Ok, let's get something straight, mkay?
I like my coffee black. No sugar, cream, fruit, milk, or any other stuff in there. Fresh ground, black coffee.
I like my whiskey neat. Good whiskey, in a glass, two fingers. No soda pop, water, or any other stuff in there. Ok, myabe a cube if it's really high octane stuff but since I don't consider Wild Turkey 101 "high octane" this doesn't happen often.
I like my steaks very simple. A little garlic, a little sea salt, a little course ground black pepper, ok. But, no rubs, sauce, BBQ or otherwise, to hide the flavor of a great cut of beef.
In my life, I've smoked one and only one "infused" cigar - it was an Acid "Krush Klassic" (Morado Maduro, I believe) that was gifted to me and it was perhaps the most wretched patchouli reeking dog turd I've ever had. Oh my god, three draws and that disgusting thing was promptly extinguished and put in the outside garbage. I used brake cleaner to get the reek off my cutter and ashtray, and washed my hands in a mixture of acetone and hand cleaner to get that awful smell off my fingers. I promptly power horked a cheap bundle smoke to get the purtid floral taste out of my mouth, and gargled with some whiskey to finish the palate cleansing. Eech. Lesson learned.
So, imagine my horror and surprise when this showed up:
...from my good friend Israel from Uptown Cigars. It had a note in with it:
Holy crap. Now, I have had the pleasure of smoking with Israel last year at the Quad State Herf and even visited his great store in the AM before the event. He seemed a rational guy, and I didn't think he'd actually try to poison me so I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. But....damn. I have to admit I had to say ".....open mind, keep an open mind....." out loud several times before I crossed this bridge. Skeptical didn't quite seem to cover it.
So, on Saturday AM I broached the task and took on the little one - the Tabac Especial "Colada". I didn't bother with the camera as I figured it would suck and I hate to write up reviews of nasty cigars, even more so when a good friend donated them to the review. With a cup of black coffee in hand, I lit it up and made an interesting observation:
It didn't suck. It was actually pretty good. I was a bit flummoxed.
So, with that behind me, this AM I decided to give the Robusto a go. The setting was my deck, in the cool of the AM, with my little dogs and a steaming cup of black coffee at my side:
A better shot of the cigar:
Boy, this thing smelled....like coffee. And, dammit, they sweetened the tip somewhat. ".....open mind, keep an open mind....". Well, first things first. It was a nice looking smoke. Credit where credit is due, the guys at Drew Estate do know how to make a good cigar. Anyone that's enjoyed a Liga Privda #9 will attest to that. This was no exception. A few veins were evident, but overall, not a bad looking smoke. Cut clean with the Xikar. Pre-light draw was on the mark; not too open, not too restrictive. Very nice, actually. The pre-light flavors suggested.....coffee. No surprise there. A big swig of Joe and I put fire to the foot:
Immediately, I detected tastes of....coffee. What surprised me is it that it was actually pretty nice; it wasn't sickeningly overpowering, but it was definitely a coffee infused cigar. The smoke was dense and had the distinct aroma of....coffee. Burned nice and cool and gave up the unmistakable tastes of.....coffee. Yes, I smoked the whole thing:
...by about the halfway point, the sugar tip had pretty much gone by the wayside leaving me with the flavor of....coffee. Burn and construction turned out to be quite good. Took two cups of coffee to finish this stick, and it was actually enjoyable. Quite enjoyable, to be honest. Flavored....you bet, but not so overwhelming that you felt a trip to the barf bucket was pending.
What did I expect? If you get a blackberry milkshake you expect to taste blackberries. If you eat strawberry shortcake, you probably will get some strawberry tastes in there. This was a coffee infused cigar, and that was the flavor in the forefront. Not a lot of complexity, but not so overwhelmingly flavored as to be completely nasty. Perhaps some cinnamon, perhaps some chocolate, but mainly....coffee. Did I mention....coffee...? And, the smoke was nicely fragrant; the wife commented that it smelled rather nice and rich, sort of like.....coffee. Go figure....
The $10K question - would I buy more? The answer is....maybe. Sure won't replace my favorites in the near future, but for a nice change in the AM with coffee....it wasn't a bad choice at all. If you've ever wanted to try an infused cigar, this would be an easy one to recommend. Some folks won't like it a bit, and that's perfectly understandable, but as I said, for an interesting change of pace, it wasn't bad....not bad at all.
....the Moonie? I'll have to give that some thought..... :laugh:
In any event, a big thank you to Israel and all the nice folks at Uptown Cigar for letting me try these interesting smokes. My big surprise was that I actually liked them and they did indeed go great with some black coffee and both provided a good start to the day.
Tonight's smoke will not be an "infused" cigar, however...... :laugh:
One man's opinion.....B.B.S.
I like my coffee black. No sugar, cream, fruit, milk, or any other stuff in there. Fresh ground, black coffee.
I like my whiskey neat. Good whiskey, in a glass, two fingers. No soda pop, water, or any other stuff in there. Ok, myabe a cube if it's really high octane stuff but since I don't consider Wild Turkey 101 "high octane" this doesn't happen often.
I like my steaks very simple. A little garlic, a little sea salt, a little course ground black pepper, ok. But, no rubs, sauce, BBQ or otherwise, to hide the flavor of a great cut of beef.
In my life, I've smoked one and only one "infused" cigar - it was an Acid "Krush Klassic" (Morado Maduro, I believe) that was gifted to me and it was perhaps the most wretched patchouli reeking dog turd I've ever had. Oh my god, three draws and that disgusting thing was promptly extinguished and put in the outside garbage. I used brake cleaner to get the reek off my cutter and ashtray, and washed my hands in a mixture of acetone and hand cleaner to get that awful smell off my fingers. I promptly power horked a cheap bundle smoke to get the purtid floral taste out of my mouth, and gargled with some whiskey to finish the palate cleansing. Eech. Lesson learned.
So, imagine my horror and surprise when this showed up:
...from my good friend Israel from Uptown Cigars. It had a note in with it:
Holy crap. Now, I have had the pleasure of smoking with Israel last year at the Quad State Herf and even visited his great store in the AM before the event. He seemed a rational guy, and I didn't think he'd actually try to poison me so I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. But....damn. I have to admit I had to say ".....open mind, keep an open mind....." out loud several times before I crossed this bridge. Skeptical didn't quite seem to cover it.
So, on Saturday AM I broached the task and took on the little one - the Tabac Especial "Colada". I didn't bother with the camera as I figured it would suck and I hate to write up reviews of nasty cigars, even more so when a good friend donated them to the review. With a cup of black coffee in hand, I lit it up and made an interesting observation:
It didn't suck. It was actually pretty good. I was a bit flummoxed.
So, with that behind me, this AM I decided to give the Robusto a go. The setting was my deck, in the cool of the AM, with my little dogs and a steaming cup of black coffee at my side:
A better shot of the cigar:
Boy, this thing smelled....like coffee. And, dammit, they sweetened the tip somewhat. ".....open mind, keep an open mind....". Well, first things first. It was a nice looking smoke. Credit where credit is due, the guys at Drew Estate do know how to make a good cigar. Anyone that's enjoyed a Liga Privda #9 will attest to that. This was no exception. A few veins were evident, but overall, not a bad looking smoke. Cut clean with the Xikar. Pre-light draw was on the mark; not too open, not too restrictive. Very nice, actually. The pre-light flavors suggested.....coffee. No surprise there. A big swig of Joe and I put fire to the foot:
Immediately, I detected tastes of....coffee. What surprised me is it that it was actually pretty nice; it wasn't sickeningly overpowering, but it was definitely a coffee infused cigar. The smoke was dense and had the distinct aroma of....coffee. Burned nice and cool and gave up the unmistakable tastes of.....coffee. Yes, I smoked the whole thing:
...by about the halfway point, the sugar tip had pretty much gone by the wayside leaving me with the flavor of....coffee. Burn and construction turned out to be quite good. Took two cups of coffee to finish this stick, and it was actually enjoyable. Quite enjoyable, to be honest. Flavored....you bet, but not so overwhelming that you felt a trip to the barf bucket was pending.
What did I expect? If you get a blackberry milkshake you expect to taste blackberries. If you eat strawberry shortcake, you probably will get some strawberry tastes in there. This was a coffee infused cigar, and that was the flavor in the forefront. Not a lot of complexity, but not so overwhelmingly flavored as to be completely nasty. Perhaps some cinnamon, perhaps some chocolate, but mainly....coffee. Did I mention....coffee...? And, the smoke was nicely fragrant; the wife commented that it smelled rather nice and rich, sort of like.....coffee. Go figure....
The $10K question - would I buy more? The answer is....maybe. Sure won't replace my favorites in the near future, but for a nice change in the AM with coffee....it wasn't a bad choice at all. If you've ever wanted to try an infused cigar, this would be an easy one to recommend. Some folks won't like it a bit, and that's perfectly understandable, but as I said, for an interesting change of pace, it wasn't bad....not bad at all.
....the Moonie? I'll have to give that some thought..... :laugh:
In any event, a big thank you to Israel and all the nice folks at Uptown Cigar for letting me try these interesting smokes. My big surprise was that I actually liked them and they did indeed go great with some black coffee and both provided a good start to the day.
Tonight's smoke will not be an "infused" cigar, however...... :laugh:
One man's opinion.....B.B.S.
and she loves coffee maybe I will have to try and pick a few up for her rp
