Viaje Piña Nohea

📌 Brand: Viaje
📌 Line: Piña
📌 Size: Nohea (5" × 54)- Robusto
📌 Weight: 14.6 g
📌 Age: 3 years
📌 Origin: Dominican Republic

Tasting Notes

• Sweet Cream – Light, mellow base

• Toasted Sugar – Soft caramelized edge

• Pineapple Skin – Not sweet fruit — more tart, dry, slightly acidic

• White Pepper – Mild retrohale lift

First Impressions

The Piña Robusto shows a bright, lightly oily Mexican San Andres wrapper with clean seams and a tropical-themed band. Pre-light aroma brings cream, toasted sugar, and faint tart fruit. Cold draw is ideal, slightly sweet, promising balance.

Smoking Experience

• First Third – Opens creamy with a soft caramel sweetness and a faint tart note resembling pineapple rind. Burn starts clean.

• Second Third – Profile stalls — flavors stay pleasant but flat and one-dimensional. White pepper flickers. First relight required.

• Final Third – Cream fades, tart note sharpens slightly, but complexity never develops. Second relight needed to finish.

Pairings

• Alcohol – Plantation Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple Rum - Echoes the cigar’s pineapple nuance but adds actual depth, sweetness, and spice the cigar lacks.

• Tea – Ceylon UVA High Grown Black Tea - Clean, lightly brisk tea that sharpens the palate between sweet-cream puffs and keeps the cigar from feeling dull.

Music Pairing

“Someone New” – Hozier
Light, melodic, and slightly sweet — matching the cigar’s easygoing character.

Final Thoughts

The Viaje Piña Robusto is pleasant and gentle, but doesn’t develop beyond its opening profile. The tart-sweet cream core is enjoyable, yet the cigar struggles to evolve, and two relights disrupted the flow.

Final Score: 6/10
Why not a 10?
One-dimensional flavor progression and two relights prevented depth, balance, and satisfaction.

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