spicy retrohales I'm getting hit with. Yes, that means if you can't handle cigar spice/heat it might be time to set that stogie down. For the rest of you, let's dig a bit deeper down.

As things go "superfloralfragilisticexpialidocious" on yo' ass, a spicy Sumatran retrohale reminds you who is boss. Damn, that spiced tea and soil mix never grows old. Especially when it comes blended with cedar, vanilla, toffee, and a fair deal of rainforest crop fermentation.  

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw

A quick burn both times may have annoyed me and left my greedy-ass wishing for more, but the flaky ash and routine touch-ups were what caused me to crack that red marker out and scribble down some deduction notes. This is an issue that plagues both legacy cigar manufacturers and boutique brands alike, and is why I typically try to smoke more than one stick prior to writing up a review.

Speaking of reviews, the over-zealously glued band on my review stick was also a terrible disappointment, as it adhering to the wrapper caused the blend to burn even worse once removed. From a video review standpoint, this happens a few times a year, but even then it is still a quality control issue that only deducts points from the consumer's smoking experience, and therefore must be noted. 

Final Thoughts  

With this sort of momentum, Lovely Cigars seems to be on the fast track to securing a sizable American fan base in a few short years' time. They already have the whole "resurrecting extinct Green Bay boutique brands and honoring the city's long-forgotten cigar-producing history" schtick under wraps, and thus far it has done extremely well for them. They also have managed to blend up some impressively solid smokes. One of which I have just spent the past few days mulling over. Both pre-, post, and in the midst of smoking.

For while heavy, oily, maduro, and meat-cleaver strength Sumatran cigars still steal the show and therefore remain the most widely recognized... there is a place for light, floral, effervescent, and utterly unobtrusive stogies sporting the exact same seed strain. No. 162 by Lovely Cigars sits in that special spot. The mild Sumatran side show.

If Lovely Cigars can get its quality control under control, then I feel that the No. 162 has all the right ingredients to be considered a top-rated smoke. It just needs a little more leaf inside to start and to help keep it from combusting so quickly, and in turn, this will likely help encourage a better burn down the barrel and provide the smoker with more of everything.

Flavor, Aroma & Transitions

Depth & Complexity

Construction, Burn & Physical Appeal

Backstory & Branding

Overall Balance & Repeatability

Stogie Specs

Cigar	Lovely Cigars "No. 162"
Wrapper	Sumatran (Ecuador)
Binder	Sumatran
Filler	Nicaragua
Factory	Nicaragua
Size	50 x 5" (Robusto)
Strength	Mild-Medium
Pairing Drink	Gourmet Mixed Spice Hot Tea w/ Honey
Rating	4.4/5