Rating a cigar purely upon appearances is kind of like bragging about how fast your DeLorean is when it doesn't even have an engine in the back. Your assessments may be valid, but without a little performance to back it all up, you really aren't going anywhere.

Like many, I was amused by the banding and shaggy foot on the premium cigar blend that is the McFly from Oscar Valladares. I was also skeptical as to whether this plant-based premium adult product was more glitter and hype than substance. 

A stogie this flashy and fun needs to have the chops to back up that grade of attention grab, and fortunately for this shaggy-footed retro rocket, it has Oscar Valladares engineering and a flux capacitor with enough juice to get you there and back.

[Buy 5-Pack]

Unlit Impressions   

Those who are familiar with the Oscar Valladares line, know full well that this is a cigar manufacturer that is not afraid of rolling up something unusual looking. Good old Oscar also embraces the usage of various packaging techniques not commonly seen, with the angular, retro 1980s sleeve banding on the McFly being a prime example. 

Remove that massive roll of purple paper, and you'll find a roasted peanut-colored Mexican San Andrés natural wrapper that is pretty immaculately applied and virtually vein-free. It smells of cedar sawdust, untanned suede, and yeasty bread dough, and teases you with hints of dried ginger powder and mixed spices, almost like a stale bowl of potpourri. 

That shaggy foot may smell far more cedar-forward while allowing the cinnamon graham cracker sweetness to start its ascent up your schnozz, but it also carries some toasty nuttiness and a playful punch of exotic tobacco spice. This last portion is almost pipe tobacco grade dare I say. 

Cold draws are primarily cedar and cinnamon breakfast cereal, with a drizzle of sweet clover honey and dried ginger rounding out any sharpness. 

Initial Smoke 

Without a wrapper or binder, the shaggy foot burns rapidly and rather uneventfully. There are touches of cinnamon here and there, accompanied by a faint nutty pecan undertone, but nothing much beyond that and some sun-grown tobacco spice and a scrap of cedar.  

1st Half      

Smelling like a cedar humidor set ablaze in the middle of an Oscar Valladares tobacco field down in Honduras, the tannin and earth side of this cigar is both the primary flavor profile and the reason why the first 30–45 minutes of this cigar is so flamboyant. It's like Oscar Valladares found a way to make it possible for you to taste the energy of that big-ass cigar band, and as the medium-grade richness and intensity increase, so too do the flavor profiles.

Tangy and toasty, the punchy presence of the smoke is only accentuated further by a fluid draw and a gradual uptick in nuttiness. Think dried pecans and pastry dough without any sweetness to swamp your senses, finished with some herbal notes.

2nd Half     

Slightly darker notes that remain well in the medium range take you toward a savory, umami meatiness, before changing direction and toying with lighter touches of cedar and spice. This smoke still has some of those caramel and pecan notes we enjoy, but in a slightly dry, almost chalky form. Additionally, the cigar pictured here smelled sweeter than it tasted, and retrohales provided more black pepper grade spice and strength as well. Whereas the other cigar I smoked delivered considerably more sweetness to the palate.

Depth builds toward the very tail-end of the second third, and by this point, it is more of a resurrected spin on what was found in the first half, but with a darker buttered pecan approach. This soon forms a meatiness and salinity that I found best compared to Kalamata olives. There's also a clay-like, mineral note to the blend that makes the aftertaste physically feel more earthy and savory than before.  

Parting Puffs    

Smoke this one down to the point where you are about to break out your tweezers ya'll. Parting puffs do away with all of the olives, and form a likable tincture of mixed nut butter, oak tannins, and a sweet meatiness that makes me think of the aftertaste left in your mouth after downing a bunch of barbecue burnt ends. 

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw 

While I was concerned about the wrapper on this cigar at first due to it being damaged (that attractive V-split in the barrel band near the shaggy foot is definitely a chink in its armor) both it and the previous stick burned brilliantly. A couple of jagged burn edges here and there self-erased in no time, and the ash was steady as a rock the entire time and maintained a nice cone. 

Some heat was detected as the cigar hit the halfway mark forward, but the draw was still cool enough to enjoy and created an ideal amount of smoke. And while the physical feel of the smoke was not as full as I would have liked, I feel this qualm was more personal preference than concrete concern.  

Final Thoughts      

I like McFly. Not only is it a fun stick to fire up at a party or hand out to an unsuspecting acquaintance, but it also performs like a freakin' champ when the heat is on. Combustion, humidor appeal, and smoke production are this blend's strengths, followed by flavor profiles and purity.

Think graham cracker cinnamon cereal on steroids, all served up in a Spanish Cedar bowl and topped with organic oat milk. This is where the very best of this blend reaches its stride but then decides to either go cedar plank barbecue on you.

It may be a little repetitive at times, and transitionally speaking, McFly isn't the most memorable Oscar Valladares cigars I've had in my day. There were also some striking inconsistencies in delivery from stick-to-stick, with the second cigar being far more meaty and less sweet and cedary than the first.

But this does not make for an unenjoyable cigar-smoking experience in my book. It just prevents me from determining what this premium cigar blend is truly all about. I will still recommend the Oscar Valladares McFly to anyone who enjoys a medium-strength smoke with loads of cedar notes and a totally tubular cigar band. There's just going to be a disclaimer that it might take them back to where it all began at the very end... 

Stogie Specs