La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Review: The Belicoso Still Earns Its Spot
A San Andrés maduro built at My Father in Estelí. Cocoa, almond and a coconut sweetness, and my dessert stick for years running.
Bottom line: Cocoa, nuts and a coconut sweetness you don’t find at this price, in a cigar that stays smooth all the way down. Medium-full, box pressed, and an easy call at what it costs.
Shop this cigarThe La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Belicoso has had a permanent place in my humidor for the better part of a decade, and there aren’t many cigars I can say that about. Cigar Aficionado made it the No. 2 cigar of 2011 at 95 points, then put Mi Amor back in the Top 25 in 2023, which is a long run for any blend. La Aroma de Cuba is an Ashton brand, but the cigars themselves are rolled at My Father in Estelí and blended by José “Pepín” García. That pairing is most of the reason this thing works.
Pre-light and first impressions
It’s box pressed and dark, with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper that reads more rugged than polished. There’s tooth to it and the veins are visible, which I prefer to the glassy maduros that look like furniture. The press is firm and square, the belicoso head is cleanly tapered, and the whole cigar feels dense in the hand without being overpacked. Nothing about it looks or feels like a cigar that sells for what this one does.
Smoking experience
Cocoa arrives first and never really leaves. Underneath it there’s a steady nuttiness, almond mostly, and then the thing that keeps me buying it: a sweetness that lands somewhere near toasted coconut. I don’t get that from many cigars, and I’ve never gotten it this cleanly from anything else in this price range. Espresso and earth fill in the middle, and there’s black pepper sitting behind all of it rather than on top, so it never bites.
It’s medium-full, which for me is the useful part. There’s enough body to hold your attention and not so much that you need a meal in you first. The last third gets richer without turning sour or bitter, which is the usual reason people put a cigar down early. I smoke this one to the nub, and I don’t do that out of stubbornness.
Burn, draw, and construction
This is where the My Father factory shows up. The draw on a box pressed belicoso can go wrong in a hurry if the press is uneven, and these have been reliable for me. Even burn, good draw, and only the rare one that needs a quick touch up. Over a lot of boxes that kind of consistency is the quiet reason a cigar keeps its slot, because a blend you love that only behaves half the time doesn’t stay in the rotation.
Value and buying perspective
Ten and a half dollars. That’s the whole argument. Plenty of cigars in the twenty to thirty dollar range don’t deliver what this does, and the gap has only widened as prices climbed everywhere else over the last few years. Buy one if you’re curious, but the box of 25 is the honest recommendation, because nobody smokes just one of these. If you want to know where the blending DNA comes from, the My Father La Lealtad is the García family working in a different direction at a similar price.
Final verdict
Mi Amor lives up to its ranking, and that’s not something you can say about most cigars fifteen years on. The cocoa, the almond, the coconut sweetness: it’s all still there, it stays smooth from the light to the nub, and it’s priced like a cigar with far less going on. It’s what I reach for after dinner when I want something rich that won’t fight me. Top pick.
