Arturo Fuente Sun Grown 8-5-8 Rosado Corona Gorda Review

Buy the Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 Rosado at Famous Smoke Shop

• Size: 6.25″ x 47 (Corona Gorda)
• MSRP: $237.00 (box of 20); $11.90 for a single
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sungrown Rosado
• Binder: Dominican
• Filler: Dominican
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium Plus
• Humidor Time Prior to Review: 2.5 months
• Cigars Smoked Prior to Review: 0
• Source: Purchased with Personal Funds
• Date Smoked: December 16, 2018

The 8-5-8 Rosado is a cigar that was recommended from the Puff.com forums. I enjoyed the now discontinued Partagas Rosado, and heard great things about this Rosado blend that Arturo Fuente pumps out. I had trouble finding a good deal on these online. In fact, I had a hard time finding these online in general. So I picked up a single at my local tobacconist the same time I bought the Don Carlos. The price tag is still on it and it says “$7.90”. Not a horrible price to pay at a brick and mortar given the near $12.00 MSRP of this smoke.

This cigar is somewhat mysterious. I can’t find it on Fuente’s clunky website, and as I mentioned it’s tough to source these online year round in general. Even the nomenclature is confusing as you have the 8-5-8 Sun Grown, and then the 8-5-8 Rosado, which is sometimes referred to as the “Sungrown Rosado”. After a considerable amount of screwing around I discovered that you know you have the Rosado variant of the 8-5-8 if the cigar has a red cloth footband.

It’s worth mentioning this cigar wouldn’t cooperate with my little photo studio. Sorry for the janky shots of the cigar on the white paper background. It kept rolling around. Also something was up with the light balance.

Just like the Don Carlos, I only bought one cigar, so this review is going to be a sample size of one with no prior experience with this blend. I don’t typically like doing that, but I am in the mood to review a cigar and this 8-5-8 has been looking good in my humidor for a while. Time to check it out. If the cigar totally sucks I probably won’t publish the review and give the blend the benefit of the doubt. For this reason I like to try and buy 5 packs. This way I can smoke a couple of them before I get to the review.

Anyhow, enough jabbering. On to the review.

Appearance and Pre-Light Aromas

The cigar comes wrapped in cellophane and then it has a cedar body sleeve with a red fabric foot band. This all does a good job of protecting the cigar in transit and in the humidor, but requires some disassembly to actually view the cigar.

I snap a couple pictures for posterity and slide off the cedar sleeve. I can see why they include a cedar sleeve for these cigars. My 8-5-8 Rosado is definitely not going to win any beauty pageants. The wrapper is a light nutty brown, loaded with veins and very lumpy and bumpy towards the foot. The first inch appears to have some sort of mild physical deformity, perhaps where the cloth foot band was placed on it over the cedar sleeve. I have no idea. Lets hope it smells nice.

The cigar feels light for its size. There is a light oily sheen to it and little in the way of tooth. Smooth, with the slightest bit of resistance against the pads of your fingers.

Smelling the wrapper rewards you with a complicated aroma of nuts, earth, barnyard, honey, and cedar. From the foot I get more of the same. Good sweetness coming from the aroma of this unlit cigar. That is unusual and interesting in my book.

I clip off the cap and take a test draw. The draw is free and easy. I get flavors of sweet tobacco, toasted nuts, and light baking spices.

I start toasting and light up. Start time is 1:40 P.M.

First Third

Oh wow, this should be interesting. I’m getting a nice berry sweetness from this stick right off the bat. A spicy finish coats the back of my throat. I take another puff. More berries, strawberry I think, and good spiciness on the retrohale and finish.

One thing I notice is the cigar is burning fast. Less than 5 minutes in and already a quarter inch of the stick is being turned to light gray ash.

A little creaminess is coming in now. It’s the first flavor that hits me, then the berry sweetness, then a peppery finish. A combination of red and black pepper with some more exotic spices mixed in. An unusual yet entirely welcome set of flavors. Nothing super complicated so far, but very nice.

Body is at a standard medium. Maybe even the mild side of medium.

I’m starting to get a few more flavors. Light coffee, cinnamon, and a little nuttiness. The strawberry sweetness has dialed back a little, but there is definitely still some sweetness here and the cigar is smooth and creamy.

The burn line is dead even, and the cigar continues to smoke fast. I’d say we have smoked an inch in 10 minutes. Good thing we have a longer cigar here otherwise this review will be over in short order.

It’s a nice Sunday afternoon here in Southwest Florida. It has been grey and rainy the past couple days. I was going to try and review a cigar Saturday afternoon, but the whole back yard was wet and soggy and conditions didn’t feel right for a review. Today the skies are blue and the sun is shining. And it’s a little cool. I decided to pull a hoodie out of the closet before lighting up.

The aroma of this cigar is a delicious sweet and spicy combination. As far as the actual flavors go, coffee has ticked up a few notches. The birds are chirping and the leaves gently rustle overhead.

Our 8-5-8 Rosado continues to smoke cool and clean, with a nice even burn. The burn rate appears to have slowed down a little. The draw is open so I need to be careful. Thus far it has been a picture perfect smoking experience. Touch wood.

I continue to sip slowly on the cigar. It’s a sweet n’ spicy treat, with cream and coffee, light nuttiness, and a good dose of pepper on the retrohale and finish. I’d say it’s the perfect amount of spice for me. Not so much that I’m left sneezing, or can’t retrohale, but it is present and lingers on the finish.

The berries have morphed into a raisin sweetness now. The flavors are cream, raisin, coffee, nuts, and a little pepper. An inch and a half of compact gray ash is hanging tough.

I finished reading the book “Fooled by Randomness” yesterday. It is a series of mediations on randomness, and the various statistical biases people often fall victim to. The author worked on Wall Street so a lot of it relates to trading stocks, but there are a lot of random things in life.

Cigar reviews strike me as an activity with a lot of randomness to it. I’m not sure how valuable these reviews are as cigar blends can change slightly over time, people taste and perceive cigars differently, and the flavors in cigars change depending on how long you rest them, environmental conditions, etc. Cigar reviews are very subjective and highly random. But they are fun and you can see some correlations if you read enough of them.

The Second Third

Smoke time is a little shy of 30 minutes.

The ash is still hanging on. A solid 2 inches I’d say. Very impressive. Let me snap a picture before it drops onto my lap. Here’s a shot:

I’m impressed. I’m not doing anything fancy with the stick. Just letting it rest in the ash tray in between puffs.

The sweetness has taken on the characteristic of honey. I’m getting a little citrus now as well, reminding me a bit of the hot toddy I had last night. That’s a great drink that doesn’t make much sense here in Florida. But after sitting outside in the cool damp air reading a book and smoking a Liga Privada No. 9 yesterday evening I decided I needed something to warm me up.

In addition to the honey and citrus I’m still getting coffee, nuts, graham cracker, a little cinnamon, generic wood, and that nice lingering pepper. Creaminess has backed off. Body remains at medium. Not much strength so far. I feel relaxed, which is nice for a Sunday afternoon. Usually Sundays are reserved for that mild existential dread and anxiety only an impending work week can provide. This 8-5-8 has distracted me momentarily and for that I am thankful.

The ash has finally fallen at the 35 minute mark. Thankfully it landed square in the ash tray as I was setting the cigar down. Bravo.

The release of ash has opened up the flavors a little more. A strong raisin flavor, which can perhaps be dissected into sweetness, coffee, and a juicy fruitiness. Nuttiness remains a core flavor as well. Cream has come back a bit. Good to see creaminess even though we appear to be nearing the halfway point.

The burn line is still even, but is perhaps slightly wavy. No where within range of needing a correction. A great burn in my book.

The coffee flavor has become rich and deep. A lovely coffee flavor. Gentle woody notes underpin it. The smoke is smooth and easy to retrohale. A lovely easy going smoke.

The Final Third

We are at the 55 minute mark and getting within punting distance of the band.

The cigar is smoking fast, but otherwise I can’t complain. The smoke is cool and I can hold the cigar near the burn line without singeing my fingers.

A mild aromatic cedar is creeping into the flavor profile. A nice addition. We are getting some flavor transitions with this cigar. The cedar plays well with the coffee and pepper. Cream and nuts have left the building. The sweetness has dialed back, but it’s still somewhat present. The aroma is still sweet and sugary.

We are at the band. A minimal amount of glue has been used and the band pulls off cleanly.

Some unsweetened cocoa has been introduced to the flavor profile. A welcome addition as we enter the final 2 inches of the cigar. The flavors now are mainly coffee, cocoa, cedar, and mild pepper.

The aromatic cedar has gotten intense. Notes of toasty graham cracker support it. It’s nice. Quite nice. I sit back and quietly enjoy the cigar.

2018 is almost over. I have a couple cases set for hearing early this week. After I get through those it will be a downhill slope into 2019.

It also marks about a year of writing for this website. I started in November of 2017. I haven’t done much to market the blog, and it isn’t heavily trafficked. Maybe it gets 5-10 visitors a day now, generating 10-15 page views.

But occasionally I’ll get a spike of 30-50 page views in a single day. That must mean someone lands on the site and is interested enough to check out multiple reviews. That’s cool. I know this style of reviewing won’t be for everyone. In fact, my only comment this year was a harsh critique of my reviewing style. Essentially my reviews are long winded with a lot of dick twirling. I know. But I’m hoping some will like it. I’ve enjoyed reviewing cigars. I’ve learned a lot about the hobby by doing this. The website may be destined for obscurity, but if some people like it then that’s great. I will continue to review cigars for the time being.

The cigar continues to grow more savory, but still there is some raisin. Cedar, coffee, raisin, baking spices. Oh and pepper. Can’t forget the pepper. It’s not a “pepper bomb” but it has had a nice portion of pepper throughout the smoke.

The 8-5-8 continues to smoke nicely. The ash was as long as the unburned portion of the cigar, and then the ash slipped free into the ash tray. I find that highly satisfying.

We are at the final inch or so. The flavors have washed out somewhat. The remaining flavors are cedar, coffee, and pepper mostly. I’ll continue to smoke it as long as the cigar remains cool, but think the best this stick has to offer is behind us. Still, it’s not bad. Who knows, maybe some leather will creep into the last inch.

Sure enough, a little leather makes its way into the final inch. That’s just how my palate experiences the intense oil laden final bit of a cigar I think.

Arturo Fuente Sun Grown 8-5-8 Rosado Cigar Review – Final Thoughts

All in all I enjoyed this one. I think the positive feedback from the cigar forums is justified. This is a nice easy going smoke with good flavors, nice transitions, and impeccable burn characteristics. It doesn’t quite make it into the realm of a top tier cigar for me, but it’s an enjoyable smoke for the money. I can see this being a great every day smoke, or a regular addition to the rotation if you try to keep your cigar purchases under the $8 mark.

Much like the Short Story, Fuente has crafted another excellent medium bodied every day cigar. Final strength is around a medium. I’m relaxed, but my head isn’t spinning from nicotine. It may not be as eye catching as the latest boutique offering, but for those wanting a no-nonsense middle of the road stick with some decent transitions and pleasant flavors I think the 8-5-8 Rosado is a good option. Try one out and let me know what you think.

I bought some Anejos a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to letting them rest a while longer and then cracking into them in the new year. That will be my next Fuente review.

Final Score: 4.0 / 5 or a “1” on my 0-2 scale. A good cigar and I’d buy it again.

Final Smoke time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

I recommend purchasing the Arturo Fuente Sun Grown 8-5-8 Rosado at Famous Smoke Shop. Please consider that purchasing things through any of the links on this website, including Amazon.com, helps support the website and keeps it going. Any and all support is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.