Blind Cigar Reviews

Excellent review! :thumbs:

Aren't we due another review? Come on Gary! I wanna read about what you received from Mike!

He just got his package yesterday. They tried to deliver over the weekend, but someone was not home. :whistling:

Mr_Wolf said:

Believe it or not, my very first King B wasn't very good either! I only got it because of all the hype. I personally like the SG Belicoso's much better. I love all of the other AF line though, and I hated to give it a bad review, but hey, I wanted to be honest :blush:

Now if someone has some of those nasty ol' Anjeo's that they don't like, I'll be happy to do a review on them for ya and send ya my tasty King B's :sign:

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Wow, another bad King B review! Thanks for enduring that and writing it up, Dan. I still have a couple and have still never smoked any. They have close to a year additional aging now but I'm not sure how much difference that will make if they are that bad.

vortex said:

Mr_Wolf said:

Believe it or not, my very first King B wasn't very good either! I only got it because of all the hype. I personally like the SG Belicoso's much better. I love all of the other AF line though, and I hated to give it a bad review, but hey, I wanted to be honest :blush:

Now if someone has some of those nasty ol' Anjeo's that they don't like, I'll be happy to do a review on them for ya and send ya my tasty King B's :sign:

Click to expand...

Wow, another bad King B review! Thanks for enduring that and writing it up, Dan. I still have a couple and have still never smoked any. They have close to a year additional aging now but I'm not sure how much difference that will make if they are that bad.

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Dunno... All the King B's I've had so far I've liked.

Wurm said:

vortex said:

Mr_Wolf said:

Believe it or not, my very first King B wasn't very good either! I only got it because of all the hype. I personally like the SG Belicoso's much better. I love all of the other AF line though, and I hated to give it a bad review, but hey, I wanted to be honest :blush:

Now if someone has some of those nasty ol' Anjeo's that they don't like, I'll be happy to do a review on them for ya and send ya my tasty King B's :sign:

Click to expand...

Wow, another bad King B review! Thanks for enduring that and writing it up, Dan. I still have a couple and have still never smoked any. They have close to a year additional aging now but I'm not sure how much difference that will make if they are that bad.

Click to expand...

Dunno... All the King B's I've had so far I've liked.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it! I'll have to break one of mine out this weekend and torch it.

Who is up for the current review? We haven't had one for a couple of weeks.

Think it is Grateful1.



He has been tending sick family and such last I heard.

I'm the late guy. I'll get to it asap. Thanks!



<the cigar looks nice :thumbs: >

grateful1 said:

I'm the late guy. I'll get to it asap. Thanks!

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Hope all is well, or getting better in your neck of the woods! I know you'll get to it.

...

For anyone else in this pass, feel free to jump in and post your reviews when you get them done. There isn't a need to keep it in order. We just want to hear what you thought about the mystery cigar!

It's been over a month now since we had a review here and there have been several blind passes since.... Is this just becoming a blind PIF or what?

insight said:

It's been over a month now since we had a review here and there have been several blind passes since.... Is this just becoming a blind PIF or what?

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Awrite awready! I'll do mine tomorrow. Mine came from bfreebern. I did a trade a while back with Brandon (prior to the PIF). I requested a couple of yard gars for some baggies. Yard gars, as if! Harrrumph! I've been anxious to try the blind stick, but want to do it right.

Its 11AM on a sunny New Year's day. I have a cup of Starbuck's Verona and bfreebern's mystery stick. Its a well made robusto, about 6 x 50. Its veiny and dry (not oily). Wrapper is a sumatra, possibly a cameroon. A gentle squeeze is firm and indicative of a good cigar.



Prelight draw is perfect and a bit sweet. It reminds me of the bouquet in the walk in of my favorite B&M. It lights evenly. The first puffs are a little bitter - no surprise. Into the first inch, this baby is smooth now. The bitterness is gone as I start searching for those adjectives. All I can come up with is woody, spicy, and quite pleasant.



The back of my throat tells me that this is medium body and and at least medium to strong. The burn is perfect and the ash held to almost half way, but it got a little bitter again. I've slowed down to a triple puff about once per minute.



Wife gives the room aroma a "B" - thats good!

Pre-unveiling evaluation is that this is what I catagorize as a super-premium, a cigar that MSRP is greater than $10. I've smoked mostly maduro wrappers in the last year and am only now coming to appreciate non maduros. I like this cigar and would keep it as a go-to. Here is what I give it on a typical 10 scale:

Burn - 9
Consistency - 8
Draw - 10
Appearance - 9
Taste - 9
Construction - 9
Overall rating - 9



Unveiling: A Gurkha Legend! I'm impressed! I don't recall having had the Legend before. With what CI has done to the label, its hard to keep track of what I like. According to Famous, the price is exactly $10. I think I'll be ordering a box in March or so when I have the budget. Thanks, Brandon, for the opportunity to try this cigar.

Great review Bruce! The legend is a sneaky cigar, I have given it unbanded to people who swear to hate Gurkhas and they loved it.

Well done, Bruce.

Can't say I'm a fan of Gurkhas in general but this one sounds to be a decen cigar.

Wilkey

Nice to see these back in action.

Great review Bruce. I usually don't care for Gurkhas but this one sounds pretty damn tasty. I have some free time and will be smoking my mystery stick this week - review to come...

Good review. I happen to like the Gurkha Legends, and find them to be a good smooth woody smoke. Damn cheap on Cbid as well.

Today we woke up to more snow falling here in the Denver area. There was about 6-8 inches of new powder on the ground but I didn’t think much of it due to the massive piles that are still around from our last blast. I went to take my 7yo future BOTL to school, only to find that school was closed. I looked back at Christian and simultaneously we yelled “SNOW DAY!” haha. We did the first thing that came to mind and drove straight to Target to purchase snow day snacks and a new Wii game for the glorious occasion. Once the boys were settled in, I snuck out and found a few moments for this review. Cold as a beeeatch in the garage so my beverage of choice was a hot cup of coffee and glass of water. Let the review begin!


Prelight Impressions:
Origin - Unknown, received from grateful1
Size – Robusto about 4 ¾ by about 46-48?
Wrapper – fairly dark. Not quite maduro but close to the color of the PAMs. Very large vein running the length.
Smell - all tobacco, sweet and very appealing.
Draw – Clipped the end with the Palio, the draw was somewhat firm but not bad.


Toast the foot and she’s lit - Initial taste was just like the smell. Started off nicely and didn’t take much time to open up. 1st inch was straight forward no punches pulled tobacco. Burn is straight revealing a clean medium grey ash, each puff producing pleasing plumes of smoke. Usually I use the nose exhalation test to gauge the strength of a cigar. I could somewhat easily exhale this smoke, so I would put it at a medium bodied smoke.

I got busy doing a little work and the next thing I knew I was thinking “man that cigar really smells nice while it burns”. Ash fell at just past an inch. I started to notice the draw tightening up a bit. Not quite plugged but a bit too tight for a comfortable smoke.



Halfway Point - spice started to kick up a bit. The nasal exhalation wasn’t quite as easy.
Definitely some spice showing itself now, almost like a bitter espresso aftertaste. Burn is still spot on, had one minor concern but it straightened up after the ash fell.

Just after the halfway point an odd flavor making its way to the front. I Can’t say that I have ever tasted it before but it isn’t pleasant. Maybe I am hotboxing it so I slow down a bit. After more thought I come to the conclusion that it is some sort of a chemical taste and it seems to hit the roof of my mouth.

Lucy the frufru dog and faithful SOTL usually sits in the chair next to me as I smoke. She decided it was too cold and was demanding to be let in.

Last third - Oddly enough the suspected plug starts to clear and with it the odd flavor starts to dissipate as well. Unfortunately the aftertaste will not go away so from here on out my palette feels a bit fried, this is where this dance ends.



All in all, I was really excited by the initial smell of this stick and enjoyed the first third or so. Once the plug hit everything went downhill. I think it had the potential to be a really good cigar and was just a bad sample. If I had to guess what I just smoked, I would guess a Havana (possibly Partagas) that wasn't feeling well at this time. Gary didn’t send a band so Grateful1, what is behind door number 1???

Thanks for allowing me to participate! :thumbs:

Jonas

Gurkha Legends is my favorite Gurkha.

And I can't wait to find out what the mystery stick is... good reviews both of you! :thumbs: