Something new for IPCPR16 was the Dictador series. Featured in Connecticut, Habano and maduro wrappers the cigars were specifically to be paired with gin, rum and scotch. My wife not being a big fan of liquor and cigars I chose to pair the maduro with a heavy ginger beer.

Pre-light aromas were well aged tobacco and a somewhat spicy cocoa. The pre-light draw was a bit vegetal.

The initial draw was medium tobacco with some notes of leather and earth. After the first taste of ginger beer I realized that I should have slept on the couch. Not bad, but not what a good dram of, say, Lagavulin would have been.

Marital issues aside, the cigar burned very clean with a medium dark ash. The ginger was a bit overwhelming, but the maduro flavors shone through.

The burn was not clean, but not uneven enough to require a correction .

At one third the flavors had settled to a nice medium to full as one would expect from a maduro. Not in a bad way, just as one would expect.

Another taste of the ginger beer confirmed that I had selected the wrong beverage. A good stout beer or a nice single malt would have been more appropriate.

At the final third the cigar, in spite of the ginger beer, developed into a very nice complex cigar. Paired with the appropriate beverage this would shine.

Overall this is a very good cigar that deserves an 85 rating, probably better with the right beverage.