La Barba Ricochet Cru Mexi-Sol – Cigar Review by Chris LaPointe

January 9, 2022

La Barba Ricochet Cru Mexi-Sol – Cigar Review by Chris LaPointe

It’s cold and snowy way up here in Northern Alberta (Canada). While we can’t really take a tropical vacation due to current restrictions we did decide to escape to our little retreat in the wilderness and we brought a little Mexi-Sol with us.. La Barba Ricochet Cru Mexi-Sol that is. Our chosen size is a 5 1/2 X 54 Robusto Extra.

This is the second cigar in Ricochet lineup, released in July of 2019. And is my fifth cigar for this review. These cigars are made in the Dominican Republic at the Tabacalera William Ventura factory. Using a Mexican Sun-Grown wrapper with an Indonesian binder underneath, it all encases a unique trio blend from the Dominican, Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. I love all tobaccos from these regions and have been finding Mexican wrappers to be hitting some of my favorite cigars of late.

Prying my eyes away from Susan in her sexy lumberjack outfit (yes, apparently lumberjacks can be sexy) I notice that the Mexi-Sol is a rather dry cigar. No oils present at all on the wrapper, yet it’s still smooth to the touch. A beautiful milk chocolate color with a very distinct red hue about it, with no visible veins.

You know it’s coming here.. Sniff-Sniff test reveals some strong dark chocolate, oak and leather.

Per usual, I cut through the cap of the Mexi-Sol using my go to Xikar V-Cutter. The cut is clean with no breaks around it, I then took in a Cold-Draw. I was met with most of the same from the previous sniff-sniff, oak and leather are prominent here with chocolate taking a backseat at this point. The draw is fairly loose, a little too easy. Time to light her up since The First Lady is already melting snow while cutting down some firewood for us.

After lighting up the stogie, I am immediately hit with that oak and leather again along with coffee notes. The chocolate had seemingly disappeared completely.. maybe it was too cold out here so he went back in the oven. There is a barnyard like undertone of earth and hay that is added to it all, with the retrohale dropping some light black pepper. The cigar itself is burning quite well toward the end of the First-Third. Not razor sharp straight, but fairly good also taking into account we are outside in not ideal conditions. The smoke output is above average and freaking beautiful!! You can see thick white smoke coming out of the cap end as well. It’s sitting on the lower end of medium-strength at this point.

Moving along into the middle section of this cigar. The Second-Third the oak and leather notes have now established themselves as the leading acts. Coffee is sticking around like a B-List just begging to have her name on the opening credits while the earthy portion of the barnyard I was tasting starts to move on up from being an extra to join her in the supporting cast. There a slight sweet nutty undertone that I would have to describe as peanuts that just showed up to audition as an extra now. With the retrohale still delivering the black pepper (albeit a little stronger now) we can rest assured the whole cast is here, making this a wonderful full-bodied experienced. This cigar is now hitting right in the middle of medium-strength all while still producing beautiful thick white smoke.

Heading into the Final-Third of the Mexi-Sol, there is no surprise that the oak and leather notes have stayed dead front and center from start to finish. The most notable change in the final-third is that the coffee becomes more prominent and itself changes to become a stronger espresso. The retrohale is still black pepper that increased throughout becoming stronger.

The La Barba Ricochet Cru Mexi-Sol ends as a medium-strength and full-bodied cigar. I will add, that the series of sticks I smoked for this review sat in my humidor for well over a year. Over which they greatly improved. When I smoked my first one in 2019, it didn’t burn well and the strength was barely a medium. The flavors were there however, full-bodied even then. The improvements of a great burn, copious thick white smoke throughout and the increase in strength definitely made this a cigar I will go back to. If you see a La Barba Ricochet Cru Mexi-Sol at your local B&M, I would highly recommend giving it a cut and light.