La Palina LP10 Robusto

📌 Brand: La Palina
📌 Line: LP10
📌 Size: Robusto (5" × 50)
📌 Weight: 13.6 g
📌 Age: 7 years
📌 Origin: Honduras

Tasting Notes

• Charred Wood – Harsh, dominant from the start

• Bitter Herb – Sharp and unbalanced

• Petrol / Chemical Note – Persistent off-flavor

• Dry Earth – Muted and flat beneath the harshness

First Impressions

The LP10 Robusto shows a medium-brown wrapper with uneven firmness and visible soft spots. Pre-light aroma is oddly sharp with hints of earth and a faint chemical edge. Cold draw is open but offers little pleasant flavor.

Smoking Experience

• First Third – Flavor opens with bitterness and a harsh charred wood note. Burn immediately wanders, requiring early correction.

• Second Third – Strong petrol-like taste appears, dominating the profile. Burn collapses repeatedly, demanding constant touch-ups.

• Final Third – Bitterness intensifies, chemical note persists, and the cigar becomes nearly unsmokable. Construction degrades further with tunneling and hot, thin smoke.

Pairings

• Alcohol – Diplomatico Mantuano Rum - Caramel and spice help mask the cigar’s harshness, offering at least some sweetness to counter the bitterness.

• Tea – Hibiscus Tea (Egypt) - Bright, tart, palate-cleansing — the only realistic way to cut through the chemical and bitter profile.

Music Pairing

“Negative Creep” – Nirvana
Raw and abrasive, matching the cigar’s flawed intensity.

Final Thoughts

The La Palina LP10 Robusto is held back by severe construction issues and a dominant petrol-like bitterness that overshadows any positive traits. Constant burn failures and chemical off-notes make it a genuinely unpleasant cigar from start to finish.

Final Score: 1/10
Why not a 10?
Very bad burn, repeated collapse of construction, overwhelming bitterness, and a persistent petro-chemical flavor left no redeeming qualities.

Only cigars that deliver flawless draw, balance, flavour evolution, construction and satisfaction get a 10.