C. E. Beck y Compania was originally a Cuban label manufactured in the mid nineteenth century. Today the label has been co-opted by Cuban Crafters for one of their cameroon wrapped Nicaraguan cigars. I received a couple of Cuban Crafters samplers last summer (a great deal by the way) and have finally gotten around to this Beck selection, the toro sized “Buckaroo.”
Beck cigars are available in all the standard formats but run a bit on the large size — the churchill, robusto and toro all have a 52 ring gauge, and there is also a “super toro” with a 60 ring gauge. A bit much for me, but the super large format has its following. The Buckaroo included in the sampler is the standard toro size at 6 by 52.
This cigar has a Cameroon wrapper, of course, and a Nicaraguan binder and filler from Kiki Berger’s Tabacalera Esteli. Not to be undersold, the ad copy on the Cuban Crafters site describes the filler as “virgin sun grown Cuban-seed habano tobacco that was fermented 5 times.” Obviously a lot of time and care go into the making of these smokes.
The wrapper is dry and just slightly toothy. The prelight scent is very plain tobacco. Nothing to get too excited about.
But once lit this proves to be a solid medium bodied cigar. It starts out with a nice cocoa flavor over a subdued base of cedar. There’s a spicy tingle at the back of the throat and in the sinuses, but not enough to be called a bite exactly. The burn is even and trouble free and builds a solid ash. There is a hint of cameroon in the aroma — some mild kitchen spices, a smattering of cinammon in the cocoa maybe.
At about the middle of the cigar the subtle flavors lose prominence and are overpowered by the spicy aspects of the smoke. Still a good flavor at this point, but definitely spicier and less complex. Inching toward the last third and finale of this cigar is more of the same, until the last bit which turns slightly sour. I may have been smoking a little too fast, but I wasn’t getting anything at this point that warranted my slowing down. And besides, it was 25 degrees outside and my knuckles were starting to turn blue.
Overall I think the Beck Cameroon is a fine medium bodied cigar, especially the first half. It went a little downhill after that, but some cigars are just like that. Kind of like the friend who is interesting and fun to be around until he gets a few too many drinks in him and starts dwelling on his failed marriage…or something. Nice guy and all, but a little tiresome at the end of the evening.
These sell for around five bucks a stick, or you can pick up a sampler of all 6 sizes from Cuban Crafters for 20 bucks, which seems like a pretty good deal to me.
And if you figure out what these horses are doing, please let me know.
Cigarfan.net 
A friend gave me one of these to try in the robusto size. I wasn’t at all excited. At 5 bucks a stick, I think the $ could be better spent.
The horses look to me to be climbing up to get a good whiff of the foot, hoping for some barnyard scent maybe?
lucky7
Horses looking for the barnyard… of course!
I agree with your assessment, Lucky7. The couple I tried were decent enough, but not anything to write home about. If Cameroon is your thing, you can’t beat a Torano 1916, for well under 5 dollars in most places.
Thanks for checking in!
This cigar is a decent enough smoke for the most part. In the last, say, 25% of the stick it became a bit sour as noted above. The sour taste isn’t an all-encompasing one, but could be better without. I am not sure what that was due to. The cigar before that was medium bodied with tobacco, cedar/leather, and light spice. The Cameroon wrapper, while somewhat delicate as is the case with this type, held together well and burned nicely with the proper resistance and smoke. If these can be had for less than $5 I would say it the last 25% displaying the sour element wouldn’t be a deal killer as the cigar was quite nice for a not too complex medium bodied stick up until that point. I’d like to try another one (I do have one more) and see if these findings were typical. My particular sticks are aged approaching 2 years in my humidor so I know they are well aged. I generally find Cuban Crafters cigars to be at least good and sometimes excellent…They’re all available at generally great prices as this company is 100% vertically integrated from seed/soil to the end user. Out of a 10 point scale I’d give it a 7.5 or slightly above which, for me, is a nice score.
Thanks for your thoughts on this one. I haven’t picked up a Cuban Crafters smoke in quite a while, but your comments reminded me why I should.
I am very dissapointed by Cuban Crafters client service team.
I’ve bought months ago, 2 bundles of Don Quijote Robustos and the transaction went smooth and with no problems.I’ve delivered the cigars within a month and I must admit I enjoyd this Don Quijote very much.I’ve placed a new order,this time a much more expensive one and this time, after 2 whole months,my package is nowhere to be found.The CC client service didn’t respond to any of my 4 e-mails,so I’ve called them to speak directly with somebody,only to get informed that they’ve send the package by Global service,meaning they can’t track it.No “sorry”, no cigars,no refund,no compensation.Thancks for nothing CUBAN CRAFTERS.You’ve just lost my buziness…